Free XML Sitemap Checker
A valid XML sitemap helps Google, Bing, and AI crawlers discover your important pages faster. Enter your URL and we locate sitemap.xml, validate every entry, and flag errors, redirects, and noindex URLs that waste your crawl budget.
Website URL to analyze
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Generated file
Recommended actions
Prioritised fixes — highest discoverability impact first
A valid XML sitemap helps Google, Bing, and AI crawlers discover your important pages faster. Enter your URL and we locate sitemap.xml, validate every entry, and flag errors, redirects, and noindex URLs that waste your crawl budget.
Validate that search engines and AI systems can find your XML sitemap — the primary machine-readable list of URLs you want discovered.
In your free report
- Sitemap URL from robots.txt Sitemap: directive
- Fallback checks for /sitemap.xml and common CMS paths
- HTTP status, content-type, and XML parse validity
- URL count and sample entries in the sitemap index
Recommendations from official docs
Link sitemap in robots.txt
Google recommends declaring Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml in robots.txt. Also submit the same URL in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Include only canonical, indexable URLs
Exclude noindex pages, redirects, 404s, parameterized duplicates, and paginated filter URLs. A clean sitemap speeds crawl budget and discovery.
Use sitemap index for large sites
Sites with 50,000+ URLs or multiple content types should split into a sitemap index with child sitemaps (pages, posts, products) each under 50MB uncompressed.
Keep lastmod accurate
Update lastmod when content materially changes. Google uses it as a hint, not a ranking signal — false daily lastmod updates reduce trust.
Common XML sitemap errors to fix
The most frequent issues an XML sitemap checker surfaces: URLs that 404 or redirect, pages blocked by robots.txt, non-canonical or noindex URLs listed, http vs https mismatches, and namespace or encoding errors that stop the file parsing. Each one wastes crawl budget and slows discovery in both Google and AI crawlers.
Compress and serve sitemaps correctly
Serve sitemap.xml with content-type application/xml (or text/xml) and HTTP 200. Gzip is supported for large files. Reference the sitemap by its absolute https URL and keep it inside the same domain it lists so Search Console accepts it.
Step-by-step action plan
- 1 Confirm https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml returns HTTP 200 with valid XML.
- 2 Add Sitemap: line to robots.txt pointing to your primary sitemap or sitemap index.
- 3 Remove blocked, redirected, and noindex URLs from the sitemap file.
- 4 Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console → Sitemaps.
- 5 Re-check after CMS migrations or URL structure changes.
Need help fixing AI SEO issues?
Optimize your website for AI SEO, ChatGPT Search, Google AI Overviews, GPTBot, llms.txt, robots.txt, schema, and crawlability.
Questions about this tool
What does the sitemap checker validate?
We locate your XML sitemap via robots.txt and the default /sitemap.xml path, fetch and parse the file, count all listed URLs, and flag common issues including parse errors, redirected URLs, noindex pages, and missing sitemap references in robots.txt.
How do I validate my XML sitemap online?
Enter your website URL above and click Check Sitemap. We automatically find and fetch your sitemap.xml, validate it as well-formed XML, and report any errors. No upload needed — we read it directly from your live site.
Where should my sitemap be declared?
Add a Sitemap: directive in your robots.txt file, for example: Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Also submit the URL directly in Google Search Console under Sitemaps so Google can track crawl status.
What is the difference between a sitemap checker and a sitemap validator?
A sitemap validator checks whether the XML file is syntactically correct. A sitemap checker goes further — it also verifies that listed URLs are reachable, canonical, and indexable, and that the sitemap is properly declared in robots.txt. This tool does both.
Why are noindex pages in my sitemap a problem?
Noindex pages in a sitemap send conflicting signals to Google — the sitemap says 'crawl this' but the page says 'don't index this.' Google may still waste crawl budget on those URLs. Remove them from your sitemap and keep only canonical, indexable pages.
How do I check my sitemap on Google?
Go to Google Search Console → Sitemaps, enter your sitemap URL, and click Submit. Google will show how many URLs were discovered and whether any errors were found. You can also use this free checker to catch issues before Google sees them.