XML Sitemap Checker
Validate your website’s XML sitemap to ensure it’s error-free and easily discoverable by search engines. Find issues and check URL counts instantly. Ensure search engines index your site flawlessly with the XML Sitemap Checker Tool – your instant audit solution to validate sitemap health, fix crawl errors, and prioritize critical pages for Google. Scan your XML sitemap in seconds to detect broken links, missing pages, or incorrect URLs that waste crawl budget and risk indexing gaps. Built for SEO teams and site owners, this tool simplifies technical audits by highlighting issues that block search engines from discovering your best content. Align with SEO best practices, boost crawl efficiency, and ensure every page gets visibility. Perfect your sitemap in seconds – resolve errors faster and secure your site’s search engine footprint.
What is an XML Sitemap?
Learn how sitemaps help search engines understand your website structure.
An XML Sitemap is a file hosted on your website that lists the URLs (pages, posts, images, videos, etc.) you consider important for search engines to crawl and index. It acts like a roadmap for crawlers like Googlebot, helping them discover your content more efficiently, especially pages that might be hard to find through normal crawling (like new pages or pages deep within your site structure).
Sitemaps follow a specific XML format defined by the Sitemap Protocol. They typically include the URL itself (
While submitting a sitemap doesn’t guarantee indexing, it’s a crucial best practice for SEO to aid content discovery.
Why Check Your XML Sitemap?
Ensure your roadmap for search engines is accurate and error-free.
Identify Formatting Errors
Invalid XML syntax will prevent search engines from reading your sitemap entirely.
Find Broken or Incorrect URLs
Ensure all listed URLs actually exist and are accessible (not redirecting or 404 errors).
Validate Data Formats
Check that dates in
Confirm Accessibility
Verify that your sitemap file is accessible to crawlers and not blocked by `robots.txt` or server configurations.
Ensure Completeness
While this tool focuses on validation, checking the URL count helps verify if it aligns with your site’s size.
Check Protocol Compliance
Make sure all required tags like
Common Sitemap Issues
Avoid these mistakes that can make your sitemap ineffective.
Mistakes to Watch Out For
Invalid XML Syntax
Unclosed tags, incorrect nesting, or invalid characters will break the entire file.
Incorrect URLs
Listing URLs that redirect, return 404 errors, or are blocked by robots.txt.
Wrong Date Format
YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+hh:mm).
Compression Errors
If using Gzip compression (.gz), ensure the file is correctly compressed and served.
Exceeding Limits
Individual sitemaps should not exceed 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed. Use a sitemap index for larger sites.
Incorrect Encoding
Sitemaps must be UTF-8 encoded.
Including Non-Canonical URLs
Only include the canonical version of URLs in your sitemap.
How to Use the XML Sitemap Checker
Follow these simple steps to validate your sitemap.
- 1
Enter Website URL
Input the full URL (including
http://orhttps://) of the site. The tool will try to locate your sitemap automatically. - 2
Click “Check Sitemap”
Initiate the check. Our server will attempt to find, fetch, and parse your sitemap(s).
- 3
Review the Results
The tool will display the sitemap URL(s) checked, a summary of total URLs found, an overall validation status, and a detailed list of any errors encountered during parsing and validation.
XML Sitemap Checker FAQs
Common questions about XML sitemaps and validation.
What is an XML Sitemap?
An XML Sitemap is a file listing important URLs on your site to help search engines like Google discover and crawl your content more efficiently. It acts as a roadmap for crawlers.
Why is validating my sitemap important?
Errors in your sitemap (like bad XML formatting, incorrect URLs, or invalid dates) can prevent search engines from processing it correctly. Validation ensures crawlers can read and use the information effectively, aiding content discovery.
Where should my sitemap be located?
While it can technically be anywhere, the standard location is the root directory (e.g., www.example.com/sitemap.xml). It’s also best practice to declare the sitemap location(s) in your robots.txt file using the Sitemap: directive.
Does this tool check if URLs in the sitemap actually work?
This checker primarily focuses on validating the XML structure and format compliance with the Sitemap protocol. It does not typically crawl every URL listed to check for 200 OK status codes, as that can be very resource-intensive. However, it flags syntactically invalid URLs in the
My sitemap is gzipped (.gz). Can this tool check it?
Yes, the backend logic is designed to automatically detect and decompress gzipped sitemap files before parsing and validation.
What if the tool can’t find my sitemap?
Ensure your sitemap exists at a standard location (/sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml) or is correctly specified in your robots.txt file. Also, make sure the sitemap URL isn’t blocked by robots.txt itself or server security rules.
Validate Your Website’s Roadmap
Ensure search engines can easily find all your important content. Check your XML sitemap for errors free!
Check Sitemap Now