Free SEO tool

XML Sitemap Checker

We find your sitemap the way search engines do, read it, and request a sample of the pages it lists. See whether it is a valid sitemap, how many URLs it has, how many carry dates, and whether the listed pages actually load.

Free. Usually done in under a minute.

What this tool checks

  • Finding the sitemap

    From the Sitemap: lines in robots.txt that point to your own origin. If there are none, we try /sitemap.xml.

  • Status and format

    The HTTP status, the Content-Type header, and whether the file is a urlset (a list of pages) or a sitemapindex (a list of sitemaps).

  • Sitemap indexes

    For an index, up to 3 of its child sitemaps on the same origin are read as well.

  • URL count and lastmod

    How many URLs the files list, and what share of them have a lastmod date.

  • Other hosts and duplicates

    URLs on a different host from the sitemap, and URLs listed more than once.

  • A sample of listed URLs

    Up to 10 listed URLs are requested and their HTTP status shown. Requests stay on your origin and redirects to other hosts aren’t followed, so a redirect is reported as a redirect.

What it can’t check

  • Check every URL in a large sitemap. We read a few megabytes and a few files at most, so very large sitemaps are checked in part, and only 10 URLs are requested.
  • Reliably read gzip-compressed sitemaps (.xml.gz).
  • Tell whether Google has processed the sitemap or indexed its URLs. Search Console’s Sitemaps report shows that.
  • Decide whether the right pages are listed: important pages that are missing, or pages that shouldn’t be in search.
  • Validate image, video or news sitemap extensions.

Why it matters

A sitemap is the list of pages you want search engines to find. It helps most on large sites, on new sites with few links pointing to them, and for pages that navigation barely reaches, such as old posts or products several clicks deep. Google treats it as a suggestion, so it is most useful when every URL in it works and is the version you want indexed.

Sitemaps go stale quietly. A plugin keeps listing pages you deleted, a migration leaves the old domain in every URL, or a staging hostname slips into the generator. Dates go wrong too: Google says it uses lastmod only when the dates are consistently and verifiably accurate, so a lastmod that changes on every request is ignored.

There are size limits as well. The sitemaps.org protocol allows at most 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites split their URLs across several sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index.

How to read the results

HTTP status
200 means the file was served. 404 means there is no sitemap at that address. A redirect to another host isn’t followed and is shown as is.
Content type
Usually application/xml or text/xml. text/html often means the address returns a web page, such as your home page or a not-found page, instead of a sitemap.
urlset or sitemapindex
A urlset lists pages; a sitemapindex lists other sitemaps. Anything else isn’t a valid sitemap.
URL count
The total number of URLs in the files we read. For a large index with many child sitemaps, this is a partial count.
Share with lastmod
How many URLs have a last-modified date. Dates are optional, but accurate ones help search engines spot changed pages.
Other hosts
URLs whose host differs from the sitemap’s, for example www against no www, or an old domain. The protocol expects one sitemap to list URLs from its own host.
Duplicates
The same URL listed more than once. Usually a sign the generator is misconfigured; list each URL once.
Sample URL status
Each sampled URL should return 200. A 3xx means the sitemap lists old addresses, 404 or 410 means deleted pages, and 5xx means server errors.

How to fix the most common problems

  • No sitemap found

    Check whether your platform already makes one: Shopify serves /sitemap.xml for public stores, WordPress 5.5 and later serves /wp-sitemap.xml, and Yoast SEO and Rank Math use /sitemap_index.xml. Add its full URL to robots.txt as a Sitemap: line so crawlers and tools find it wherever it lives.

  • Sampled URLs redirect or return 404

    List the final https address that returns 200, not an old one that redirects. Most generators drop deleted pages automatically, so look for a static sitemap file or a cache that wasn’t refreshed after pages were removed.

  • URLs on the wrong host

    Set your site’s address to the domain you actually use, with or without www (in WordPress, Settings › General › Site Address), then regenerate the sitemap. After a domain move, make sure no URLs from the old domain remain.

  • The sitemap address returns HTML

    A 200 response with text/html usually means a catch-all route serves a normal page at /sitemap.xml. Point robots.txt to the real sitemap, or configure your generator to serve it at that path.

  • lastmod dates that can’t be trusted

    Set lastmod from the date the content really changed, not the time the sitemap was generated. If your generator can’t do that, leaving lastmod out is better than wrong dates.

Questions about this tool

Do I need an XML sitemap?

Not every site does. Google says a small site of about 500 pages or fewer, with good internal links, may not need one. It rarely hurts, though, and helps new and deep pages get found.

Does a sitemap get my pages indexed?

No. It helps search engines discover URLs. Whether a page is crawled and indexed still depends on its content and on signals such as noindex and canonical links.

Should I set priority and changefreq?

You can, but Google says it ignores both. Accurate URLs and honest lastmod dates matter more.

Where should the sitemap file live?

Usually at the root, such as /sitemap.xml, because under the sitemaps.org protocol a sitemap covers only URLs at or below its own folder. Reference it in robots.txt and submit it in Search Console.

Why are only 10 URLs tested?

The sample is a quick health check: if several sampled URLs fail, the sitemap needs attention. The paid SEO Fix Report goes further, testing up to 20 pages from your sitemap and checking up to 60 internal links.

Sources

Related tools

The SEO Fix Report ($69, one-time) starts from the full free scan and adds more pages, the change to make for every finding, a PDF and re-tests to verify your fixes.

About the SEO Fix Report