Free tool
Sitemap validator
Check that your sitemap can be found and read, and that the pages in it load. Enter your site or the sitemap address.
Free, no account. Usually under 10 seconds.
What it checks
A sitemap is the list of pages you want crawlers to find. It only helps when they can reach it, read it and trust it: a sitemap that returns an HTML page, sits behind a robots.txt rule or lists pages that redirect or no longer exist sends crawlers to the wrong places.
The checker fetches your robots.txt and your sitemap, reads every URL in it (and in the first three child sitemaps of an index), and loads ten of the listed pages spread across the file. Each check comes back as pass, check or fail, with the line to change when something is wrong.
Questions
- What does this sitemap validator check?
- It finds your sitemap the way crawlers do (the Sitemap: line in robots.txt, then /sitemap.xml), checks that it answers 200 and is a real sitemap rather than an HTML page, that robots.txt names it and does not block it, that it stays under 50,000 URLs and 50 MB, that every URL is a full address on your site and listed once, that robots.txt allows the listed pages, and that a sample of 10 pages loads without errors or redirects.
- Can I check a sitemap index?
- Yes. If the address is a sitemap index, the checker reads its first three child sitemaps and checks the URLs in them.
- Where should my sitemap be?
- Anywhere on your own site, as long as robots.txt points to it with a line like Sitemap: https://yourproduct.com/sitemap.xml.
- Do I still need to submit it to Google and Bing?
- Submitting it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools tells them about it directly and shows you which listed pages they have added. The result links to both.
- Is there a limit?
- No account is needed. Each connection can run ten checks an hour, and the same address checked again within ten minutes is answered from the last result.