Sitemap Validator

Validate XML sitemaps for errors, SEO best practices, and Google compliance.

Professional sitemap validation with clear checks, human explanations, and SEO best‑practice guidance.

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Need More Features?

Advanced validation features are coming soon to help you monitor and fix sitemap issues faster:

  • Scheduled validation and monitoring alerts
  • Auto‑fix suggestions for common errors
  • Bulk validation for multiple sites
  • History and audit reports for teams

Join early or stay tuned for updates. Last updated: January 14, 2026

What is a sitemap validator?

A sitemap validator checks your sitemap XML for structural issues, protocol violations, and SEO best‑practice gaps so search engines can crawl and index your site reliably.

Why validate your sitemap?

  • Catch XML errors before Google does.
  • Ensure URLs are valid, absolute, and crawlable.
  • Improve SEO by following sitemap best practices.
  • Reduce wasted crawl budget on broken or duplicate URLs.

How to use this validator

  1. Paste your sitemap.xml or sitemap index URL.
  2. Click “Validate Sitemap”.
  3. Review the checklist and apply fixes.
  4. Re‑run until all checks are green.

Common errors and fixes

  • Invalid XML: Ensure tags are closed and the root element is correct (urlset or sitemapindex).
  • Bad URLs: Use absolute URLs and remove invalid characters.
  • Too large: Split large sitemaps into multiple files.
  • Missing lastmod: Add lastmod where possible for better crawl signals.

Frequently Asked Questions

It checks XML validity, sitemap protocol rules, and SEO best practices like valid <loc> URLs and recommended tags.

Yes. If your sitemap is an index, the validator inspects child sitemaps and reports issues per index rules.

No. To keep it fast and low-cost, it validates the sitemap structure and samples a limited number of URLs for checks like HTTP status.

If the server allows it, we attempt to decompress .gz sitemaps. Otherwise, provide an uncompressed sitemap.xml.

Warnings flag best-practice issues that may reduce SEO effectiveness but don’t invalidate the sitemap.

Yes. We check the 50,000 URL limit and 50MB uncompressed size guideline and surface warnings or errors accordingly.

No. It’s a fast pre-check. You should still submit your sitemap in Search Console for official feedback.