--- title: Free Sitemap Validator description: Validate a site's XML sitemap — is it where crawlers look, does it parse, how many URLs does it list, and do the sampled ones actually return 200? Catch a sitemap that points at redirected or deleted pages before Search Console reports them as errors. canonical: https://watchfor.io/sitemap-validator --- [Back to all free tools](/free-tools) # Sitemap Validator Validate a site's XML sitemap — is it where crawlers look, does it parse, how many URLs does it list, and do the sampled ones actually return 200? Catch a sitemap that points at redirected or deleted pages before Search Console reports them as errors. Result No result yet Enter the inputs above and press Run. Results appear here in a moment. Monitor this 24/7 — get alerts on the first failure. [Start free](/auth/sign-up) Only run these tools against systems you own or are authorized to test. Using them to scan or probe systems without permission violates our [Terms](/legal/terms). ## What is Sitemap Validator ? An XML sitemap tells search engines which URLs exist and when they changed. It only helps if it's valid: at the location crawlers look, well-formed XML in the sitemap protocol's schema, listing URLs that actually return 200 on the same host. A sitemap that's missing, malformed, or full of redirected and deleted pages is worse than none — Search Console reports errors, crawl budget is spent on dead ends, and the pages you wanted indexed wait. This validator finds a site's sitemap (from robots.txt and the standard locations), parses it — including sitemap index files that point at child sitemaps — counts the URLs, and fetches a sample to check they respond. It reports the total, the format problems, and the URLs that don't return 200 , so you can fix the generator rather than wait for Google to tell you. ## How it works Validation follows what a crawler does, in order: - 1 Locate — robots.txt is read for Sitemap: lines; failing that, /sitemap.xml , /sitemap_index.xml and the common variants are tried. A sitemap only Search Console knows about is invisible to every other crawler. - 2 Parse — The file must be UTF-8 XML in the sitemaps.org namespace, a of entries or a of entries, under 50 MB and 50,000 URLs each. Index files are followed one level down. - 3 Sample and fetch — A sample of listed URLs is requested from the probe. Anything not 200 — redirects, 404 , 500 — is reported with its status, because a sitemap should list final canonical URLs only. A sitemap is a hint, not a command: valid entries get crawled sooner, invalid ones get ignored, and nothing in it forces indexing. ## When you'd use it ### After a site migration New URL structure, old sitemap. Every entry now redirects or 404s. Validate before you submit to Search Console, not after the errors arrive. ### Search Console says "couldn't fetch" or "has errors" Reproduce it here: is the sitemap where robots.txt says, does it parse, is it gzipped with the wrong content type, does it exceed the limits? ### Checking a CMS or plugin's output WordPress, Shopify, Next.js and a hundred plugins generate sitemaps automatically — with drafts, tag pages, paginated archives and noindex pages you never wanted listed. See what's actually in it. ### Before a launch New site, new sitemap, and the staging URLs are still in it. A quick validation catches staging.example.com entries before they're crawled from production. ## Reading the result ### Found at Where the sitemap was discovered. If it's only at a location robots.txt doesn't mention, add a Sitemap: line — Bing and others rely on it. ### URL count Total across the index. Compare with the number of pages you expect indexed; a large gap either way is a generator problem. ### Broken sample URLs that returned something other than 200 . Redirects mean the sitemap lists non-canonical URLs; 404 s mean deleted content still listed; 5xx means those pages are failing for crawlers too. ### Format issues Wrong namespace, invalid XML, lastmod dates in the wrong format, URLs on another host or scheme — each one is a reason for a crawler to discard the entry or the file. ## Check it yourself curl -s https://example.com/sitemap.xml | xmllint --noout - && echo valid XML grep -c '' on the same output counts the URLs; grep -i sitemap robots.txt shows what robots.txt advertises. ## Common pitfalls ### Listing URLs that redirect http:// entries on an HTTPS site, non-www on a www site, trailing-slash mismatches. Each entry costs a crawl and teaches the crawler the sitemap is unreliable. List the final URL. ### Sitemap on a different host A sitemap at cdn.example.com/sitemap.xml may only list URLs on cdn.example.com unless cross-submission is set up in robots.txt . Serve it from the host it describes. ### Stale `lastmod` Every URL with today's date on every generation, or a date from 2019 on pages that change weekly. Crawlers learn to ignore it. Emit the real modification time or omit the field. ## Run Sitemap Validator on every change, not just once. Get alerts the moment something breaks — across HTTP, DNS, SSL, RDAP, ping, blacklist and more. Free forever for 10 monitors. No card. [Start free](/auth/sign-up) ## Frequently asked questions Where should the sitemap be? At the site root ( /sitemap.xml ) and referenced from robots.txt with a Sitemap: line. Other locations work only if robots.txt points to them. What are the sitemap limits? 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites use a sitemap index that points at multiple files, each within the limits. Does a sitemap guarantee indexing? No. It helps discovery and signals which URLs you consider canonical. Indexing still depends on the page being crawlable, not noindex , not a duplicate, and worth indexing. Should I include pages with noindex in the sitemap? No — that's a contradictory signal. The sitemap should list only pages you want indexed, with the canonical URL. Is a compressed sitemap OK? Yes, sitemap.xml.gz is supported, provided it's served with a correct content type and is under the limits when uncompressed. How often should I validate? After every deploy that changes URLs, and continuously if the site changes often — a sitemap monitor re-runs this check on a schedule and alerts when the file breaks or its URLs start failing. ## Related web tools - [Sitemap CheckerFind and validate a site's XML sitemap — total URL count plus a sample crawl for broken (4xx/5xx) links.](/sitemap-checker) - [MCP Server CheckerTest a Model Context Protocol server: initialize handshake, protocol version, capabilities and the full tool inventory.](/mcp-server-checker) - [SSL Certificate CheckInspect certificate validity, expiry, SANs, issuer and chain trust.](/ssl-checker) - [SSL/TLS GradeGrade a server's TLS config A+ to F — protocols, ciphers, forward secrecy, post-quantum, HSTS and certificate, with the exact reasons.](/ssl-grade-checker) --- Canonical page: https://watchfor.io/sitemap-validator · Site guide: https://watchfor.io/llms.txt