Sitemap generator

NOTE: If you choose the option to compress the sitemap file, it is in GZ format.

In addition, a sitemap index is automatically generated. You use the sitemap index when you have more than one sitemaps because it lists all sitemap files, so search engines can find and process them.

NOTE: Sitefinity CMS always adds a sitemap index for each website, no matter if you only have one or more sitemaps.

Once the sitemap is generated, Sitefinity CMS automatically pings Google and Bing. The search engines have their own logic, so it may take a short time before their crawlers processes the sitemap. 

When you generate the sitemap for the first time, the result is two links:

• To the sitemap index file
• To the sitemap file

For example:

• https://docs.sitefinity.com/sitemap/sitemap-index.xml
• https://docs.sitefinity.com/sitemap.gz

The URLs reflect the name of the website, for which you are generating a sitemap. In this example, this is docs.sitefinity.com. 

If the URLs do not reflect your site's name, check the website's settings:

• Single site environment:
  Settings » Advanced » System » Site Url Settings
• Multisite environment:
1. Navigate to Manage Sites » [your site] » Actions » Properties. 
2. Enter the proper domain name for the selected site.

The generated sitemap is located in the database, in your System library. Thus, you access the sitemap only through the sitemap URL.

NOTE: Since the sitemap is stored in the database, and not in the file system, you can also generate sitemaps for sites that are hosted on Azure.

The generated sitemap is compatible with Sitemaps.org schema that is read by most of the search engines. For more information about the sitemap protocol, see Sitemaps XML format.

You can configure Sitefinity CMS sitemap generator on site, page, or content item level. 

If you are working in multisite environment, you need to define and configure a sitemap for each site separately.

To configure Sitefinity CMS sitemap generator for a site:

1. In Sitefinity CMS backend, navigate to Administration » Settings » Basic Settings » Sitemap.
2. Define the following sitemap properties:
• Split sitemap into multiple files if it contains more than... - this option allows you to define how many unique URLs a sitemap includes.Once the specified unique number of URLs is reached, another sitemap is created and registered in the sitemap index to hold the additional URLs. You can have up to 50,000 sitemap files, each containing up to 50,000 URLs.
• Compress file to reduce the bandwidth - if you select this checkbox, after sitemap generation, the sitemap is compressed to a GZ archive to save server disk space.
• When to regenerate the sitemap? - from the dropdown menu, select how often to generate the sitemap by choosing one of the options:
  • Daily - the sitemap is generated on a daily basis.
    In the field, specify when generation starts.
  • Weekly - the sitemap is generated once a week, on the day and time specified by you.
  • Manual - the sitemap is not automatically generated.To generate the sitemap, you need to open the sitemap Administration screen and click the Generate sitemap button.

    NOTE: By default, the sitemap generation is manual, so the Manual checkbox is preselcted. 

3. Click the Generate sitemap button.