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XML Sitemap Inspector Online: a free sitemap checker

A sitemap checker finds a site's XML sitemaps and tests them for errors. Enter a website or sitemap address and this free tool locates the files, follows sitemap indexes, shows the URLs as a tree and flags problems against the sitemap protocol and SEO best practices. The analysis runs in your browser. The files are fetched through our service.

How do I check and validate an XML sitemap online?

  1. Enter a website or sitemap address

    Type a domain such as example.com, or paste the address of a sitemap. You can also add a page URL to see whether that page is listed.

  2. Let it find and read the sitemaps

    The tool reads robots.txt, the sitemap links on the home page and the usual sitemap locations. It follows sitemap indexes into their child files and opens gzipped ones.

  3. Read the findings

    Browse the URLs as a folder tree, search and filter them, and open the XML with the problem lines marked. Each finding says why it matters and how to fix it. You can export the URLs as CSV, TXT or JSON.

What does the sitemap validator check for?

Every sitemap is checked against the sitemaps.org protocol and against SEO best practices. Errors break the protocol. Warnings are legal but usually unwanted.

Spec errors

Malformed XML, a wrong root element or namespace, missing, invalid or repeated loc values, invalid lastmod dates, unescaped ampersands, and URLs that sit on another host or outside the sitemap's directory.

Best-practice warnings

Duplicate URLs, http and https or www mixes, utm_ tracking parameters, stale sitemaps and future lastmod dates. It also flags fake freshness: sitemaps where nearly every URL has the same lastmod, which usually means the generator stamps today on everything.

Robots.txt verdicts

URLs that robots.txt blocks for Googlebot, shown with the blocking rule and its line number. It also warns when a sitemap is missing from robots.txt.

Hreflang

Invalid language and region codes, sets that leave out the page itself, a missing x-default, and URLs that lack their alternates.

Should I use the Chrome extension instead?

For larger sites, yes. XML Sitemap Inspector for Chrome has higher limits and runs on your machine, so it reads sites straight from your browser and nothing passes through our service. This page is the same checking engine online, for when you don't want to install anything.

Get XML Sitemap Inspector for Chrome

Need help fixing what the checker found? Tell us about it and we'll take a look. Talk to us

Common Questions

Is this sitemap checker free?

Yes. You can use this sitemap checker and tester for free, with no account and no email. Nothing is gated.

How do I find a website's sitemap?

Enter the domain. As a sitemap finder, the tool reads the Sitemap lines in robots.txt, the sitemap links on the home page and the usual sitemap locations, then follows any sitemap index to its child files. If you already know the address, paste it instead.

What happens to the addresses I enter?

Browsers can't read another site's files directly, so we fetch the public files you ask for through our service. We don't store the addresses. The analysis runs in your browser, and the results stay in your browser too, in IndexedDB. Analytics on this page only run if you accept cookies.

What are the limits of the online sitemap checker?

A scan stops at 500 sitemap files or 200 MB fetched, whichever comes first, or after 30 minutes. The page says why it stopped. If the online check is paused, the page says until when. The extension has higher limits.

How is the extension different from the online tool?

Both use the same checking engine. The extension runs on your machine, has higher limits and reads sites straight from your browser, so nothing goes through our service. The online tool needs no install.