A sitemap is a list of all the pages on your website. An XML sitemap, which is specifically meant for search engines, helps them discover new and updated content.
Sitemaps also categorize your website’s content into posts, pages, or any other type of content you might have on your page. This categorization helps search engines understand your website’s structure.
A sitemap generator tool is software that creates a sitemap for your website. You can then submit the sitemap to search engines to improve your site’s visibility.
The best sitemap generator tool for your website depends on your platform, size, and the control you want over your file.
For example, Backlinko is a WordPress website, and we use Yoast SEO to generate our sitemap and manage SEO tasks (see our detailed Yoast review).
However, Yoast isn’t the only way to handle sitemaps. Plus, you may not use WordPress.
We tested several sitemap generator tools over the course of a week. Below are the eight best tools that cover all preferences.
What’s the Best Sitemap Generator Tool?
Best Web Tools & WordPress Sitemap Generators
Best Visual Sitemap Generators (that can also export to XML)
Best Desktop Tools
What to Look for in Sitemap Generator Tools
- Ease of use: Is it user-friendly, with intuitive navigation and clear instructions, guidelines, or tutorials?
- Learning curve: Can you easily understand and use the tool without extensive technical knowledge?
- Sitemap types: Does it support various formats like XML and HTML for various use cases?
- URL limits: Are there limitations on the number of URLs the tool can handle? Does it meet your website needs? Is it scalable as the content on your website grows?
- Customization: Can you include/exclude specific URLs, set priorities, and update frequencies?
- Accuracy: Does it generate accurate and error-free sitemaps?
- Reporting: What data does the tool show? Can you see what pages are being indexed, or which pages require fixing?
- Price: Does it offer a free plan or free trial for you to test the waters? Does it fit your budget? Does it offer different pricing tiers offering varying feature sets?
1. XML-Sitemaps.com (Web Tool)
Best free/affordable XML sitemap generation tool for beginners
Price: Free for up to 500 pages. $5.99 for up to 1,000 pages. Pricing increases according to the number of pages on your website.
XML-Sitemaps (or its paid version PRO-Sitemaps) is a web tool for generating, hosting, and maintaining sitemaps.
Its free plan provides basic features for up to 500 pages, while the Pro version offers additional advanced features for up to two million pages.
Best Part
XML-Sitemaps and Pro-Sitemaps have an intuitive user interface. It also has a search engine submission feature (currently only Google) and lets you download the sitemap in various formats like XML, GZ, HTML, TXT, or CSV.
Worst Part
The free plan doesn’t include automatic sitemap updates. If you’re on a free plan, you’ll need to manually update your sitemap every time you add a new page to your website.
Key Features
- Multiple websites: Manage all your websites under one account. Note that each website is chargeable separately.
- Auto submit: Automatically submits your sitemaps to Google. Alternatively, you can manually upload your sitemap to Google Search Console.
- Automatic sitemap updates: Included in a paid plan, this feature runs automatic updates and submits updated sitemaps to search engines.
- Broken links detection: Available to paid subscribers, this feature detects broken links on your website and reports it to you.
- External link reports: View all the links pointing to external websites from your website. This helps you identify broken external links or the need to update your references. This feature is available to paid members only.
- Internal links reports: The Tree View report shows you how all pages of your website are linked to each other. This feature is available to paid members only.
- Images and video sitemap: Provides Google with metadata regarding the images and videos on your website. It can help Google find images it might not find by crawling,
- News sitemaps and RSS feed: Available in the paid plan, this feature provides Google with metadata regarding the specific news content on your website.
Pricing
XML-Sitemaps offers two subscription options:
- Free: Create a sitemap (XML, text, HTML) for up to 500 pages and submit it to search engines.
- Pro: Starts at $5.99/month. In addition to free features, this plan offers automatic sitemap updates, full configuration, image and video sitemaps, news sitemap and RSS feed, broken links detection, history of sitemaps report, URL/external/internal links reports, and API access.
Annual plans provide a 30% discount.
2. Yoast SEO (WordPress Plugin)
Best for effortlessly managing XML sitemaps for WordPress websites.
Price: Free for sitemaps.
Yoast SEO is an all-in-one SEO plugin powering more than 13 million WordPress websites.
Once you activate this plugin, it’ll automatically generate and update your sitemap.
So you don’t have to do any manual tasks except for submitting the initial sitemap to Google Search Console.
To make sure the sitemap function is enabled, go to Yoast SEO settings, and navigate the “XML sitemaps” API at the bottom of the page. You’ll see an “Enable feature” toggle and a button to view your XML sitemap.
Your sitemap should look something like this:
Best Part
It’s free and easy to use. Once you activate the Yoast SEO plugin, it’ll generate the sitemap and keep updating it after you submit it to search engines like Google.
Worst Part
There’s no option to download your sitemap in case you want to deactivate the Yoast plugin, you’ll need to create a new one.
Key Features
- Sitemap generation: When you activate the Yoast SEO plugin, it will automatically generate the XML sitemap.
- Automatic updates: Submit the Yoast-generated XML sitemap to Google Search Console and the plugin will automatically update it as you add, remove, or change your content.
- Customized sitemap entries: You can limit the number of sitemap entries using the code.
- External sitemap: You can add an external sitemap using the wpseo_sitemap_index filter.
Pricing
Yoast SEO offers three pricing plans:
- Free: $0 forever. Includes basic SEO features like on-page optimization and XML sitemap submission.
- Premium: $99/year. Shows you broken links and 404 errors. It also suggests internal links related to your website’s content. additionally, the Premium plan includes a feature to optimize your content to rank for multiple keywords and AI to generate title and meta description.
- All Yoast plugins: Includes all Premium features, plus WooCommerce SEO, Yoast News SEO, and video SEO.
3. Rank Math (WordPress Plugin)
Best user-friendly WordPress plugin with advanced sitemap configuration.
Price: Offers free version. Paid plans start at $5.75/month.
Like Yoast SEO, Rank Math is also a freemium all-in-one SEO plugin with more than 2.18 million users.
Once you activate the Rank Math plugin, you’ll need to quickly configure your settings.
And it includes sitemap settings as well.
Once you do so, your XML sitemap will look something like this:
Best Part
Rank Math automatically updates your sitemap to search engines. Plus, it’s free to use.
Worst Part
There’s no option to download a sitemap. So in case you decide to move away from Rank Math, you can’t use the same sitemap, which can be an inconvenience.
Key Features
- Automatic sitemap generation: Automatically generates and updates XML sitemaps for your entire website.
- Granular control: You can choose which content types to include or exclude from your sitemap. You can also set individual priority and frequency for each page based on its importance and update frequency.
- Multiple sitemaps: Generate separate sitemaps for different content types like news, images, and videos. This helps search engines understand your website better.
Pricing
Rankmath offers four pricing plans, including:
- Free: $0 forever. Includes basic SEO and sitemap functionalities.
- Pro: $5.75.month billed annually. Good for unlimited personal websites.
- Business: $19.09/month billed annually. It’s good for freelancers, businesses, and agency owners and supports 100 client websites.
- Agency: $19.09/month billed annually. It’s good for agency owners with high volume and supports 500 client websites.
When it comes to sitemap, the free version only includes basic sitemap functionality. For more advanced sitemap features like news or video sitemaps, you’ll need to upgrade to paid plans:
4. XML Sitemap Generator for Google (WordPress Plugin)
Best for generating XML sitemaps with advanced configuration on WordPress.
Price: Free.
Compared to Yoast and Rank Math, XML Sitemap Generator for Google is a more advanced sitemap plugin for WordPress.
It lets you customize your sitemaps by selecting basic and advanced features.
But despite its advanced features, XML Sitemap Generator for Google plugin is still easy to use.
Best Part
It’s effortless to generate and keep your sitemaps up-to-****. This plugin automatically updates the sitemap when content changes.
Worst Part
It lacks some advanced controls like crawl priority settings and image/video sitemap customization.
Key Features
- Multi-format sitemaps: Generate XML, HTML, and RSS sitemaps for different needs.
- Content coverage: Creates page, news, video, HTML, and RSS sitemaps for comprehensive indexing.
- Customization: supports custom post types and taxonomies, ensuring all content is included.
- Automatic updates: Automatically notifies Google about new content.
- User-friendly: Despite all the advanced functionalities, the plugin is easy to configure in a few clicks and doesn’t require technical knowledge.
Pricing
XML Sitemap Generator for Google is a completely free WordPress plugin. You can use it for free on a personal or commercial site.
5. Slickplan.com (Web Tool)
Best for creative team collaboration.
Price: Free. Advanced plans start at $11.99 per month with a 14-day free trial.
Slickplan offers a free XML sitemap generator with limited functionality.
This includes creating a basic sitemap and downloading it as an XML file. The free version doesn’t save your projects.
Meanwhile, paid plans offer more robust sitemap functionalities and save your projects.
For example, you can create visually appealing sitemaps and customize its look like it’s shown in the screenshot below:
Paid plans allow you to add team members and let them work on your project.
Plus, you can download sitemaps in multiple formats, including XML, HTML, TXT, CSV, PDF, and image.
Best Part
Slickplan is easy to use. Yet, it provides clear instructions and quick video tutorials at every step of the process.
Worst Part
It doesn’t have a dedicated template option for customizable sitemaps.
Key Features
- XML sitemap validator: Check for errors in your XML file and validate it before you submit it to search engines like Google.
- Customizable sitemaps: This feature is available in the paid version and free trial. It enables you to make visually attractive sitemaps by customizing the page’s fill and text colors. You can use your custom color palette or pick one from predefined themes.
- Content Planner: Available in the paid version, this feature lets you collaborate with your team on planning new content. After you’ve added new pages via Sitemap Builder, you can add content to pages using the robust page builder. Add text and media and drag-and-drop content blocks.
- Designs: Available in the paid version, this feature lets you add mockups from your computer and assign them to specific pages within the sitemap. This helps you visualize the pages you’ll be adding to your site in the future.
Pricing
Slickplan.com offers a free XML sitemap generation and four pricing plans with a 14-day free trial offering robust features:
- Basic: $11.99/month. Includes access for one user and the ability to manage three projects.
- Pro: $34.99/month. Includes access for three users and the ability to manage 10 projects. This plan includes advanced features like a diagram maker, content planner, and account branding.
- Team: $69.99/month. Includes access for 10 users and the ability to manage unlimited projects. This plan also includes advanced features.
- Agency: $114.99/month. Includes access for unlimited users and the ability to manage unlimited projects. This plan also includes advanced features.
All plans include essential features like the sitemap builder, mockup designs, and page metrics. All plans except Basic offer advanced features like content planner, diagram maker, account branding, and site crawler.
Annual plans offer a 10% discount.
6. Octopus.do (Web Tool)
Best for quick visual sitemap creation.
Price: Offers a free plan. Paid plans start at $12/month.
With Octopus.do, you can get a visual XML sitemap for pages only or pages with meta tags for free or at an affordable price.
Best Part
Octopus.do is a great tool for planning and designing user experiences with your collaborators.
Worst Part
While Octopus.do is a visual sitemap generator, it lacks visual customization options like color, theme, shape, and icon variety.
Key Features
- Visual site map builder: Drag-and-drop your website structure, visualize content flow and navigation for clear planning.
- SEO meta tags: Edit the title, description, and keywords for each page directly within your sitemap to boost search engine visibility.
- Page content organization: Group related pages, prioritize their importance, and identify orphaned content to improve your website structure.
- Export formats: Download your sitemap in various formats like XML, PNG, PDF, CSV, and TXT.
- Collaboration: Share your sitemap with unlimited collaborators and let them edit it. The team plan also lets you add unlimited team members to your account.
Pricing
Octopus.do offers three subscription plans:
- Free: $0 forever. Best for testing the waters. Manage one project and get unlimited pages per sitemap. You can also add unlimited collaborators to your account. This plan comes with a limited crawler (300 pages).
- Pro: $12/month. Best for professionals looking to track up to eight projects. You can add unlimited collaborators to your account. This plan comes with unlimited pages per sitemap and 3,000 pages crawled.
- Team: $16/month. Best for teams looking for a plan to manage unlimited projects. In addition to collaborators, this plan allows you to add unlimited team members.
Annual plans provide a 16% discount.
7. Sitebulb (Desktop Tool)
Best for SEO professionals and agencies.
Price: Starts at $13.50 per month with a 14-day free trial.
Sitebulb is a website crawler and an advanced sitemap generator. It audits your website and gives you actionable tips to fix your sitemaps and increase indexing rates.
Best Part
XML site audit feature helps you identify layout inconsistencies and fix them. It also shows URLs that are in sitemap, but weren’t found in the crawl.
Worst Part
It might have a steep learning curve for people with no technical background.
Key Features
- Highly configurable XML sitemap settings: Create XML sitemaps with advanced options. You can select crawl sources, set priorities, change crawl frequency, and include images.
- Multiple crawl sources: Crawl your site using Sitebulb Crawler, XML sitemap, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console.
- XML sitemap audit: Shows you big problems with your sitemaps. For example, URLs that are in your sitemaps, but weren’t found in the crawl. Or URLs in sitemaps that are not indexable. You can then improve your website’s indexing rates by cleaning up your XML sitemaps.
Pricing
Sitebulb offers three subscription plans:
- Lite: $13.50/month for one user. Each user comes at an additional $7/month. Includes 10,000 URLs per audit.
- Pro: $35/month for one user. Each user comes at an additional $7/month. Includes 500,000 URLs per audit.
- Sitebulb Cloud: $245/month for up to 30 users. Includes up to 10 million URLs per audit.
Annual plans offer about a 15% discount on Lite and Pro plans.
8. Screaming Frog (Desktop Tool)
Best for crawling and auditing large websites.
Price: Free version available. Paid version costs $259/year (per license).
Screaming Frog is a website crawler that helps you improve your website’s SEO by auditing common SEO issues.
Best Part
Fully crawls large websites so you can review technical SEO factors. Screaming Frog’s analysis lets you identify broken links, meta titles and descriptions and take appropriate action to improve your website rankings.
Worst Part
Since it’s a resource-intensive software, it tends to slow down your computer when crawling large websites.
Key Features
- Broken link analysis: Crawls your website and shows you broken links and server errors. You can then export the errors in bulk and source URLs to fix or send them to a developer.
- Page titles and meta data analysis: Analyze page titles and meta descriptions of your website. Identify too long, short, missing, or duplicated meta-data across your site and fix them.
- Robots and directives review: View URLs blocked by robots.txt, meta robots, or X-Robots-Tag directives like ‘noindex’ or ‘nofollow’. You can also view canonicals and rel=”next” and rel=”prev”.
- Audit schedules: You can schedule crawls to run at your chosen intervals and auto-export crawl data to your preferred location, including Google Sheets.
Pricing
Screaming Frog offers two versions:
- Free: Crawl limit—500 URLs. Includes basic crawling capabilities
- Paid: $225-$259/license* per year. Unlimited crawling. Includes more advanced features like scheduling, crawl configuration, save crawls and re-upload, crawl comparisons, JavaScript rendering, and more.
*$259/license per year for 1-4 licenses, $245/license per year for 5-9 licenses, $235/license per year for 10-19 licenses, and $225/license per year.
Ready to Pick a Sitemap Generator Tool?
Here are our top 3 picks:
- XML-Sitemaps: Best for creating sitemaps and downloading them in any format you might need.
- Yoast SEO: The best WordPress plugin for effortlessly managing your sitemap. No technical knowledge needed.
- Sitebulb: Best for tech-savvy SEO teams prioritizing highly configurable sitemap generation.
Looking for more info about sitemaps? Read our in-depth sitemaps guide explaining everything from what they are and why they are important to how to submit the sitemap to search engines.
Source link : Backlinko.com
