Field explanations
- Top-level settings define the tool behavior
- Environment-specific blocks override defaults
- Paths are usually relative to the config file or project root
- Secrets should be referenced, not committed
Minimal template
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"> <url><loc>https://www.example.com/</loc></url> </urlset>
Common usage patterns
- Keep sitemap.xml small and reviewable
- Use comments only when the format supports them
- Commit example files with placeholder values
- Validate locally before deploying
Common errors
- Invalid XML namespace
- Non-canonical URLs
- Stale lastmod
- URLs blocked by robots.txt
Online validation
Validate syntax first, then compare behavior against your deploy target. For JSON-based configs, use the JSON formatter before debugging tool-specific behavior.