Sitemap Generator 2026: XML vs TXT vs Image vs News (Critical Formats Compared)
2026 complete sitemap guide: XML sitemap, TXT sitemap, Image sitemap, News sitemap, Video sitemap. Learn lastmod priority changefreq, sitemap index for 50k+ URLs, pagination rules, canonical vs sitemap, how to submit to Google, Yandex, Bing. Static site, Next.js, WordPress, Shopify all-in-one generator on Korelyy.
1. Which Sitemap Format Do You Actually Need?
| Format | Use Case | Max URLs | Max File Size |
|---|---|---|---|
| XML Sitemap | Default for all sites. Canonical URLs + lastmod. | 50,000 | 50MB uncompressed |
| TXT Sitemap | Quick low-effort. Just URL per line. No metadata. | 50,000 | 50MB |
| Image Sitemap | Blogs with 50+ embedded images in post. | 1,000 images per URL | 50MB |
| News Sitemap | News publishers. Must be <2 days old, 1k URLs max. | 1,000 | 50MB |
| Video Sitemap | Platforms with embedded video (YouTube custom player). | Unlimited (per XML limits) | 50MB |
| Sitemap Index | When you exceed 50k URLs / 50MB. | 1,000 sitemaps | 50MB |
2. Generate with Korelyy in 2 Clicks (Your Platform Preset)
Open Korelyy → SEO → Sitemap Generator → (1) Pick platform preset (Static HTML, Next.js, Nuxt, WordPress, Shopify) → Korelyy auto skips pagination/query-parameter/taxonomy duplicates. (2) Upload your exported URL list OR crawl your site via our lightweight crawler (max 200k URLs, respects robots.txt). (3) Choose output formats (XML + TXT + Image + News if press). (4) Download as zip, unzip, upload /sitemaps/ folder, add Sitemap: https://yoursite/sitemap-index.xml line to robots.txt. Korelyy validates 50MB/50k count, escapes XML special chars &
2.1 Priority + Changefreq — Stop Guessing
- Homepage → priority 1.0, changefreq daily. Important category pages 0.9. Blog post 0.8. Landing 0.8. Tag/Author 0.4. Paginated archives 0.3.
- changefreq=always → only real-time pages (stock, live scores). Don't use for normal blogs; Google downgrades you.
- lastmod — Use real file mtime or Git commit time. Don't fake-change every day; Google catches on and ignores.
3. Submit to 6 Search Engines in 2026
- Ping URLs: Google (https://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=), Bing/YAHOO (Bing Webmaster Tools sitemaps section), Yandex (Yandex Webmaster), Naver (Naver Search Advisor), Baidu (ziyuan.baidu.com: daily 50k push API).