title: Sitemap
---
summary: Quick demo of how to build a custom sitemap.xml.
---
body:

If you want to have a `sitemap.xml` file for search engines this is something
you can very easily create yourself.  All you need is a contents file
and a custom template.

## Contents File

First we need to create a contents file.  Since `sitemap.xml` always goes
into the same location we create a folder called `sitemap.xml` inside our
`content` folder and add a `contents.lr` file with the following data:

```
_template: sitemap.xml
----
_model: none
```

This instructs Lektor to use the template `sitemap.xml` for this page.  We
also give it the empty `none` model for good measure.

!!! Starting with Lektor 2.0 you can also add `_discoverable: no` as a field
into the file to hide it from `.children`.  This is useful for such special
pages which should be excluded from navigation or automatic link generation.

## Template File

The template loaded will be `templates/sitemap.xml`.  In this file we just
iterate over all pages of the site recursively.  This also automatically
skips hidden pages so those will not be generated out.

```xml+jinja
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  {%- for page in [site.root] if page != this recursive %}
  <url><loc>{{ page|url(external=true) }}</loc></url>
  {{- loop(page.children|sort(attribute='path')) }}
  {%- endfor %}
</urlset>
```

Sorting the page using `|sort(attribute='path')` is not mandatory, but can be
useful if you prefer to have stable builds, for instance if you use `git` to
version the generated page and would like a clean history or a meaningful diff
from the last build.

Note that because sitemaps need to have external URLs (with scheme and
everything) you will need to configure the `url` of the site before the
template starts working.  For more information see [Project File
:ref](../../project/file/#project)

## Human Readable Sitemap

But what if you want a beautiful sitemap as a tree for human reading?  This is
not any harder.  Instead of making a `sitemap.xml/contents.lr` file just
create a `sitemap/contents.lr` file instead and use a template like
`sitemap.html`.  Then use something like this:

```html+jinja
{% extends "layout.html" %}
{% block title %}Sitemap{% endblock %}
{% block body %}
<ul class="sitemap">
  {% for page in [site.root] if page.record_label recursive %}
  <li><a href="{{ page|url }}">{{ page.record_label }}</a>
    {% if page.children %}
      <ul>{{ loop(page.children|sort(attribute='path')) }}</ul>
    {% endif %}
  </li>
  {% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endblock %}
```
