XML Sitemap Checker & Validator

Validate your XML sitemaps against Google's guidelines. Check format, URL count, size limits, and common errors with an overall health score. Enter a URL or paste XML directly.

Check Sitemap

Enter the full URL to your sitemap or sitemap index file. The tool fetches and validates it.
Quick test:

About the XML Sitemap Checker

Sitemaps help search engines discover and crawl your pages. An invalid sitemap can reduce the usefulness of that sitemap as a discovery signal. It does not necessarily prevent pages from being discovered through links or other sources. This tool validates your sitemap against XML standards and Google's guidelines, giving you a health score (0-100) with detailed breakdowns.

XML Structure

Validates well-formed XML and proper namespace declarations for sitemaps and sitemap indexes.

URL Count & Size

Checks against Google's 50,000 URL limit and 50MB file size limit, with warnings when approaching limits.

URL Verification

Detects missing <loc> elements, non-absolute URLs (relative paths), and duplicate entries.

Why Sitemap Validation Matters for SEO

Your XML sitemap is the primary way you tell Google which pages on your site exist and should be crawled. A broken sitemap can lead to:

  • Missed indexing — Google won't know about pages listed in a broken sitemap
  • Wasted crawl budget — Invalid entries cause crawlers to waste resources
  • Partial coverage — XML parsing errors may cause some URLs to be skipped
  • Delayed discovery — New pages won't be found until the sitemap is fixed

Best Practices

  • Keep each sitemap under 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed
  • Use absolute URLs (https://example.com/page) not relative
  • Only include 200 OK pages — exclude redirects, 404s, and noindex pages
  • Use valid W3C dates for <lastmod> (e.g., 2024-12-01 or 2024-12-01T10:30:00+00:00)
  • Use a sitemap index when you exceed 50,000 URLs or 50 MB
  • Submit your sitemap via Google Search Console and reference it in robots.txt

Suggested Workflow

  1. Generate your XML sitemap using a sitemap generator or your CMS
  2. Validate it with this checker — aim for a 95+/100 score
  3. Fix any errors or warnings found
  4. Upload to your site and submit to Google Search Console
  5. Monitor coverage reports in Search Console for issues

XML Sitemap Checker Examples: Valid vs. Broken Inputs

Use these examples before testing your own site so you know what a normal result and a problem result should look like.

Valid example

Test https://yourseotoolbox.com/sitemap.xml or another public XML sitemap that returns 200 and valid XML.

Broken example

Test a missing sitemap URL or an HTML page instead of XML to see parsing and status failures.

Preview: What the Result Should Show

A screenshot should show sitemap status, URL count, parse status, and any invalid entries.

How to Interpret the Result

A valid sitemap should be accessible, parseable, and contain canonical URLs that return successful status codes.

Common Failure Cases

  • Sitemap returns 404 or 403
  • HTML returned instead of XML
  • URLs are non-canonical or blocked

Download sample report

Frequently Asked Questions

It validates syntax and structure: valid XML syntax, sitemap vs sitemap index detection, total URL count, missing &lt;loc&gt; elements, invalid lastmod dates, non-absolute URLs, duplicate URLs, whether the sitemap exceeds 50,000 URLs or 50MB, namespace validity, and proper encoding declarations. Every check is weighted into an overall health score (0-100).
A standard sitemap contains &lt;url&gt; entries listing individual page URLs (up to 50,000 per file). A sitemap index contains &lt;sitemap&gt; entries pointing to other sitemap files. Sitemap indexes allow you to split large sites across multiple sitemap files and are required when you have more than 50,000 URLs.
Google enforces two hard limits per sitemap: (1) Maximum 50,000 URLs per sitemap file, and (2) Maximum 50 MB uncompressed file size. If your site exceeds either limit, use a sitemap index file pointing to multiple sitemaps, each staying within these limits. You can gzip your sitemap for faster transfers.
No — your sitemap should only contain URLs that return HTTP 200 (OK). Including 404s, 301s, 5xx errors, or soft-404 pages wastes crawl budget and may lead Google to trust your sitemap less over time. Only include canonical, indexable pages that you want search engines to discover.
Yes. Google supports image and video extensions to the sitemap protocol. You can nest &lt;image:image&gt; and &lt;video:video&gt; tags inside your &lt;url&gt; entries. This tool detects whether your sitemap uses these extensions and validates the basic structure.
The standard sitemap namespace is http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9. All &lt;urlset&gt; or &lt;sitemapindex&gt; elements must declare this namespace. Image and video extensions have their own namespaces: http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1 and http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1.
Update your sitemap whenever you add, remove, or significantly change pages on your site. For large sites with frequent content changes, daily updates are best. For smaller or static sites, weekly or monthly updates are sufficient. Google recommends using the &lt;lastmod&gt; element to indicate when a page was last modified.
Submit your sitemap URL (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml) via Google Search Console under Sitemaps section. You can also reference it in your robots.txt file by adding: Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml. Google crawlers discover sitemaps from both robots.txt and Search Console.
No — sitemap indexes cannot be nested. A sitemap index can only point to standard sitemap files, not to other sitemap indexes. If you need deeper hierarchy, flatten it into a single sitemap index pointing directly to all your standard sitemaps.
URL order does not affect crawling priority or frequency. Google crawls sitemap URLs based on many factors including the page's importance, update frequency, and crawl budget.