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XML sitemap checker

Find and validate a site's XML sitemaps, including indexes and .gz files.

How to use it

  1. Enter a site or sitemap. A domain to discover its sitemaps, or the URL of one sitemap file.
  2. We find and open them. Sitemaps listed in robots.txt come first, then /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml. Indexes are followed into up to 10 child sitemaps.
  3. Read the report. Structure, URL counts, lastmod coverage and limit warnings for every file.

What a sitemap does

An XML sitemap lists the URLs you want search engines to crawl. It does not force anything into the index, but it helps crawlers find new and deep pages faster, and an accurate <lastmod> tells them which pages changed and are worth recrawling.

What this checker looks at

  • Discovery. Is the sitemap listed in robots.txt with a Sitemap: line? That is how every crawler finds it, not just the ones you submit to by hand.
  • Structure. The root must be <urlset> (a list of pages) or <sitemapindex> (a list of sitemaps), with the sitemaps.org namespace, and the file must be complete XML.
  • Limits. One sitemap can hold 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Bigger sites split into several files under an index.
  • lastmod coverage. Google uses <lastmod> when it is consistently accurate. Set it from the real content change date, not the build time.
  • Hosts. URLs should be on the sitemap's own host.
  • Gzip. Compressed .xml.gz sitemaps are decompressed and checked like any other.

Common sitemap problems

  1. HTML instead of XML. A catch-all route answers /sitemap.xml with your homepage and a 200 status.
  2. Listing URLs you do not want indexed: redirects, 404s, noindex pages or non-canonical duplicates. Every URL in a sitemap should return 200 and be the canonical version.
  3. A stale sitemap that was generated once and never updated.
  4. Truncated files from a generator that timed out halfway.

Next steps

Pull every URL into a list or CSV with the sitemap URL extractor. No sitemap yet? Build one with the sitemap generator, then add it to robots.txt and check the file with the robots.txt tester.

What you get

  • Discovers sitemaps from robots.txt
  • Follows sitemap indexes into up to 10 children
  • Reads .xml.gz sitemaps
  • URL count and lastmod coverage
  • 50,000 URL and 50 MB limit warnings

Questions

How do I find a website's sitemap?

Check robots.txt for a `Sitemap:` line, then try /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml. Enter the domain above and this tool does all three for you.

How many URLs can a sitemap have?

Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites use a sitemap index that lists several sitemaps, and an index can list up to 50,000 sitemaps.

Does Google use lastmod?

Yes, when it is consistently accurate. If every URL shows today's date on every build, Google learns to ignore it. Use the date the page content actually changed.

Should every page be in my sitemap?

Every page you want indexed, and only those. Leave out redirects, error pages, noindex pages and duplicates that point a canonical elsewhere.

Do I still need a sitemap if my site is small?

It is not required for a small, well-linked site, but it costs nothing and helps new pages get found faster. Most frameworks and CMSs can generate one automatically.