← Back to Tools

Sitemap Validator

Enter a domain to validate its XML sitemap against Google standards. Follows sitemap indexes, checks for duplicates, and provides recommendations.

What is an XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important URLs on your website. It acts as a roadmap for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, helping them discover and crawl your pages more efficiently. Sitemaps are especially useful for large websites, new websites with few backlinks, or sites with pages that aren't well linked internally.

The sitemap protocol was originally introduced by Google in 2005 and later adopted as an industry standard by all major search engines. Sitemaps use a standardized XML format defined at sitemaps.org and can include metadata such as when a page was last updated, how often it changes, and its relative priority.

Sitemap Index vs URL Set

There are two types of XML sitemaps. A URL set (<urlset>) is the most common type — it contains a list of individual page URLs along with optional metadata like <lastmod>, <changefreq>, and <priority>.

A sitemap index (<sitemapindex>) is a sitemap that points to other sitemaps. This is useful when your site has more than 50,000 URLs or your sitemap exceeds 50MB — Google's limits for a single sitemap file. The index lets you split your URLs across multiple smaller sitemaps while keeping everything organized under one roof.

Google's Sitemap Requirements

  • Maximum 50,000 URLs per individual sitemap file
  • Maximum 50MB uncompressed file size per sitemap
  • Valid XML — the file must be well-formed XML with proper encoding (UTF-8)
  • Absolute URLs — all <loc> values must be fully qualified, including the protocol
  • Consistent protocol — if your site uses HTTPS, sitemap URLs should too
  • Correct Content-Type — serve sitemaps with application/xml or text/xml
  • No duplicate URLs — each URL should appear only once across all your sitemaps
  • Same-domain URLs only — sitemaps should only reference pages on the same host

What This Tool Checks

Our sitemap validator performs a comprehensive analysis of your sitemap against Google's guidelines. It fetches your sitemap in real-time and checks for:

  • XML validity — ensures your sitemap is well-formed and parseable
  • Content-Type headers — verifies the correct MIME type is served
  • Sitemap index traversal — automatically follows and validates every sitemap in an index
  • Duplicate detection — finds URLs that appear more than once across all sitemaps
  • URL validation — checks for absolute URLs, correct protocols, and same-domain references
  • Size and count limits — flags sitemaps exceeding Google's 50,000 URL or 50MB limits
  • Date format validation — ensures <lastmod> dates use the W3C datetime format
  • robots.txt integration — checks if your sitemap is properly referenced in robots.txt

You'll receive a score out of 100 along with specific, actionable recommendations for every issue found.

How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google

There are three ways to let Google know about your sitemap:

  1. Google Search Console — the recommended method. Go to Sitemaps in the left menu, enter your sitemap URL, and click Submit.
  2. robots.txt — add a Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml directive to your robots.txt file. This is the simplest passive approach and works for all search engines.
  3. Ping API — send a GET request to https://www.google.com/ping?sitemap=URL to notify Google of updates.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does every website need a sitemap?

Not necessarily. Small websites with good internal linking may not need one. However, sitemaps are strongly recommended for sites with 500+ pages, sites with lots of media content, new sites with few external links, and sites that use JavaScript rendering.

Does Google use changefreq and priority?

Google has publicly stated that it ignores <changefreq> and <priority> values. However, <lastmod> is still used — as long as it's accurate. Other search engines like Bing may still consider these fields.

How often should I update my sitemap?

Your sitemap should be regenerated whenever you add, remove, or significantly update pages. Most CMS platforms and SEO plugins handle this automatically. The <lastmod> dates should reflect actual content changes — don't set them all to today's date, as Google may stop trusting them.

Should I include all pages in my sitemap?

Only include pages you want search engines to index. Don't add pages blocked by robots.txt, pages with a noindex meta tag, redirect URLs, or error pages. Including non-indexable URLs wastes your crawl budget.