If you are running a website, then you must add more pages or blog posts every month. But here’s some important news: none of that will be useful if Google doesn’t index it.

With the help of an XML sitemap, search engines like Google can easily find your new web pages. So it’ll automatically update the search engines about your pages that are yet to be indexed.

But doing it manually can be extremely time-consuming. That’s why you should use sitemap generator tools. These tools will build your website structure and submit it to search engines with the purpose of indexing.

But there’s something you should know.

Using these tools doesn’t mean your website growth will skyrocket and web pages will index. You must use proper tools, processes, and a roadmap to ensure maximum results.

I’ll share some of the best sitemap generator tools of 2023 in this blog. So keep reading to know more about these tools.

What Is A Sitemap?

A sitemap is a structured list or map of a website’s pages, content, and resources. It serves as a blueprint that outlines the hierarchy and relationships between different web pages within a site.

Let me elaborate in a better way.

In simple words, a sitemap is like an index page of a book. On the index page, you get all the information about chapters, including their titles, page numbers, etc. Likewise, a website structure is also similar as it is a simple directory for your website’s important web pages, URLs, etc.

So that way, search engines can easily find all the pages on your website. This can be present in several forms, the most commonest of all are:

• Text
• XML
• RSS

But most people use XML format. It is highly recognized among webmasters.

Source: Treewebsolutions

How Sitemap Generator Tools Work?

These tools generally begin by crawling your website. In this crawling, they visit each page of your website systematically. How do they do it?

They do it by following links on the website and collecting data on each page. And using this methodology, they create a list of all the URLs on your website.

They collect all the data of your website. This information includes:

• URL
• Metadata

And many other details on the page. In a nutshell, this includes all the information which is significant for search engines.

But there’s a big problem.

Right now, the data they have collected is not organized. This tool organizes information in a structured form, often in XML format. Search engines can easily understand this format. Moreover, it’ll also create tags and elements to represent every URL.

Now it’ll create a sitemap file for your website. In this file, you’ll see all URLs of your website and relevant metadata. It is available in a format easily interpreted by search engines.

Top Sitemap Generator Tools

Now to get started, you need to know tools that are authentic and safe to use. I’m sharing some of the best website structure generator tools for you.

XML-Sitemaps.com

It is generally one of the best sitemap generator tools for your website. If you have a small website, then this tool is highly recommended.

Creating a website structure by using it is extremely easy. All you need to do is add your website URL. You can include many other essential things if you click Settings and More Options. It includes adding the date when the page was modified last time. So every time you update your page, web crawlers aka search engine bots won’t need to recrawl your site.

Another important feature is known as automatically calculated priority. Through this, you can check the importance of the URL to your website.

The best part is you don’t need to register yourself. Many people don’t use an app or website because they have to register using email, phone number, and many other things. But with this tool, you don’t have to do anything, and you can download it easily.

Pros:

• User-friendly online interface.
• Free plan for sites with up to 500 pages.
• Supports multiple sitemap formats.

Cons:

• Paid plans are a must for more advanced features.
• Customer support might not be as comprehensive.

Inspyder Sitemap Creator

It is software through which you can generate XML sitemaps of as many URLs as you want. You only need to download it on your desktop and begin the process. One fascinating thing about Inspyder is it’ll help you create other website structures for images and videos as well.

It’ll automatically create your website structure and upload it to the server. Other than that, you can also, with Inspyder, you’ll get many website analysis tools for free. The trial version is for a limited time only. After that, you’ve to pay, and you’ll get all the features of Inspyder.

Pros:

• Thorough crawling for accurate website structures.
• Intuitive interface with visualizations.
• Advanced customization options.
• Supports various website structure formats.

Cons:

• The learning curve for advanced features.
• Desktop application.

Sitemap Writer Pro

It is another amazing software through which you can build functional website structures. This software is perfect for you if you manage a large website with multiple pages.

It’s different from the usual website structure software. Because it can create many other ones like, Google News, Google Video, and Google Images. All this and much more are important to ensure proper website indexing.

Pros:

• Advanced customization features.
• Supports multiple sitemap types.
• Efficient for large websites with millions of URLs.

Cons:

• No free version.
• Some features may be excessive.
• Requires technical search engine optimization knowledge.

Yoast SEO

If you are an SEO expert or managing your website, you might already know that Yoast is an amazing SEO tool. Through it, you can carry out many SEO-related tasks, do SEO analysis, keyword research, and much more. But you might not know you can also use it for website structure generation.

Install this plugin, and it’ll automatically create your website structure.

So with Yoast, you can optimize your blog posts and do other tasks to index your website. You can find free and premium versions as well. But the premium version has more advanced features.

Pros:

• Comprehensive on-page SEO optimization.
• Provides readability analysis and content recommendations.
• Customizes meta titles and descriptions.
• Manages canonical URLs.
• Offers social media integration.

Cons:

• Potentially overwhelming due to numerous settings.
• Some advanced features are premium.

XML Sitemap & Google News

It is another WordPress plugin for your website. Through this, you can create a comprehensive website structure. But it can also perform many other tasks.

Besides creating a standard website structure, it’ll also make a Google News sitemap. So whenever you make a new publication or page, it automatically updates Google about it.

You can use this online tool for absolutely free.

Pros:

• It is simple to use.
• Best for websites with Google news sitemaps.

Cons:

• It might be difficult to understand for beginners.

Flowmapp

It is an amazing tool if you want a clear visual sitemap for your website. You can download it in the best format, which is XML.

If you have a team and want to share it with your team immediately or organize tasks with your colleagues, use it. All you need to do is invite them to this platform and organize everything within this app. Using this tool, you can also add various visuals to the map, including images, diagrams, etc., using the drag-and-drop function.

The free tool is for those sites with 50 pages only. Moreover, the space shouldn’t be more than 100MB. 

Pros:

• Visualizes website structures and user flows effectively.
• Collaborative features for team collaboration and feedback.
• User-friendly interface with drag-and-drop functionality.

Cons:

• Limited to diagramming and visualization, lacking deeper project management features.
• It might not be the most appropriate tool for businesses seeking highly specialized user experience solutions.

Slickplan

It is a website planning company that offers a WordPress plugin to help you create a website structure. You can easily build them from scratch. The biggest reason why people prefer this plugin is because it’s so easy to use, and you can build by using two ways:

• Drag and drop feature
• Importing the URL of your website

You can easily navigate them. Suppose you created a huge website structure but have to edit them. What can you do now?

Just use this tool as it offers batch editing, which might need plenty of edits.

The prices vary depending on the features you use. You can check their website to get an idea of their updated prices.

Pros:

• Customization options.
• Integrated content planning.
• Comprehensive planning tools.
• Version history tracking.
• Integrates with WordPress.

Cons:

• Relatively higher pricing.
• More suitable for larger projects.
• Dependency on the Internet.

GlooMaps

Through this program, you can easily create your website structure. If you have used MS Word, you might already know how important shortcut keys are.

GlooMaps understands this, and that’s why it supports keyboard shortcuts. So your website structure process becomes straightforward and much quick.

With just a few clicks, you can create amazing website structures. If you want to make your website structure simple yet comprehensive from a visual aspect, then this tool is highly recommended.  

This app allows you to easily create visual website structures for free. The website structure you make stays online for a 14-day free trial. If you visit the site again, it adds 14 more days to their availability.

Pros:

• Customization options for elements.
• Export options (PDF, PNG, CSV).
• Responsive design for various devices.

Cons:

• Limited real-time collaboration.
• Requires internet connection.

Screaming Frog

It is one of the most popular crawlers and is widely used by SEO experts. The good news is you can also use it to create your website structure.

It is highly advanced and best for larger websites. So here’s the framework this tool follows.

Crawls Your Website —> Click On Sitemaps —> Click on XML Sitemap —> Select All Pages That You Want To Include

One biggest problem with this software and plugins is that they are incompatible with CMS. That’s why they don’t work.

With Screaming Frog, you don’t have to worry about that because it’ll create your website structure automatically and send it to all the major search engines.

You can download this tool for free. But you have a limit of 500 URLs. After using that, you must buy a plan.

Pros:

• Visualizations of site structure and internal links.
• Effective error detection and reporting.
• Integration with other tools like Google Analytics.
• Detailed insights for SEO audits and improvements.

Cons:

• The free version has a 500-page limit.
• Some advanced features require technical understanding.

Octopus.do

Another amazing website structure generator, Octopus.do. It uses its premium Content Brick Method to support the content creation process on a web page in real time.

You can also make your project management process smoother by using Octopus.do. It has interactive drag-and-drop features, making it a top favorite of many webmasters.

You can download your website structure in formats like XML, PDF, PNG, etc. You can do one project in it for free. After this, you must pay to get the benefits of the tool’s features.

Pros:

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface.
• Collaboration support for team members.
• Real-time updates for up-to-date website structure.
• Customizable labels and notes for clarity.

Cons:

• Pricing limitations beyond the free plan.
• It might be less efficient for very complex websites.

What’s Next?

After reading this list, your reaction might be great. How do I get started, then?

It’s simple. After creating the website structure, you must upload it in an XML file. Upload it to the root folder of your website. The process should be done through an FTP client.

But here’s the good news.

If you are using WordPress or any other CMS, you can skip this part because the plugin you download will automatically do this task.

How To Know If My Sitemap Is Working Properly?

There are different methods to find it, but I’ll share the simplest. In this, we will conduct a crawl-based audit of your website. There are several tools you can use for this. More precisely, any SEO auditing tool is fine. As it will:

• Check if the website structure is present in XML format.
• Check for errors or any issues.

Source: Semrush

Simply go to the site audit and click on Create a Project. Type the name of your project plus the website URL and click on Create a Project.

Source: Semrush

A window named Site audit settings will appear on the screen. Now to need to choose several pages of your website that you to crawl. Don’t forget to add the crawl source as well. And then click on Start Site Audit.

After the audit is completed, check the Issues option. Check the Sitemap option and check for issues or any other errors. It’ll show you pages and what issues they are facing, including how you can fix them.

Source: Semrush

How To Submit Your Sitemap To Google?

You’re making a lot of effort to create a website structure that aims to index the site. For that, you need to submit your website to Google.

Confused about how you can do it? Here’s how you can do it.

Sign in to Google Search Console (https://search.google.com/search-console/) using your Google account.

Now choose the website property you want to work with from the list of properties.

Click “Sitemaps” under the “Index” section in the left-hand menu. Click the “Add a new sitemap” button. It is usually located at the top-right corner of the Sitemaps page.

Enter the relative path to your sitemap (e.g., “/sitemap.xml”) in the popup. Click the “Submit” button to submit your sitemap to Google.

Look for the Success message because it confirms your sitemap submission. Monitor the Sitemaps page to check the indexing progress of your submitted website structure.

If there are any issues, address them and solve them immediately. Over time, observe your website’s indexing status and any potential issues in Google Search Console.

Following these steps, you can successfully submit your website structure to Google for indexing and monitoring.

Source: WPbeaverbuilder

Pros & Cons Of Using Sitemap Generator Tools

Creating a website structure for your website and submitting it to Google is extremely important. But what’s even more important is understanding whether you should take the help of a tool or do everything manually. That’s why I’m sharing a list of the pros and cons of using these tools. It’ll help you make an informed decision for your website.

Pros:

It automates the process of creating and updating website structure. It saves significant time and effort compared to manually creating website structures for large websites.

Many tools offer scheduled updates, ensuring that your website structure remains up-to-date even as your website evolves. They provide one-click submission options, making it simple to notify search engines about your website structure and updates.

With it, you can include important metadata such as the last modification date and update frequency, which helps search engines understand the freshness.

Cons:

Some of these might have a learning curve or advanced settings that require technical understanding, which could be challenging for beginners. While free website structure generator tools are available, some advanced or feature-rich tools might come with subscription costs.

Ending Thoughts

If you’re a beginner and feeling unsure, don’t worry. These tools are beginner-friendly and effective. All you have to do is download the software, and then you’re ready to create your website’s map. It is really important because it helps search engines find and understand your website.

Think of it like a map of hidden treasure for search engines. When they follow it, they can explore your website and tell people about it. So, don’t skip this step. It’s the key to making sure your website gets noticed on the internet. It is extremely crucial for building and indexing your website.