Sitemap Validator
Check that your XML sitemap is valid, fetchable, and useful for search engines. Paste XML or load a public sitemap URL.
Validate From URL
Enter a public sitemap or sitemap index URL. `.xml` and `.xml.gz` URLs are supported.
Paste Sitemap XML
Paste uncompressed XML from a urlset or sitemapindex file. Parsing runs locally in your browser.
Nothing is uploaded when you use paste mode.
Options
Verdict
Files
URLs
Errors
Warnings
Final URL: · HTTP
No errors or warnings found.
loc:
file:
| loc | lastmod | file |
|---|---|---|
No page URLs found. This may be a sitemap index with only child sitemap locs.
- Type:
- HTTP status:
- Content-Type:
- Decompressed from gzip ( → )
- Size:
- Namespaces:
What does a sitemap actually do?
An XML sitemap gives search engines a clear list of the pages you'd like them to discover. It's particularly useful for new sites, larger sites, migrations, or pages that aren't linked to very often.
A sitemap can help search engines find your content, but it doesn't guarantee that a page will be indexed or rank in search results.
Sitemap or sitemap index?
A regular sitemap, usually a urlset, contains the URLs of your pages directly. A sitemap index works a little differently: it contains links to other sitemap files instead.
Sitemap indexes are useful for larger sites, where you might have separate sitemaps for pages, products, images, news content, or different languages.
What the validator checks
- Validate a sitemap or sitemap index from a public URL, or paste the XML directly.
- Spot invalid XML, missing URLs, duplicates, and empty sitemap files.
- Follow sitemap indexes and check up to 20 child sitemaps automatically.
- Check XML structure, URL entries, lastmod values, and sitemap protocol limits.
- Open and validate gzipped `.xml.gz` sitemaps when using a URL.
- Copy the results as Markdown for sharing in tickets, Slack, or anywhere else.
Common sitemap problems
Sitemap issues are often surprisingly small: a child sitemap stops loading after a deploy, a relative URL slips in instead of a full URL, or an old sitemap carries on listing pages that no longer exist.
The validator helps catch problems like broken sitemap indexes, missing loc values, duplicate URLs, stale child sitemaps, and server errors before they become harder to track down.
What should I do after fixing the errors?
Publish the updated sitemap, run it through the validator again, then submit it to Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
You can also use the robots.txt builder to make sure search engines can find your sitemap, or the structured data generator if you're working on JSON-LD and rich results too.
A few sitemap best practices
- Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console once you've fixed any problems.
- Leave staging pages, admin URLs, and noindex pages out of your sitemap.
- Use full https URLs for every loc entry.
- For larger sites, split URLs across multiple sitemaps and group them with a sitemap index.
- Re-check your sitemap index after major deploys or migrations to catch broken child sitemaps.
- Add your sitemap to robots.txt so search engines can find it easily.
What happens to the data I enter?
If you paste XML into the validator, it's processed locally in your browser. If you enter a sitemap URL, Contismo's server fetches the public sitemap so it can be checked, including gzipped sitemap files.
- XML you paste into the tool is processed in your browser and isn't uploaded.
- When you enter a URL, we only request that sitemap and any child sitemaps it references. We don't visit the page URLs inside it.
- You don't need to sign up or create an account.
Frequently asked questions
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the pages you'd like search engines to discover. It's especially useful for larger sites, new sites, or pages that aren't linked to very often. It can help with discovery, but it doesn't guarantee that a page will be indexed or rank in search results.
A regular sitemap, or urlset, lists page URLs directly. A sitemap index points to other sitemap files instead. This is useful when a site has separate sitemaps for things like pages, products, images, news, or different languages.
A sitemap helps Google discover a URL, but Google still decides whether to crawl and index it. Common reasons a page may not appear include noindex directives, robots.txt rules, duplicate or low-value content, crawl issues, or URLs returning errors.
Usually not. Your sitemap should contain public, indexable URLs that you want search engines to discover. Staging sites, admin pages, login pages, and other private or authenticated URLs should normally be left out.
A sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs and must be no larger than 50 MB when uncompressed. If your site is larger than that, split the URLs across multiple sitemap files and list them in a sitemap index.
No. XML you paste into the tool is processed locally in your browser. If you enter a URL, the tool only requests that sitemap and any child sitemaps it needs to validate. Your sitemap isn't saved to a Contismo account.
Not directly. URL mode only works with publicly accessible sitemap URLs. If the sitemap is behind authentication, download the XML and paste it into the validator instead.
Yes. Enter a public `.xml.gz` URL in URL mode and the tool will decompress it before validation. Paste mode expects regular, uncompressed XML.
