XML Sitemap Checker

What Does a Sitemap Checker Do and Why Is It Important?

A sitemap checker is a tool that analyzes your XML sitemap file for errors, structural issues, and SEO best-practice violations. Your XML sitemap serves as a roadmap for search engines like Google and Bing, telling them which pages exist on your site and when they were last updated. If your sitemap contains errors, search engines may fail to discover or index important pages, which directly impacts your organic traffic.

Our free sitemap validator goes beyond basic syntax checking. It validates XML syntax and namespace declarations, counts total URLs and checks against the 50,000-URL limit, verifies lastmod date accuracy and freshness, detects image and video sitemap extensions, flags stale URLs with modification dates older than six months, and identifies mixed HTTP/HTTPS protocol issues. Whether you run a WordPress blog, a Shopify store, or a custom-built website, regular sitemap validation ensures search engines can efficiently crawl and index your content.

How to Check Your XML Sitemap for Errors

Using this tool to validate your sitemap takes just a few steps:

1. Choose your input method. Switch between "Paste XML" to paste raw sitemap content or "Fetch from URL" to enter your website address.
2. Enter your sitemap. If fetching by URL, simply enter your domain (e.g., example.com). The tool automatically appends /sitemap.xml if you don't include a file path.
3. Click Analyze. The tool fetches and parses your sitemap, running validation checks across multiple categories.
4. Review results by severity. Issues are grouped into errors (critical problems that prevent indexing), warnings (issues that may hurt SEO), and informational notes (optimization suggestions). Each issue includes a description and guidance on how to fix it.

What Are the Most Common Sitemap Errors (And How to Fix Them)?

These are the sitemap issues we see most frequently, along with how to resolve each one:

• Missing <lastmod> dates. Without lastmod tags, search engines cannot tell which pages have been recently updated. Add accurate ISO 8601 dates (e.g., 2026-01-15) to every URL entry.
• Invalid URL format. URLs must be fully qualified with a protocol (e.g., https://example.com/page). Relative paths like /page are not valid in sitemaps.
• Exceeding the 50,000-URL limit. A single sitemap file cannot contain more than 50,000 URLs. Split large sitemaps into multiple files and reference them using a sitemap index file.
• Wrong XML namespace. The <urlset> element must declare the correct namespace: xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9". An incorrect or missing namespace causes parsing failures.
• Stale URLs older than six months. Pages with lastmod dates more than six months old signal to search engines that your content may be outdated. Review and update these pages or remove them from your sitemap if they are no longer relevant.
• Mixing HTTP and HTTPS. All URLs in your sitemap should use a consistent protocol. If your site uses HTTPS (and it should), ensure every <loc> entry uses https:// rather than http://.
• Missing sitemap reference in robots.txt. Add a Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml directive to your robots.txt file so search engine crawlers can automatically discover your sitemap.

What's the Maximum URLs Allowed in a Sitemap?

According to the official sitemaps protocol, a single XML sitemap file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50MB in uncompressed size. These limits apply to both regular sitemaps and specialized sitemaps (image sitemaps, video sitemaps, news sitemaps).

If your website has more than 50,000 pages, you need to use a sitemap index file. A sitemap index is an XML file that references multiple individual sitemap files, each containing up to 50,000 URLs. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-15</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-posts.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-01-14</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

Most CMS platforms like WordPress and Shopify automatically generate sitemap index files when your URL count exceeds the limit. Our sitemap checker detects and validates both individual sitemaps and sitemap index files.

Why Is Your Sitemap Not Indexed by Google?

If Google is not indexing your sitemap or the pages listed in it, there are several common causes to investigate:

• Not submitted in Google Search Console. While Google can discover sitemaps through robots.txt or by crawling your site, explicitly submitting your sitemap in Search Console ensures Google knows about it. Go to Indexing > Sitemaps and add your sitemap URL.
• Blocked by robots.txt. If your robots.txt file disallows access to the directory where your sitemap is hosted, Google cannot fetch it. Ensure your sitemap URL is accessible and not blocked by any disallow rules.
• Sitemap contains noindex URLs. If pages listed in your sitemap have a noindex meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header, Google will not index them. This conflict between your sitemap (which signals "please index") and the noindex directive (which signals "do not index") can also cause Google to distrust your sitemap.
• Sitemap URL errors. If your sitemap contains URLs that return 404 errors, redirect chains, or server errors, Google may reduce its trust in your sitemap over time. Run this checker regularly to catch and fix broken URLs.
• Google hasn't recrawled yet. After submitting or updating your sitemap, Google does not process it instantly. It can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks for Google to recrawl and re-index your sitemap, especially for newer or lower-authority sites. Be patient and monitor the status in Search Console.