Help / Sitemap validator
Sitemap validator
Finds a site’s XML sitemap (through robots.txt or the usual locations) and checks it the way search engines do: format, size limits, URL problems, dates, and whether a sample of the listed pages actually loads.
How to use it
- Enter a domain to find its sitemap automatically, or paste the sitemap’s own URL.
- Read the checks at the top: red stops search engines from using the sitemap, yellow is worth fixing.
- The spot check loads a sample of the listed URLs; anything that redirects or errors shouldn’t be in the sitemap.
- For a sitemap index, click any child sitemap to check it too.
Reading the results
- Sitemap
- An XML file listing the pages you want search engines to find (<urlset>).
- Sitemap index
- A file listing other sitemaps (<sitemapindex>), used when one file isn’t enough.
- lastmod
- When a page last changed. Accurate dates help crawlers revisit the right pages.
- Limits
- Each sitemap may list up to 50,000 URLs and be up to 50 MB uncompressed.
Examples
- tools.nexayori.com Found through robots.txt
- github.com A sitemap index
From the command line
curl "https://webmaster.nexayori.com/sitemap?q=tools.nexayori.com" curl "https://webmaster.nexayori.com/sitemap?q=tools.nexayori.com&format=json"
| q | Domain or sitemap URL |
| format | text (default for curl), json, or html |
Questions
Do I need a sitemap?
Small, well-linked sites do fine without one. It helps big sites, new sites with few links, and pages that are hard to reach by clicking.
Why does the spot check matter?
Sitemaps full of redirects, errors or noindex pages waste crawl time and make search engines trust the sitemap less.
Where should I put it?
Anywhere on your site; list it in robots.txt with a “Sitemap:” line and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Limitations
- Reads up to 12 MB of the file.
- Spot-checks up to 10 URLs on the sitemap’s own host.
- XML sitemaps only (not RSS feeds or text sitemaps).