Sitemap Examples
Learn the XML sitemap format that search engines rely on to discover and index your pages. Study basic and advanced examples, then generate a sitemap from any website URL.
What Is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important URLs on your website so search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo can discover and crawl them efficiently. It follows the sitemaps.org protocol and is typically placed at yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml.
Search engines find new and updated pages quicker
Priority and lastmod help crawlers focus on what matters
Follows the official sitemaps.org XML protocol
Simple XML structure that any CMS or tool can generate
Basic Sitemap Example
A basic sitemap contains the minimum required elements: the <urlset> wrapper with the sitemaps.org namespace, and <url> entries with a <loc> tag for each page URL.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated by CheckSEO (https://checkseo.in/sitemap-example.html) -->
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-20</lastmod>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-18</lastmod>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/contact</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-15</lastmod>
</url>
</urlset>
Tag Reference
| Tag | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
<urlset> | Yes | Root element. Must include the sitemaps.org namespace. |
<url> | Yes | Container for each page entry in the sitemap. |
<loc> | Yes | Full URL of the page. Must start with the protocol (https://). |
<lastmod> | No | Date the page was last modified. Use W3C date format (YYYY-MM-DD). |
Advanced Sitemap Example
An advanced sitemap includes optional tags like <changefreq> and <priority>, and can use a sitemap index file to organize multiple sitemap files for large websites.
Advanced URL Sitemap
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated by CheckSEO (https://checkseo.in/sitemap-example.html) -->
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-20</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/products</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-19</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/blog/seo-guide</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-15</lastmod>
<changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
<priority>0.7</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/contact</loc>
<lastmod>2026-03-01</lastmod>
<changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
<priority>0.3</priority>
</url>
</urlset>
Sitemap Index (for large websites)
Websites with thousands of pages should split URLs into multiple sitemap files and reference them from a sitemap index. Each sitemap file can contain up to 50,000 URLs.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated by CheckSEO (https://checkseo.in/sitemap-example.html) -->
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap>
<loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-20</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://example.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-18</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2026-04-15</lastmod>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>
Image Sitemap Extension
Use the image namespace to help Google discover images on your pages that might not be found through standard crawling.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated by CheckSEO (https://checkseo.in/sitemap-example.html) -->
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/products/blue-widget</loc>
<image:image>
<image:loc>https://example.com/images/blue-widget.jpg</image:loc>
<image:title>Blue Widget - Front View</image:title>
</image:image>
<image:image>
<image:loc>https://example.com/images/blue-widget-side.jpg</image:loc>
<image:title>Blue Widget - Side View</image:title>
</image:image>
</url>
</urlset>
Video Sitemap Extension
Use the video namespace to provide metadata about video content on your pages for Google Video search.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Generated by CheckSEO (https://checkseo.in/sitemap-example.html) -->
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/videos/seo-tutorial</loc>
<video:video>
<video:thumbnail_loc>https://example.com/thumbs/seo-tutorial.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>SEO Tutorial for Beginners</video:title>
<video:description>Learn SEO basics in 10 minutes</video:description>
<video:content_loc>https://example.com/videos/seo-tutorial.mp4</video:content_loc>
<video:duration>600</video:duration>
</video:video>
</url>
</urlset>
Advanced Tag Reference
| Tag | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
<changefreq> | No | How often the page changes: always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never. |
<priority> | No | Relative importance from 0.0 to 1.0. Default is 0.5. This is a hint, not a directive. |
<sitemapindex> | No | Root element for index files that reference multiple sitemap files. |
<image:image> | No | Image extension. Include image:loc and optional image:title for each image. |
<video:video> | No | Video extension. Include thumbnail, title, description, and content location. |
Google Sitemap Guidelines
- Use absolute URLs with protocol (https://)
- Keep each sitemap under 50,000 URLs or 50MB
- Use UTF-8 encoding
- Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console
- Reference your sitemap in robots.txt
- Update lastmod only when content actually changes
- Include URLs that return 4xx or 5xx errors
- List non-canonical URL versions
- Include URLs blocked by robots.txt
- Use relative URLs in loc tags
- Set all priorities to 1.0 (defeats the purpose)
- Fake lastmod dates to force recrawling
Generate Sitemap from Website
Enter your website URL. CheckSEO will discover and crawl internal pages up to the specified depth, then build a clean, ready-to-submit XML sitemap.
Want to Monitor Your Sitemap?
CheckSEO validates your XML sitemap automatically, tracks URL inventory, detects missing pages, and alerts you when sitemap issues affect your search visibility. Go beyond static files with continuous sitemap monitoring.
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