How Often Should You Update Your XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap acts as a roadmap for search engines, guiding them to discover, crawl, and index your website efficiently. While Google and Bing are capable of crawling websites without one, having a well-maintained sitemap ensures:

• New pages get discovered faster.
• Updated content gets re-crawled efficiently.
• Outdated or deleted pages won't cause indexing issues.

But how often should you update your sitemap? The answer depends on how frequently your website’s content changes. Let’s dive into best practices to keep your sitemap optimized and improve search engine rankings.

How Frequently Should You Update Your XML Sitemap?

1. Whenever You Add or Remove Pages

   Googlebot and other search engine crawlers rely on your XML sitemap to detect new or removed content. Updating your sitemap in these cases is critical:

   • Adding new blog posts, product pages, or landing pages - Ensures they get indexed faster.
   • Deleting outdated or broken pages - Prevents search engines from crawling non-existent URLs, avoiding 404 errors.

   Best practice: If your website publishes content daily (e.g., news sites or e-commerce platforms), use a dynamic sitemap that updates automatically.

2. After Major Website Changes & Redesigns

   If you make significant structural changes to your site, such as:

   • Reorganizing categories
   • Changing URL structures (e.g., switching from HTTP to HTTPS)
   • Migrating to a new domain

   You should immediately update and resubmit your sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

   Best practice: After a site migration, set up 301 redirects and ensure the old URLs are removed from your sitemap. 301 redirect is a permanent server-side redirect. Using the 301 status code means that a site/page has moved permanently to a new location.

3. For Regularly Updated Websites (Dynamic vs. Static Sites)

   How often you update your sitemap depends on how frequently your site’s content changes:

   Website Type	Recommended Update Frequency
   News & media websites	Every few hours (or dynamically)
   E-Commerce Sites	Daily or weekly (if products change frequently)
   Blogs/Business Blogs	Weekly or whenever a new post is published
   Small business websites	Every few months (if minimal changes occur)

   Best practice: Even if you don’t publish new content often, update your sitemap at least once every 2-3 months to ensure everything stays indexed correctly.

4. After Updating Important Metadata or Structured Data

   Even if you don't change URLs, modifying key SEO elements should trigger a sitemap update:

   • Title tags & meta descriptions (to reflect new keyword targeting)
   • Schema markup changes (e.g., adding structured data for events, reviews, or recipes)
   • Canonical tags (to prevent duplicate content issues)

   Best practice: If these updates apply to multiple pages, regenerate and resubmit your XML sitemap.

How to Keep Your XML Sitemap Optimized

• Use the <lastmod> Tag - Helps search engines understand which pages were updated recently, reducing unnecessary crawls.
• Exclude Low-Value & Duplicate Pages - Don’t include login pages, admin dashboards, or duplicate pages in your sitemap.
• Ensure Your Sitemap is Accessible - It should be located at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml and referenced in your robots.txt file.
• Monitor Sitemap Errors - Regularly check Google Search Console for warnings like “Couldn’t Fetch” or “Submitted URL Blocked by robots.txt.”
• Use Automated Sitemap Generators - Tools like Yoast SEO (WordPress), Screaming Frog, and DailyOCR's XML Sitemap Generator can help keep your sitemap up to date without manual effort.

How to Submit & Update Your Sitemap in Google Search Console

Once you update your sitemap, follow these steps to inform Google:

1. Go to Google Search Console.
2. Navigate to "Sitemaps" under the "Indexing" section.
3. Enter your sitemap URL (e.g., https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml).
4. Click "Submit" to ensure Google re-crawls your updated sitemap.

Pro Tip: If your sitemap updates automatically, Google will detect changes without resubmitting. However, manual submission speeds up indexing for urgent updates.

An up-to-date XML sitemap enhances search visibility, improves crawl efficiency, and ensures your latest content is indexed quickly.

• Dynamic websites (news, e-commerce) should update sitemaps daily or in real-time.
• Blogs and business sites should update weekly or monthly based on new content.
• Static websites should check and update every few months for accuracy.

Try our Free Sitemap Generator Tool and start indexing now!