Sitemap Checker

The Sitemap Checker fetches and parses an XML sitemap or sitemap index file from any URL, then breaks it down into a structured, readable list of the URLs it contains. It understands the standard sitemaps.org protocol, including the optional lastmod, changefreq, and priority elements, as well as sitemap index files that point to multiple child sitemaps. This lets you confirm at a glance that the file search engines rely on for crawling is well-formed and contains the pages you expect.

Under the hood, the tool retrieves the file and validates its structure against the XML sitemap schema, distinguishing between a urlset (a list of page URLs) and a sitemapindex (a list of nested sitemaps). It reports the total URL count, surfaces malformed entries, and flags common problems like exceeding the 50,000-URL or 50MB-uncompressed limits per file that Google and Bing enforce. Because sitemaps are often generated automatically by a CMS or framework, silent breakage is easy to miss without a parser like this.

Common use cases include verifying a freshly deployed sitemap before submitting it in Google Search Console, auditing whether stale or noindex pages are still being advertised to crawlers, and confirming that a sitemap index correctly references all of its child files. SEO teams also use it after a site migration to make sure redirected or removed URLs are no longer listed. Pair it with the Sitemap Checker after every major content change so the discovery layer stays accurate.

A practical tip: a sitemap should only list canonical, indexable URLs that return 200 status codes, so cross-check entries against your Link Checker and robots.txt rules. Keep lastmod values honest because search engines learn to distrust sitemaps that report fresh dates on unchanged pages. If your site is large, split URLs across multiple sitemaps and reference them from a single index file rather than packing everything into one oversized document.