Open main menu
PricingShowcaseBlogHelp DocsChangelog
Start your free trial

How to Make a Sitemap That Actually Boosts SEO

Learn how to make a sitemap that search engines love. Our guide covers XML vs. HTML sitemaps, creation, and submission to Google for better indexing.

Table of Contents
How to Make a Sitemap That Actually Boosts SEO
Related Posts
blog_related_media
blog_topic
blog_related_activities
blog_niche
blog_related_tips
unique_blog_element
Making a sitemap is pretty straightforward: you can use a free online generator, lean on your platform's built-in features, or install a plugin to create a list of your site's important URLs. This file, usually named sitemap.xml, basically acts as a roadmap for search engines.

Understanding Sitemaps and Why They Matter for SEO

notion image
Think of a sitemap as a neatly organized map of your website that you hand-deliver to search engines like Google. Instead of making them wait to discover your pages one link at a time, you give them a complete directory right from the get-go. This simple step is non-negotiable for modern SEO.
A sitemap guarantees that search engines can find, crawl, and index all your crucial content efficiently. Without one, pages buried deep within your site's structure—like that awesome blog post from three years ago—might never get discovered.

Key Sitemap Types

There are two main kinds of sitemaps, and each has a very different job to do. Knowing the difference is key.
Before we dive deeper, let's clear up the distinction between XML and HTML sitemaps. They serve completely different audiences but are both valuable for a well-rounded website.

XML vs HTML Sitemaps At a Glance

Feature
XML Sitemap
HTML Sitemap
Primary Audience
Search engine crawlers (bots)
Human visitors
Purpose
To help search engines discover and index all of your important pages efficiently.
To help users navigate your website and find content easily.
Format
eXtensible Markup Language (XML) file, not meant to be human-readable.
A standard HTML page on your website with clickable links.
Location
In your site's root directory, submitted via Google Search Console.
Usually linked in the website's footer for easy access.
Impact on SEO
Direct. It improves crawl efficiency and indexing speed.
Indirect. It improves user experience, which can lead to longer visit times.
Essentially, the XML sitemap is your direct line of communication with Google, while the HTML sitemap is a user-friendly guide for your visitors. For this guide, our main focus will be on the XML sitemap, which is the powerhouse for your SEO efforts.
A growing blog on a platform like Feather, for example, relies on its auto-generated XML sitemap to ensure every new post gets picked up by Google almost instantly.

The Real Impact on Your SEO

A sitemap is a foundational piece of your site's visibility. Sitemaps first became a big deal back in 2005, right when the web was exploding. Today, with 175 new websites created every minute, they are absolutely essential, especially for platforms like Feather that serve tons of content creators.
When you pair a sitemap with other technical SEO elements, the results can be powerful. For instance, optimized structured data works hand-in-hand with sitemaps and can boost organic visibility by up to 18%. If you want to dive into that, check out our guide on https://feather.so/blog/how-to-add-schema-markup.
A solid sitemap is a cornerstone of any effective SEO plan. And this isn't just for one platform—implementing smart WordPress SEO optimisation strategies, including proper sitemap management, is just as critical for success.

Choosing the Right Sitemap Generation Method

Before you can get a sitemap humming along for your site, you’ve got to decide how you’re going to create it. The best path forward really depends on your website's platform, how comfortable you are with a little tech work, and frankly, the size of your site.
You’ve got three main options on the table. Each one has its perks, ranging from completely hands-off automation to getting your hands dirty with precise manual control. Let's dig in and figure out which one is the right fit for you.

The Automated Approach

For the vast majority of content creators, this is the way to go. If you're using a modern Content Management System (CMS) or a dedicated blogging platform, there's a good chance it already handles sitemap creation for you, completely automatically.
Platforms like Feather, Squarespace, or WordPress (usually with a plugin like Yoast SEO) will generate and update your sitemap on the fly. Publish a new post, add a new page, and boom—it's instantly added to the file. No extra work needed.

Using an Online Sitemap Generator

What if your platform doesn't do it for you? Or maybe you have a simple, static website built with plain HTML. In that case, an online generator is your next best friend. These tools are incredibly easy to use and get the job done fast.
You just pop in your website’s homepage URL, and the tool gets to work crawling your site, following all the internal links to map out your pages. Tools like XML-Sitemaps.com or the SEO spider from Screaming Frog can crawl a site and spit out a ready-to-use sitemap.xml file in just a few minutes. It's a perfect solution for a one-time creation or for smaller sites that don't get updated all that often.

Manual Creation for Ultimate Control

The final option is the most hands-on: building the sitemap yourself. This route requires a basic grasp of XML syntax, but it gives you absolute control over every single URL that goes into the file. You'd literally open a text editor and list out each URL you want search engines to find.
Why would anyone do this? You might go this route if you have a tiny site with only a few pages you want indexed. Or, you might need to add custom parameters to your URLs that the automated generators just don't support.
Here’s a peek at what a simple entry looks like:
  • <url>: This tag is the wrapper for each individual page's information.
  • <loc>: This is where the full URL of the page goes. It's the only absolutely required tag inside <url>.
  • <lastmod>: An optional but useful tag that tells search engines when you last updated the page.
While building it manually offers surgical precision, it’s also the most time-consuming and, let's be honest, the most likely to have mistakes. For almost everyone—especially people focused on creating awesome content—sticking with an automated or generator-based method is smarter and way more reliable. It lets you focus on what you do best while making sure Google can always find your work.

A Practical Guide to Generating Your Sitemap

Alright, let's move from theory to action. This is where you get your hands dirty and actually create the sitemap file that search engines need. The best way to do this really depends on your website's setup.

For Automated Platforms Like Feather

If you're using a modern blogging platform or CMS, this part is almost laughably simple. For platforms like Feather, the sitemap is created and updated for you automatically. You literally don't have to do a thing.
Your main job is just knowing where to find it. The URL is pretty much always your root domain followed by /sitemap.xml.
For example: yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
That's it. This one URL is what you'll eventually submit to Google Search Console. Every time you publish a new blog post from Notion, Feather automatically adds it to this file, which means search engines can find your fresh content almost immediately.
This auto-generation is a cornerstone of modern SEO, especially for creators using Feather to turn Notion pages into blogs. Since each XML sitemap is limited to 50,000 URLs or 50MB, having the platform handle it for you is a huge win. You can discover more insights about sitemap validation on spotibo.com.
This flowchart breaks down the three main ways you can tackle sitemap creation, from totally hands-off to completely manual.
notion image
As you can see, while hand-coding a sitemap gives you ultimate control, automated and generator-based methods are far more efficient and less prone to error. For most people, they're the ideal choice.

Using an Online Sitemap Generator

What if your site is static, or your platform doesn't have a built-in solution? An online generator is your next best bet. These tools crawl your website just like a search engine would, mapping out all your pages along the way.
Let's walk through how this works with a popular free tool, XML-Sitemaps.com. The process is super straightforward.
First, you just pop your website's full homepage URL into the generator's input field and hit start. The tool will then get to work, crawling your site link by link to build a map.
Once the crawl is done, the tool will give you a file to download. From there, you just have a few simple steps:
  • Download the File: Save the generated XML file to your computer.
  • Check the Name: Make sure the file is named exactly sitemap.xml. This is the standard convention that crawlers are programmed to look for.
  • Upload to Your Root Directory: This part is critical. You need to upload this file to the main folder of your website—often called public_html, www, or simply the root folder. Once it's there, you should be able to see it by navigating to yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml in your browser.
Remember, your sitemap should only list your final, canonical URLs. If you've recently restructured your site, you’ll also need to learn how to do 301 redirects to point old URLs to their new homes. Including old, redirected links in your sitemap just adds unnecessary clutter.

How to Submit Your Sitemap to Search Engines

Creating your sitemap is a huge step, but the file itself is pretty much invisible until you tell search engines where it is. Just having a sitemap.xml file sitting on your server isn’t enough. You have to hand-deliver this map to the major search engines so they can start using it.
Think of this as the final bridge connecting your content to the crawlers. By submitting the sitemap, you're actively inviting them to come explore your site's structure.

Submitting to Google Search Console

Google Search Console is, without a doubt, the most important place to get this done. Once your sitemap is generated, the next vital move is learning how to use Google Search Console to submit it and keep an eye on its performance. This free tool is your command center for understanding how your site appears in search results.
Here’s the quick and dirty guide to getting it done:
  1. Sign in to your Google Search Console account and pick your property (your website).
  1. Look for the Indexing section in the left-hand menu and click on Sitemaps.
  1. You'll see a field under "Add a new sitemap." You only need to pop in the last part of the URL. So, if your sitemap is at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml, you just type sitemap.xml into the box.
  1. Click Submit.
Once you hit that button, Google starts processing it. This can take anywhere from a few hours to a couple of days, so don't panic if you don't see anything happen immediately.

Interpreting Submission Status

After you submit, Search Console will report back with a status. Knowing what these messages mean is key to making sure everything is working as it should.
  • Success: This is what you want to see. It means Google found and processed your sitemap without any major hiccups.
  • Couldn't fetch: This status means Google couldn't access your sitemap file. The culprit could be a server error, a typo in the URL you submitted, or even the file being blocked by your robots.txt. Double-check everything.
  • Sitemap has errors: This means Google got to the file but found problems inside it, like invalid URLs or wonky formatting. You’ll need to open the report to see the specific errors and get them fixed.

Submitting to Bing Webmaster Tools

Google might be the giant, but it's always smart to submit your sitemap to Bing, too. The process in Bing Webmaster Tools is very similar.
After you log in, head over to the Sitemaps section from the main dashboard. Just like with Google, you’ll find a button to "Submit sitemap." Simply paste the full URL of your sitemap file and click submit.

A Crucial Tip: Add It to Your Robots.txt File

Beyond direct submission, there's another powerful way to tell search engines where your sitemap is: your robots.txt file. This file gives crawlers their marching orders for your site, and adding your sitemap's location is a best practice you shouldn't skip.
It acts as a permanent signpost for any crawler that visits your site. Just add the following line to your robots.txt file, usually at the top or bottom.
This simple line ensures that even if a search engine crawler visits before you’ve manually submitted the sitemap, it still knows exactly where to find your complete URL list. It’s a fantastic fallback that helps ensure consistent discovery.

Sitemap Best Practices and Mistakes to Avoid

notion image
Once your sitemap is live and submitted, the job isn't over. Now the focus shifts from creation to maintenance. A messy or outdated sitemap can send confusing signals to search engines, and you might find it hurts your SEO more than it helps.
Think of it like tending a garden. You have to constantly prune the weeds to let the flowers thrive.
The main goal is to keep it clean. Your sitemap should only contain URLs that you want search engines to find and index. Every single link needs to be the final, canonical URL that loads a healthy 200 OK status code.

Keeping Your Sitemap Clean and Effective

One of the most common mistakes I see is people including every single URL from their website. Your sitemap isn't a junk drawer; it's a curated list of your most important pages.
Here are the URLs you should always exclude:
  • Redirects (301s, 302s): Don't make the crawler take an extra step. Only include the final destination URL.
  • Broken links (404s): Including dead pages is a huge red flag that signals a poorly maintained site.
  • Blocked by robots.txt: If you’ve already told crawlers not to visit a page in your robots.txt file, don't confuse them by adding it to your sitemap.
  • Non-canonical URLs: Always list the primary version of a page to avoid any duplicate content issues.
This level of cleanliness is fundamental to good SEO. It’s the same logic behind mapping out an effective internal linking strategy for SEO; you're providing a clear, official guide for search engines to follow.

Using Advanced Sitemap Features

You can go beyond just a simple list of URLs by adding more information to give search engines extra context. One of the most useful optional tags you can add is <lastmod>.
The <lastmod> tag tells crawlers the last time you modified the content on that specific page. While Google has said it doesn't always rely on this, providing accurate dates can encourage crawlers to revisit your updated pages more often. This is a game-changer for a blog where you're constantly refreshing old posts with new info.
On a platform like Feather, this is often handled for you automatically. Every time you update a page in Notion, that change gets signaled in the sitemap, helping your content stay fresh in the eyes of search engines.

Managing Large Websites with a Sitemap Index

So, what happens when your site grows into a beast with tens of thousands of pages? A single sitemap file actually has its limits—specifically, 50,000 URLs or a 50MB file size, whichever you hit first.
This is where a sitemap index comes into play. It’s basically a sitemap of your sitemaps.
This approach keeps everything manageable and helps crawlers process your site's structure much more efficiently. You just submit the index file to Google Search Console like you would a regular sitemap, and Google will discover all the linked sitemaps from there. It's the standard for large-scale sites and a smart way to stay organized as you grow.

Your Sitemap Questions Answered

Once you've wrestled with creating and submitting a sitemap, a few nagging questions usually pop up. Let's tackle the most common ones I hear, so you can manage your sitemap with confidence and clear up any lingering doubts.

How Often Should I Update My Sitemap?

The short answer: every time your site’s content changes in a meaningful way. If you run an active blog, that means your sitemap needs to refresh with every single new post you publish.
This is exactly why automated solutions are a lifesaver. A platform like Feather, for example, handles this for you on the fly, making sure your sitemap is always a perfect, up-to-the-minute reflection of your live content. If you're doing it all by hand, you'll need to get into the habit of regenerating and resubmitting it after every significant update to keep the search engines in the loop.

Does a Sitemap Guarantee Indexing?

Nope. A sitemap doesn’t guarantee your pages will get indexed, but it sure does improve the odds dramatically. It’s more of a strong suggestion to search engines about which pages they should crawl, not a direct order.

What Is the Difference Between a Sitemap and Robots.txt?

They're two sides of the same coin, really, serving opposite but complementary functions. A sitemap is an inclusive list—it's you telling search engines about all the pages you want them to find. It’s your official guide to all the good stuff.
A robots.txt file, on the other hand, is an exclusive set of rules. It’s where you tell crawlers which pages or entire sections of your site they should not go near. It’s all about setting boundaries. The best practice is to pop a link to your sitemap right inside your robots.txt file. It's a simple, efficient way to point crawlers directly to your list of preferred URLs.

Google Search Console Shows Errors. What Do I Do?

First off, don't panic. This is a super common scenario and the fixes are usually pretty straightforward. Your first move should be to click on the error right there in Google Search Console to get the specific details.
More often than not, you'll run into one of these usual suspects:
  • URLs that are being blocked by your robots.txt file.
  • Pages that are set up to redirect to another URL (known as 301s).
  • Links that are just plain broken and lead to a 404 error page.
Your sitemap should be a pristine list of live, indexable, final-destination URLs—pages that return a clean 200 status code. Run your sitemap through a validator tool to check for any formatting hiccups, then meticulously comb through and remove any of those problematic URLs. Once your file is clean, save the new version and resubmit it to Google.
Ready to stop worrying about sitemaps and start focusing on your content? With Feather, your SEO-optimized sitemap is automatically generated and updated with every post. Turn your Notion pages into a high-performance blog today. Start publishing with Feather.

Ready to start your own blog while writing all your content on Notion?

Notion to Blog in minutes

Start your free trial

Written by

Tibo