My store is on Salla, Zid or Shopify. Do I need to make a sitemap myself, or does the platform create one? When would I need this tool?
For the store itself, usually not. Hosted platforms commonly generate a sitemap and keep it updated as you add products, and in most cases the store owner cannot replace that file. Open your store address followed by /sitemap.xml to see what is there. This tool helps with sites the platform does not cover, such as a blog or landing page on your own hosting.
Check what your platform serves first
- In your browser, type your store address as customers see it, then add /sitemap.xml.
- If a file appears listing links, or listing other sitemap files, the platform makes the sitemap for you and the store needs no XML sitemap generator.
- Also open your store address followed by /robots.txt and look for a line starting with Sitemap. Many platforms point to their sitemap there.
- If you find nothing, check your platform's help centre or ask its support where the sitemap lives.
We cannot tell you exactly what Salla, Zid or Shopify generate today, or where; that changes and differs by platform. Checking for yourself is the only reliable way, and your platform's documentation is the reference.
Why not upload your own file instead?
On a hosted store you normally have no access to the domain's root folder the way you do on ordinary hosting, so there is nowhere to put your own sitemap.xml. Even if you found a way, the platform's file updates itself when you add or remove a product, while yours would stay frozen and go stale after the first change. A stale sitemap pointing at deleted products is worse than no extra file at all.
When you actually need the sitemap generator
- A separate blog on a subdomain like blog.example.com that you host yourself, where the blog software makes no sitemap.
- Ramadan or Eid campaign landing pages built as HTML files and uploaded to your own hosting.
- A small company site with a handful of pages, separate from the store.
In those cases you own the root folder and can upload the file. For example, we pasted two blog links, the home page and an Eid gift guide, and got a single sitemap.xml with two URLs and no index file, since the list is small:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://blog.example.com/</loc>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://blog.example.com/eid-gift-guide</loc>
</url>
</urlset>
What the tool does not do
The tool never visits your site or store, so it cannot tell whether your platform makes a sitemap, and it does not discover your blog's pages on its own. It converts the list you paste, so completeness is up to you. After uploading the file to the blog's root, add a Sitemap line to that blog's own robots.txt with the Robots.txt builder, or submit the file in your webmaster tools. And no, having the file does not guarantee the pages appear in search.
Common questions
The platform's sitemap looks incomplete. What can I do?
You usually cannot edit it. Make sure the missing pages are published and visible, then ask the platform's support.
Should I submit the platform's sitemap in webmaster tools?
You can submit its address as it is, if the search tool accepts it. Check the search engine's documentation.
Should blog links go in the store's sitemap?
No. Each sitemap lists URLs from the host it is uploaded to.