XML Sitemap Checker
Find and validate an XML sitemap, count its URLs and test a sample for errors.
About the XML Sitemap Checker
An XML sitemap is a list of the URLs on your site that you want search engines to find. It is especially useful for large sites, new sites with few backlinks and pages that are not well linked internally. Sitemaps can also carry lastmod dates that tell search engines when a page last changed.
This checker locates your sitemap (from robots.txt or the usual locations), validates the format, counts the URLs and tests a sample to make sure they return 200 OK without redirects – a sitemap full of redirects or 404s wastes crawl budget and erodes trust in it. For sitemap index files, it opens each child sitemap and counts its URLs.
Frequently asked questions
How big can a sitemap be?
Each sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites use a sitemap index that lists several sitemap files.
Should every page be in my sitemap?
Only canonical, indexable pages that return 200. Leave out redirects, noindex pages, duplicates and parameter variations.
Do priority and changefreq matter?
Google ignores priority and changefreq. An accurate lastmod value is the only optional field it uses.