---
title: "Create a sitemap trigger"
slug: "create-a-sitemap-trigger"
abstract: "How to create a sitemap or sitemap index trigger for a Sitecore Search web crawler (advanced) or API crawler source."
---
# Create a sitemap trigger

Sitecore Search can index content from URLs listed in your sitemap or sitemap index using a [trigger](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/users/search-user-guide/index-items/additional-configurations-and-settings/configure-triggers.html "Configure triggers").

A sitemap index is a list of sitemaps. For example, a multi-market online retailer that has a sitemap for each market based on country. They can consolidate all the sitemap URLs into one sitemap index where each `sitemap` node points to a sitemap.

> [!important]
> A sitemap index file can only point to sitemaps that are found on the same site as the sitemap index file.

This topic describes how to create a sitemap or sitemap index trigger for an [advanced web crawler](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/users/search-user-guide/index-items/additional-configurations-and-settings/configure-triggers/configure-an-advanced-web-crawler.html#UUID-1f2f85d4-5ab3-30eb-a344-202bb53dfff7_section-idm4581825694513633495976618142 "Configure a trigger").The procedure to create a sitemap or sitemap index trigger for a [web crawler source](https://doc.sitecore.com/search/en/users/search-user-guide/index-items/additional-configurations-and-settings/configure-triggers/configure-a-web-crawler.html#UUID-d2842294-0288-d59c-43b0-a157eeeec32c_section-idm1823364884636836 "Configure crawler settings") is slightly different because, for a web crawler source, you define a trigger in the **Web Crawler Settings** section of the **Source Settings** page.

> [!note]
> Sitemap triggers leverage the last modified date (`lastmod`) field for each URL in your sitemap. This increases the indexing speed and improves the efficiency of your content updates.

To configure a sitemap or sitemap index trigger:

1. On the **Source Settings** page, click ![pencil_grey.png](https://doc.sitecore.com/api/markdown-image/search/en/users/search-user-guide/images/pencil_grey.png) **Edit** next to **Triggers**.
2. Click ![Plus_add__grey.png](https://doc.sitecore.com/api/markdown-image/search/en/users/search-user-guide/images/Plus_add__grey.png) **Add Trigger**.
3. In the **Trigger Type** drop-down menu:
    - If you have a sitemap, click **Sitemap**.
    - If you have a sitemap index, click **Sitemap Index**.
4. In the **TIMEOUT** field, enter the time, in milliseconds, that the crawler waits to get a response. Enter a large number here because sitemaps can take very long to load, and you do not want the crawler to time out when it reaches the maximum number of seconds to wait.

    For example, enter *10000*.

5. In the **URL** field, click ![Plus_add__grey.png](https://doc.sitecore.com/api/markdown-image/search/en/users/search-user-guide/images/Plus_add__grey.png) **Add Item** and then enter the URL of the sitemap or sitemap index.

    For example, enter *https://www.sitecore.com/sitemap.xml*.

6. Click **Save**.