— Free SEO tool

XML sitemap checker

A sitemap should list the pages you want in Google and nothing else. This checks it’s readable and that the pages in it are live and indexable.

Free tool · Sitemap checker

Find and check your XML sitemap

Put in your site’s address. The checker finds the sitemap (from robots.txt or the usual addresses), validates it, and spot-checks the first 25 pages it lists.

01 How it works

What it checks

Can it be found and read?

The checker looks for a Sitemap: line in robots.txt, then the usual addresses. It checks the file is valid XML and follows sitemap index files to the lists inside.

Does it match the site?

URLs on a different domain or protocol (http instead of https, or missing www) are flagged. Sitemap URLs should match the live site exactly.

Are the listed pages worth listing?

The first 25 pages are fetched. Errors, redirects, noindex tags, pages blocked by robots.txt and canonicals pointing elsewhere all mean a page shouldn’t be in the sitemap as it stands.

Sources: Google: Build and submit a sitemap · Google: How Google interprets robots.txt

02 Questions

What people ask

Do I need a sitemap?

Google says small, well-linked sites may not need one, but most sites benefit, especially new ones, large ones and ones with pages that few links point to.

How many URLs can a sitemap hold?

Up to 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed per file. Bigger sites split them and list the files in a sitemap index.

Do priority and changefreq matter?

Not to Google: it ignores both. It does use lastmod when the dates are consistently accurate.

03 More free tools

robots.txt checkerRead the rules, spot what’s blocked, and test any page against them.Noindex checkerPages telling Google not to index them, in the HTML or the headers.Canonical checkerMissing, doubled-up or misdirected canonical tags.

All free SEO tools →

— Next step

Start with a free SEO audit

Send me your site and you’ll get a short, honest read on what’s wrong. If you want the detail after that, the full audit is a paid piece of work, or part of a retainer.

Get the free audit Usually a reply within a working day.

01The main things holding your site back, in plain English
02Which of them are worth fixing first
03Whether a full audit or a retainer makes sense, or neither