XML Sitemap Example

If you are familiar with RSS feeds you can think of an XML sitemap a bit like a special RSS feed for all of your website. An XML sitemap uses XML to represent all the pages of your website in a structured format to provide search engines with important information about the content of your website .

The Sitemap protocol is an open standard supported by the main search engines including Google, Microsoft Bing, Yandex, Baidu and more.

An XML Sitemap contains 4 basic elements for each page in your website, but can be extended to include more information :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
     <loc>https://www.xmlsitemapgenerator.org/en/</loc>
     <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>
      <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
      <priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
</urlset>

The core elements of an XML Sitemap are :

• Web page address
• Last modified date
• Update frequency
• Relative priority within your site

You can find out more about the types of sitemap and their content on our What is a sitemap page.

You can create sitemaps in a simple text editor such as XML or use a tool to get you started.

We provide a free online sitemap generator, a word press plugin or a Windows dowload.

XML sitemap example download

The links below provide a couple of example sitemap produced using our online sitemap generator for this website.

• XML Sitemap example files