Sitemap Test
The Sitemap Checker fetches your XML sitemap, validates its structure against the sitemaps.org schema, counts the URLs it lists, checks <lastmod> freshness, verifies it is declared in robots.txt, and warns if it exceeds the 50 MB / 50,000 URL limit per file. A valid sitemap is the fastest way to get new URLs discovered by Google — without one, Google relies on internal linking and external backlinks to find your pages, which is far slower and incomplete.
What This Tool Checks
- Sitemap presence at /sitemap.xml (or declared location)
- Valid XML syntax and sitemaps.org namespace
- URL count and per-file size (50,000 / 50 MB cap)
- <lastmod>, <changefreq>, <priority> present and reasonable
- Sitemap index file (when using multiple sitemaps)
- Declared in robots.txt with absolute URL
- All URLs return 200 status (no 4xx / 5xx in the sitemap)
Why It Matters for SEO
Sitemaps are how Google reliably discovers every important URL on your site, especially deep pages with weak internal linking and brand-new pages with no inbound links. Without an accurate, up-to-date sitemap, new content can take weeks to be discovered and crawl budget gets spent on stale or duplicate URLs instead of priorities. Sitemaps also feed the URL Inspection and Indexing reports in Google Search Console, which you rely on for diagnostics.
How to Fix It
Generate the sitemap from your CMS so it stays in sync with published URLs. Declare it in robots.txt with an absolute URL. Keep it under 50,000 URLs / 50 MB per file (use a sitemap index if larger). Update <lastmod> only when the underlying content actually changes. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console and re-check weekly for errors.
How It Works
We resolve your sitemap, parse it, then walk every <url><loc> entry to spot-check status codes, redirect chains and duplicates. If the file is a sitemap index, we recurse into each child sitemap. The report flags broken URLs, expired lastmod values older than 12 months, and any URL listed that returns a noindex tag.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Sitemap exists but is not declared in robots.txt
- Sitemap lists URLs that return 404 or redirect to other URLs
- lastmod values that never change or are set to today on every URL
- Including noindex URLs (Google then treats the sitemap signal as conflicting)
- Single sitemap exceeding 50,000 URLs without using a sitemap index
Quick Checklist
- Sitemap exists and returns HTTP 200
- Declared in robots.txt with an absolute URL
- Submitted in Google Search Console
- No 4xx / 5xx URLs inside the sitemap
- <lastmod> dates change when content changes