XML Sitemap Validator
Check that a sitemap URL is valid XML, see how many URLs it lists, and whether lastmod dates are present.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the XML Sitemap Validator really free?
Yes — unlimited use, no signup, no credit card. We built these tools to help you audit sites without paying for a data subscription.
Does this tool store or share the URLs I check?
No. Each check runs live and we don't save your input. We keep a short-lived rate-limit counter (by IP) purely to prevent abuse; it is not linked to your results.
How accurate are the results?
This tool reads live, public data directly from the page or domain you enter — it does not rely on a paid third-party database, so it reflects exactly what is publicly visible right now.
An XML sitemap is a structured list of URLs you want search engines to know about, along with hints like when each page was last modified. It doesn't force Google to index anything, but it makes discovery faster and more reliable, especially for large sites or pages with few internal links pointing to them. This tool fetches a sitemap URL, confirms it's valid XML, and reports how many URLs it lists.
How to Use This Tool
Paste the direct URL to a sitemap file (commonly /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml, or a custom path) and click Validate Sitemap.
What This Tool Checks
Whether the URL returns valid, parseable XML; whether it's a sitemap index (a list of other sitemaps) or a direct urlset (a list of pages); the total count of URLs or sub-sitemaps listed; and what percentage of entries include a <lastmod> date.
Understanding Your Results
A parse error usually means the sitemap has malformed XML — often a stray unescaped character (like a raw "&" instead of "&") in a URL. A low lastmod percentage isn't necessarily a problem for static content, but for frequently-updated pages, lastmod dates help crawlers prioritize what to re-check.
How to Fix Common Problems
Most WordPress SEO plugins (Yoast, RankMath, or WordPress's own core sitemaps) generate and maintain this automatically — a parse error on a plugin-generated sitemap almost always means a caching or server configuration issue rather than the plugin itself. If you hand-build your sitemap, run it through an XML validator and check for unescaped special characters.
SEO Best Practices
Submit your sitemap URL in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools so you get direct reporting on which submitted URLs are actually indexed. Keep sitemaps under the standard limits (50,000 URLs / 50MB uncompressed per file) — use a sitemap index with multiple child sitemaps for larger sites.
Example
A sitemap listing 3,000 URLs with lastmod dates on only 5% of them suggests the sitemap generator isn't tracking content updates properly — worth checking whether your CMS or plugin is configured correctly.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Don't list URLs in your sitemap that redirect, 404, or are noindexed — a sitemap full of dead or blocked URLs wastes crawl budget and can make Google trust the sitemap less. Don't forget to update robots.txt with the sitemap location after moving it.
Related SEO Guides
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