Sitemap validator
A sitemap validator confirms that a sitemap is reachable, that its XML parses, and how many URLs it lists. A sitemap fails quietly: it keeps returning a file long after the file stopped being useful.
Defaults to /sitemap.xml. Give a full path to check a different file. Rate limited to 10 checks an hour per IP.
Illustrative result for a reserved example domain. Your check replaces it.
Sitemap found
428 URLs listed, and the XML parses cleanly.
- Path
- /sitemap.xml
- HTTP status
- 200
- URLs listed
- 428
- Valid XML
- yes
What this check means
- XML sitemap
- An XML sitemap is a file listing the URLs on a site that its owner wants crawlers to find.
- Sitemap index
- A sitemap index is a file that lists other sitemap files, used when a site has more URLs than one file may hold.
- Malformed XML
- Malformed XML is a document a parser cannot finish reading, so every entry after the error is ignored.
How to read the result
- Verdict
- A non-200 status or unparseable XML is critical, because crawlers get nothing from the file. A missing or empty sitemap is marked for review, since it is a lost opportunity rather than a block.
- URLs listed
- This counts the entries the parser read. A number far below what you expect usually means the XML broke partway down.
- Valid XML
- This reports whether the document parsed end to end. It does not check that each listed URL returns 200.
Common causes
- An unescaped ampersand or angle bracket in a URL breaks the XML partway down the file.
- A generation job failed and left the previous file in place, so the sitemap is stale rather than absent.
- The sitemap moved during a migration and robots.txt still points at the old path.
- A CDN or firewall serves the sitemap as HTML, or blocks it entirely, while the origin serves it fine.
- The file lists staging or noindexed URLs after an environment variable was wrong at build time.
Does a broken sitemap remove pages from Google?
No. A sitemap suggests URLs to crawl; it does not control indexing. A broken one slows discovery of new and changed pages, which matters most on large sites and right after a migration.
Why does one XML error hide the rest of the file?
XML parsers stop at the first error rather than skipping it. Every URL after the broken element goes unread, so a single unescaped ampersand partway down can hide most of the file.
Does the sitemap need to be at /sitemap.xml?
No. It can live at any path, as long as you point crawlers at it with a Sitemap line in robots.txt or by submitting it in Search Console. This tool defaults to /sitemap.xml and accepts a full path.
Should a sitemap list every URL on the site?
It should list the URLs you want crawled: canonical, indexable, 200-returning pages. Including redirects, noindexed pages or 404s wastes crawl budget and sends conflicting signals.
What is the size limit for one sitemap file?
The specification caps a single file at 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed. Larger sites split across several files and list them in a sitemap index.