Free SEO tool

XML sitemap checker

Enter your website or sitemap address. We find the sitemap (robots.txt first, then the usual locations), validate it and test a sample of the pages it lists.

Free, no sign-up. We fetch public pages only and store nothing.

What this checks

  • Where your sitemap is, and whether robots.txt points to it
  • Valid sitemap XML, including sitemap indexes and .gz files
  • The URL count against the 50,000 limit
  • lastmod coverage, format and future dates
  • Other hosts, http:// URLs and duplicates
  • A live test of five listed pages for errors, redirects and noindex

Your list of what should be in Google

A sitemap tells search engines which pages exist and when they changed. Google uses it to find new pages faster and to decide what to recrawl.

A messy sitemap wastes crawls

Listing redirects, broken pages or noindex pages sends mixed signals, and inaccurate lastmod dates teach Google to ignore them. The sample test shows whether what you list is what you want indexed.

Questions

Where should my sitemap be?

Usually at /sitemap.xml, with a Sitemap: line in robots.txt pointing to it. Most platforms (WordPress with an SEO plugin, Shopify, Wix, Squarespace) generate one for you.

How many URLs can a sitemap hold?

Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites split their pages across several sitemaps listed in a sitemap index.

Does lastmod matter?

Google uses lastmod when it is consistently accurate, to decide which pages to recrawl first. Set it to when the content really changed, not to today's date on every page.

Should every page be in the sitemap?

Only pages you want indexed: live, canonical pages that return a 200. Leave out redirects, errors, noindex pages and duplicates.

How do I submit my sitemap to Google?

In Google Search Console, under Sitemaps. Once Search Console is connected to Ergora, the SEO specialist can inspect any page you list to see whether Google indexed it.

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