XML Sitemap Checker

A sitemap checker confirms that search engines can find your XML sitemap and that the pages it lists actually work. Our tool starts with your robots.txt, reads any Sitemap: lines, and falls back to the usual locations if none are declared. It follows sitemap indexes into up to three child sitemaps, counts the URLs for your domain, flags any http:// addresses and tests the first 20 URLs to see whether they load or return errors.

How to use the Sitemap checker

1. 1 Enter your domainType your domain, such as example.co.uk. We check the https version of the site, starting with its robots.txt file.
2. 2 Let us find the sitemapIf robots.txt names a sitemap we use it. If not, we try /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml, /wp-sitemap.xml and /sitemap-index.xml in turn.
3. 3 Review the discovery resultsYou will see whether robots.txt exists, whether it lists a sitemap, and which sitemap files we found and read, including child sitemaps from an index.
4. 4 Check the URL count and sampleWe show how many URLs the sitemap files list for your domain, warn about any http:// URLs, and list the status code of each of the first 20 URLs.
5. 5 Fix and resubmitCorrect the sitemap or its generator, run the sitemap checker again, then resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

What an XML sitemap is

An XML sitemap is a file that lists the URLs on your site you want search engines to crawl and index. Each entry sits inside a url element with a loc tag holding the full address, and can optionally include lastmod, the date the page last changed in a meaningful way.

Large sites split their URLs across several files and tie them together with a sitemap index, a file that lists other sitemaps rather than pages. WordPress, Shopify and most other platforms generate one automatically, which is why addresses such as /wp-sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml are so common.

A sitemap does not guarantee indexing. It is a list of suggestions that helps search engines discover pages, especially new ones and pages that have few internal links pointing to them.

Why sitemap health matters for crawling and indexing

Search engines treat your sitemap as a statement of which pages you consider important. If it lists pages that return 404 errors, redirect elsewhere or are blocked, you are sending mixed messages, and search engines may trust the file less. Every broken or redirecting entry is also a wasted request when crawlers work through the list.

A sitemap that cannot be found at all is a missed opportunity. Without it, search engines rely entirely on following links, so pages buried deep in the site or new pages with no links yet can take much longer to be discovered. Listing the sitemap in robots.txt means every crawler that reads robots.txt, not just the ones you submit to, can find it.

Running an XML sitemap checker after changes such as a redesign, a new plugin or a platform move is one of the quickest ways to catch these problems before they show up as indexing drops in Search Console.

How to read the sitemap checker results

Each part of the report answers a specific question about your sitemap setup.

• robots.txt found: whether https://yourdomain/robots.txt exists. A warning means it is missing, which is allowed but means crawlers have no Sitemap: line to read.
• Sitemap listed in robots.txt: whether robots.txt contains at least one Sitemap: line, with the URLs it names.
• Sitemap found: the sitemap files we fetched. If robots.txt names sitemaps we use those; otherwise we try the four common locations. A failure means none could be loaded.
• URLs in sitemap: the number of unique URLs on your domain listed across the files we read. For sitemap indexes, we follow up to three child sitemaps, so very large sites will show only part of the total.
• HTTP URLs in sitemap: how many listed addresses start with http:// instead of https://.
• Sampled URLs: the status code for each of the first 20 URLs. Any URL that returns a 4xx or 5xx error, or does not respond, is counted as an error.

Sitemap protocol limits and rules

The sitemaps protocol sets a limit of 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per sitemap file. If you go over either limit, split the URLs into several sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index; an index can itself list up to 50,000 sitemaps. Sitemaps may be served gzip-compressed, and our checker reads compressed files as well as plain XML.

Every URL must be absolute, including the protocol and hostname, and should use the same host as the sitemap. The file must be UTF-8 encoded, and special characters such as ampersands in a URL must be entity-escaped. Google ignores the priority and changefreq tags, so there is no benefit in tuning them; an accurate lastmod value is the only optional tag worth maintaining.

Where the sitemap lives also matters. A sitemap can only list URLs at or below its own folder on the same host, so /blog/sitemap.xml should not list pages in /shop/. Placing the sitemap or sitemap index at the root of the domain avoids this restriction entirely.

How to fix common sitemap problems

Most sitemap problems are fixed in the tool that generates the file rather than by editing XML by hand. Work through these steps, re-running the sitemap validator after each change.

• No sitemap found: on WordPress, the built-in /wp-sitemap.xml appears automatically unless a plugin or setting disables it; SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO or Rank Math replace it with /sitemap_index.xml. Shopify publishes /sitemap.xml automatically. On a custom site, generate one from your CMS or build script.
• Not listed in robots.txt: add a line such as Sitemap: https://www.example.co.uk/sitemap.xml anywhere in the file. You can list more than one.
• HTTP URLs: update the site address in your CMS to https so the generator outputs secure URLs. On WordPress, check both URLs under Settings, General.
• URLs returning errors: remove deleted pages from the sitemap, or restore them. Plugins usually drop pages once they are deleted or set to noindex, so stale entries often point to caching; clear any page cache or Cloudflare cache rule that is serving an old copy of the sitemap.
• Sitemap blocked or failing: make sure robots.txt does not disallow the sitemap URL and that any firewall or bot protection allows search engines to fetch it.
• After fixing, resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

XML sitemap best practice

List only URLs you want indexed: live pages returning 200, using your preferred https and www or non-www version, and matching each page's canonical tag. Leave out redirects, noindex pages, duplicates, filtered or sorted product listings, internal search results and login pages.

Keep lastmod honest. Set it when the content genuinely changes, not every time the sitemap regenerates, otherwise search engines learn to ignore it. Split large sites into logical sitemaps, for example pages, posts and products, so it is easier to see in Search Console which section has indexing problems.

Use the sitemap alongside Search Console rather than instead of it. The Sitemaps report shows when Google last read each file and how many URLs it discovered, and the Pages report explains why listed URLs were not indexed. Comparing those figures with the URL count from this tool quickly shows whether Google is reading the same sitemap you think you are publishing, and whether a sudden fall in discovered URLs points to a generator or caching problem.

Check the sitemap whenever you change platform, install or remove an SEO plugin, or restructure URLs, because that is when sitemaps most often break or start listing the wrong addresses.

Examples you can copy

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.co.uk/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-09-30</lastmod>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.co.uk/services/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-08-14</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://www.example.co.uk/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://www.example.co.uk/sitemap-posts.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://www.example.co.uk/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

User-agent: *
Disallow: /checkout/
Disallow: /account/

Sitemap: https://www.example.co.uk/sitemap_index.xml

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions