home / skills / ehtbanton / claudeskillsrepo / xml-sitemap-generator

xml-sitemap-generator skill

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This skill generates valid XML sitemaps for websites, inferring priorities and change frequencies to improve SEO and crawlability.

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SKILL.md

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---
name: xml-sitemap-generator
description: Generate valid XML sitemap files for websites with proper URL entries, priorities, change frequencies, and optional image/video extensions. Triggers on "create sitemap", "generate sitemap.xml", "XML sitemap for", "SEO sitemap".
---

# XML Sitemap Generator

Generate valid XML sitemaps compliant with the Sitemaps Protocol for search engine optimization.

## Output Requirements

**File Output:** `sitemap.xml`, `sitemap-index.xml`, or `sitemap-{section}.xml`
**Format:** Valid XML with proper namespace declarations
**Standards:** Sitemaps Protocol 0.9

## When Invoked

Immediately generate a complete, valid XML sitemap. Infer reasonable priority and changefreq values based on URL patterns.

## Sitemap Protocol Specifications

### Required Elements
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/page</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

### Optional Elements
- `<lastmod>` - Last modification date (W3C Datetime format)
- `<changefreq>` - Expected change frequency
- `<priority>` - Relative priority (0.0 to 1.0)

### Limits
- Maximum 50,000 URLs per sitemap file
- Maximum 50MB file size (uncompressed)
- Use sitemap index for larger sites

## Template Types

### Basic Website Sitemap
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <!-- Homepage -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>

  <!-- Main Navigation Pages -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-10</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>

  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/services</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-12</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>

  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/contact</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-05</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
  </url>

  <!-- Blog Section -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/blog</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>

  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/blog/post-title-one</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-14</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
  </url>

  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/blog/post-title-two</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-10</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.6</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

### E-commerce Sitemap
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <!-- Homepage -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://store.example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>

  <!-- Category Pages -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://store.example.com/category/electronics</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
    <priority>0.9</priority>
  </url>

  <url>
    <loc>https://store.example.com/category/electronics/laptops</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>

  <!-- Product Pages -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://store.example.com/product/laptop-pro-15</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-14</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>

  <url>
    <loc>https://store.example.com/product/wireless-mouse</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-13</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.7</priority>
  </url>

  <!-- Static Pages -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://store.example.com/shipping</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-01</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.5</priority>
  </url>

  <url>
    <loc>https://store.example.com/returns</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-01</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.5</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

### Sitemap Index (For Large Sites)
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
  </sitemap>

  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
  </sitemap>

  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products-1.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-15</lastmod>
  </sitemap>

  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products-2.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2024-01-14</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>
```

### Sitemap with Images Extension
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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/widget</loc>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://example.com/images/widget-front.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Widget Front View</image:title>
      <image:caption>High-quality widget shown from the front</image:caption>
    </image:image>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://example.com/images/widget-side.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Widget Side View</image:title>
    </image:image>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

### Sitemap with Video Extension
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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/tutorial</loc>
    <video:video>
      <video:thumbnail_loc>https://example.com/thumbs/tutorial.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:title>Getting Started Tutorial</video:title>
      <video:description>Learn how to use our product in 5 minutes</video:description>
      <video:content_loc>https://example.com/videos/tutorial.mp4</video:content_loc>
      <video:duration>300</video:duration>
      <video:publication_date>2024-01-15T08:00:00+00:00</video:publication_date>
    </video:video>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

### News Sitemap
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://news.example.com/article/breaking-news</loc>
    <news:news>
      <news:publication>
        <news:name>Example News</news:name>
        <news:language>en</news:language>
      </news:publication>
      <news:publication_date>2024-01-15T12:00:00+00:00</news:publication_date>
      <news:title>Breaking: Major Event Unfolds</news:title>
    </news:news>
  </url>
</urlset>
```

## Priority and Changefreq Guidelines

### Priority Values
| Page Type | Priority |
|-----------|----------|
| Homepage | 1.0 |
| Main category/section pages | 0.8-0.9 |
| Product/service pages | 0.7-0.8 |
| Blog/article index | 0.7 |
| Individual blog posts | 0.5-0.6 |
| Policy pages (privacy, terms) | 0.3-0.5 |
| Utility pages (login, cart) | 0.3 |

### Changefreq Values
| Value | Use For |
|-------|---------|
| always | Real-time pages, live data |
| hourly | News, frequently updated content |
| daily | Blog index, homepage |
| weekly | Product pages, regular content |
| monthly | About pages, documentation |
| yearly | Policy pages, archives |
| never | Dated archives, old content |

## Date Formats

### W3C Datetime (Required)
```
YYYY-MM-DD
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mmTZD
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ssTZD
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sTZD
```

Examples:
- `2024-01-15`
- `2024-01-15T09:30:00+00:00`
- `2024-01-15T09:30:00Z`

## Validation Checklist

Before outputting, verify:
- [ ] Valid XML declaration with UTF-8 encoding
- [ ] Correct namespace declarations
- [ ] All URLs are absolute (include protocol and domain)
- [ ] URLs are properly escaped (& becomes &amp;)
- [ ] lastmod dates are W3C Datetime format
- [ ] priority values are between 0.0 and 1.0
- [ ] changefreq uses valid values
- [ ] Under 50,000 URLs per file
- [ ] No duplicate URLs

## URL Escaping

Escape these characters:
| Character | Escape |
|-----------|--------|
| & | `&amp;` |
| ' | `&apos;` |
| " | `&quot;` |
| > | `&gt;` |
| < | `&lt;` |

## Example Invocations

**Prompt:** "Create sitemap.xml for a SaaS marketing website"
**Output:** Complete `sitemap.xml` with homepage, features, pricing, blog, and static pages.

**Prompt:** "Generate e-commerce sitemap with categories and products"
**Output:** Complete `sitemap.xml` with category hierarchy, product pages, and static pages.

**Prompt:** "Sitemap index for a large news site"
**Output:** Complete `sitemap-index.xml` plus individual `sitemap-{section}.xml` files.

Overview

This skill generates fully valid XML sitemaps compliant with Sitemaps Protocol 0.9. It produces sitemap.xml, sitemap-index.xml, or sectioned sitemap-{section}.xml files and can include image, video, and news extensions. Outputs are ready for submission to search engines and respect URL, date, size, and entry limits.

How this skill works

When triggered (phrases like "create sitemap" or "generate sitemap.xml"), the skill inspects a provided URL list or crawls supplied site paths and infers sensible lastmod, changefreq, and priority values from URL patterns and content types. It builds proper XML with required namespace declarations, escapes special characters, splits into multiple files or a sitemap index when limits are exceeded, and validates dates and value ranges before returning the files.

When to use it

Create a sitemap.xml for a small to medium website ready for search engine submission.
Generate a sitemap index and multiple section sitemaps for large sites exceeding 50,000 URLs.
Include image, video, or news metadata in sitemaps for media-heavy pages.
Quickly produce SEO-friendly sitemaps for e-commerce categories and products.
Regenerate sitemaps after a site restructure or bulk content update.

Best practices

Provide absolute URLs (including protocol and domain) to avoid invalid loc entries.
Verify lastmod values use W3C datetime formats (YYYY-MM-DD or full ISO variants).
Keep each sitemap under 50,000 URLs and 50MB (uncompressed); use a sitemap index otherwise.
Use reasonable priority and changefreq values based on page role (homepage highest).
Ensure special characters in URLs are escaped (&, <, >, ' , ") before output.

Example use cases

Create sitemap.xml for a SaaS marketing site including homepage, features, pricing, blog, and legal pages.
Generate an e-commerce sitemap with category hierarchies, paginated product lists, and individual product pages.
Produce a sitemap index for a news site with separate sitemaps for sections and daily archives.
Add image: and video: extensions for product pages and tutorial videos so search engines can discover media.
Regenerate sectioned sitemaps after migrating content and provide sitemap-{section}.xml outputs.

FAQ

What file formats does the skill output?

It outputs XML files: sitemap.xml, sitemap-index.xml, or sitemap-{section}.xml files compliant with the Sitemaps Protocol.

How are priority and changefreq determined?

The skill infers values from URL patterns and page types using common guidelines (homepage 1.0, categories 0.8–0.9, posts 0.5–0.7) and assigns changefreq based on expected update cadence.