XML Sitemap Checker

Check the right file

A sitemap can list pages or other sitemaps. That difference matters when a report contains only a few addresses. A file called sitemap_index.xml might point to separate post, page and product files rather than contain your website’s pages itself.

The report identifies urlset and sitemapindex documents separately. For an index, the extracted addresses are child sitemap files. Open one of those addresses in the checker to inspect its page entries. The tool does not recursively crawl the index.

Read the findings

Start with XML errors. A missing closing tag or an unescaped ampersand can prevent the document from being parsed, even when the addresses look correct. In XML, write a query string as ?colour=green&size=large. The extracted URL should contain the normal ampersand, not the XML escape.

Each entry needs one absolute loc address. A relative path such as /guides/, an empty value or two competing locations needs attention. Image and video extension addresses are not treated as additional page entries; their presence is reported, but their full schemas are not validated.

Review duplicates

A repeated address makes the file harder to maintain. The checker recognizes differences in host capitalization and standard port notation without treating path capitalization or reordered query parameters as equivalent. Those latter differences can matter to a server.

Two different URLs can also show the same content. That is a separate problem this XML check cannot settle. Inspect the intended page with the Canonical Tag Checker before removing an entry. Keep the sitemap aligned with the versions you actually want visitors and search engines to use.

Use real dates

An optional lastmod value should describe a meaningful change to the listed page, not simply the time a plugin rebuilt the sitemap. A calendar date such as 2026-08-20 is different from an impossible date such as 2026-02-30. Timestamps also need a timezone.

The checker flags invalid and future dates. It cannot verify when your content changed. Before fixing hundreds of values, check which field your publishing system uses. Google explains how it uses accurate last-modified information and which optional fields it ignores in its sitemap guidance.

Check the location

A sitemap stored inside a subdirectory deserves a scope review when it lists pages elsewhere. Mixed hosts, protocols or ports can also reveal an old staging address or an incomplete migration. They are review signals, not automatic proof that a cross-site submission is invalid: verified ownership and submission setup can affect the situation.

When checking pasted XML, supply the file’s intended public location to enable those comparisons. Leaving it blank is fine for a structure check, but the report cannot assess its directory or source-origin scope.

Know what passed

A readable sitemap helps with URL discovery; it does not establish that a page can be crawled, deserves indexing or is already indexed. This checker does not open listed pages, test robots.txt, inspect their canonical tags or access Search Console. Follow up on affected URLs there, using the Sitemaps and Page indexing reports.

The tool accepts UTF-8 XML up to 1 MiB and inspects a bounded number of entries shown in the report. Partial reports are labeled, and exports contain only inspected entries. These are inspection limits, not the sitemap protocol’s larger file and entry allowances. Decompress a .gz file locally before importing it. See the sitemap protocol for the publishing requirements.

Need a new file instead of a diagnosis? Use the XML Sitemap Generator. For a larger audit that compares sitemap entries against a crawl, Screaming Frog’s sitemap audit workflow covers that next step.