XML Sitemap Checker
Verify the structure and validity of your XML sitemap. Check URLs, lastmod, duplicates, format errors and sitemap index support.
🗺️Enter the sitemap URL or domain
Why is the XML sitemap important for SEO?
What is an XML Sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a structured file that lists the URLs on your website intended for indexing by search engines. Unlike an HTML sitemap designed for users, the XML sitemap is specifically designed for crawlers like Googlebot. It contains metadata such as the last modification date (<lastmod>), update frequency (<changefreq>), and relative priority (<priority>).
Google uses the sitemap as a discovery signal: even though the crawler can find pages by following internal links, the sitemap ensures no important page is overlooked, especially orphan pages, newly created ones, or those reachable only after many clicks from the homepage.
For large sites, you can use a sitemap index that groups multiple sitemap files, each containing up to 50,000 URLs. This approach is essential for e-commerce, news portals, and any site with thousands of pages.
Why verify your XML Sitemap
A sitemap with errors can hinder your site's indexing. Here's what to check.
Complete indexing
Verify that all important URLs are included in the sitemap and no strategic page is excluded from indexing.
Remove duplicate URLs
Duplicate URLs in the sitemap waste crawl budget and can confuse search engines about the canonical version of pages.
Check lastmod dates
Missing or incorrect <lastmod> dates prevent Google from understanding which content has been updated and deserves a new crawl.
Validate XML structure
XML syntax errors make the sitemap unreadable for crawlers. Even a single unclosed tag can invalidate the entire file.
Respect technical limits
Max 50,000 URLs and 50 MB per file. Exceeding these limits means part of the sitemap will be ignored by search engines.
Optimize crawl budget
A clean sitemap without errors, redirects or 404 pages allows crawlers to focus resources on truly important pages.
XML Sitemap Best Practices
Follow these guidelines for an optimal sitemap.
✅ What to do
- →Include only canonical URLs with status 200
- →Add accurate <lastmod> to every URL
- →Use a sitemap index for sites with many URLs
- →Register the sitemap in Google Search Console
- →Reference the sitemap in robots.txt
- →Automatically update the sitemap when content changes
❌ What to avoid
- →Including URLs with 301/302 redirects or 404 errors
- →Exceeding 50,000 URLs per sitemap file
- →Using false or always-identical <lastmod> dates
- →Including URLs blocked by robots.txt or noindex
- →Having duplicate URLs or trailing slash variants
- →Leaving XML syntax errors in the file
How our XML Sitemap Checker works
Three steps to analyze your sitemap, no registration required.
Enter the domain or sitemap URL
Type your domain (e.g. example.com) and the tool will automatically look for /sitemap.xml. Or paste the direct URL to your sitemap if it's in a different location.
The tool fetches and analyzes the XML sitemap
The tool downloads the XML file, detects whether it's a standard sitemap or a sitemap index, and analyzes each entry verifying URLs, dates, formats and structure.
Get a score, statistics and issues to fix
Get a score from 0 to 100, detailed statistics (total URLs, with/without lastmod, duplicates), list of critical issues and suggestions to optimize the sitemap.
XML Sitemap FAQ
Everything you need to know about XML sitemaps for SEO.
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