In short. Shopify's generated sitemap cannot be manually edited, but documented content visibility settings affect inclusion and robots.txt can declare extra sitemaps.
Definition: Shopify's generated sitemap is an automatically maintained XML file that lists store content for search engines. As of 17 October 2026, the generated file cannot be manually edited; Shopify provides settings that affect which content it includes.
Key facts
- Shopify's sitemap guide places the generated file at the store domain's root, at
sitemap.xml. - In a Shopify Developer Community reply, KyleG-Shopify explicitly states that editing the automatically generated sitemap is impossible.
- Shopify's Managing searchability documentation describes exclusions through Unlisted product status and the
seo.hiddencustom metafield.
How does Shopify maintain the sitemap?
Shopify's sitemap guide describes a parent file linking to separate sitemaps for products, collections, blogs, and webpages. The files update automatically when a webpage, product, collection, image, or blog post is added to the online store.
The guide gives this example address:
example.com/sitemap.xml
For stores selling in multiple languages, Shopify automatically adds those languages to the domain's sitemap files. The maintenance process therefore includes additions to store content and language coverage.
Which settings change sitemap inclusion?
A metafield is a custom data field attached to store content. Shopify's searchability guide documents the system metafield seo.hidden for products, pages, and blog posts. Setting its value to 1 hides that resource from sitemaps, search engines, and the online store's search.
In Settings > Metafields and metaobjects, the documented definition uses these values:
Namespace and key: seo.hidden
Type: Integer
Maximum value: 1
After the definition is created, the resource's SEO Hidden field is set to 1 and saved. This changes visibility across the documented surfaces together.
For products, the same guide also documents Unlisted status. An unlisted product remains accessible by direct URL and is excluded from the store's sitemap. It also disappears from Shopify-powered collections and product recommendations, so selecting that status has effects beyond sitemap membership.
Can an additional sitemap be declared?
A robots.txt file gives search engine crawlers rules about which URLs they can request. Shopify's Customize robots.txt documentation shows how to add an extra sitemap URL through the theme's robots.txt.liquid template.
Its example places this line outside the Liquid code that outputs the default rules:
Sitemap: [sitemap-url]
The placeholder represents the additional sitemap's URL. This declares a location for crawlers. The Developer Community reply identifies linking additional sitemaps as an available option while explicitly ruling out editing the generated sitemap.
Related terms
- XML sitemap
- How do I submit a Shopify sitemap to Search Console?
- How do I hide a Shopify page with the seo.hidden metafield?
- How do I edit robots.txt in Shopify?
FAQ
Do I need to update the sitemap after adding a product?
Shopify's sitemap guide says the files update automatically when you add a product. The same applies to new webpages, collections, images, and blog posts.
How do I reverse a seo.hidden exclusion?
Shopify's searchability guide instructs you to delete the SEO Hidden metafield value, leave it blank, and save. This makes the resource visible to search engines again under the documented setting.
Sources
- Shopify Help Center, "Finding and submitting your sitemap", undated
- Shopify Developer Community, "Single sitemap.xml file", reply by KyleG-Shopify, 23 April 2025, JSON record
- Shopify Help Center, "Managing searchability", undated
- Shopify Developers, "Customize robots.txt", undated
Check how a page reads to answer engines. Open the GEO score analyzer