Validate your XML sitemap. Find it, parse it, count URLs, detect sitemap indexes, and flag suspicious or broken sub-sitemaps.
Sitemaps are the highest-leverage discoverability tool on the web. A clean sitemap can get new pages indexed within hours; a broken or missing one can leave them undiscovered for months. This checker auto-detects every sitemap your domain exposes — by trying the standard paths, parsing your robots.txt, and following sitemap-index references — then validates the XML and counts URLs.
## Where Google looks for your sitemap
1. The URL declared in `robots.txt` via `Sitemap:` directive — this is the canonical signal 2. Standard paths: `/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml`, `/sitemap-index.xml`, `/wp-sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap-1.xml` 3. URLs submitted manually in Google Search Console
If your sitemap is anywhere else and not declared in robots.txt or Search Console, Google won't find it.
## Sitemap index vs single sitemap
A single sitemap file has hard limits: 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed. Above either limit, you need a sitemap index — a parent XML file that references child sitemaps. Most large CMSes (WordPress, Shopify, Webflow) auto-generate sitemap indexes; if you're hand-rolling sitemaps, switch to an index as soon as you exceed 10k URLs.
## Why suspicious patterns matter
We flag sitemaps that: - Live on a different domain (someone else's sitemap injected via robots.txt — possible defacement) - Are dynamically generated with unusual structure (could be a misconfigured plugin) - Are abnormally large or small for the listed URL count
These aren't always wrong, but they're worth investigating. The most common case is a CMS plugin generating malformed sitemaps that Google quietly ignores.
## lastmod — the underused signal
Every `<url>` entry can include `<lastmod>2026-06-06</lastmod>` to tell Google when the URL last changed. Google uses this to prioritise re-crawling, and accurate lastmod values are one of the strongest signals you can send. Fake/stale lastmod values (e.g. "now" for every URL on every fetch) train Google to ignore yours entirely.
## What to do after fixing
1. Add the sitemap URL to robots.txt 2. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console (Sitemaps section) 3. Wait 24–48 hours and check Coverage > Indexed; you should see new URLs appearing 4. Set a calendar reminder to re-run this check after any major site change
A working sitemap is how Google discovers new and updated content fast. A broken or missing sitemap means new pages can take weeks to index instead of hours. Sitemap errors are also a top reason for Search Console coverage warnings.
We probe 8+ common sitemap paths at your domain, fetch each one with a 10-second timeout, and parse the XML to determine whether it's a sitemap or a sitemap index. We also fetch your robots.txt and follow every `Sitemap:` directive declared there. For each sitemap discovered we capture the HTTP status, file size, URL count, and any suspicious indicators (external host, dynamic suffix, unusual structure). Sitemap indexes are recursively expanded so we can give you a full picture of your sitemap topology. The final response includes a ranked, deduplicated list of your "canonical" sitemaps — the ones Google is most likely to use.
Enter the domain above and the tool probes the standard locations — /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml — and reads robots.txt for any declared Sitemap: line, which is where most sites point crawlers at a non-standard path.
The checker parses the XML, confirms the urlset or sitemapindex structure, and reports malformed entries, non-absolute URLs, entries over the 50,000-URL limit and files above the 50 MB uncompressed cap.
Yes — even for 10-page sites a sitemap accelerates indexing of new pages. There's no downside and it takes 5 minutes to set up.
Single file under 10k URLs, sitemap.xml. Above 10k URLs (or you're close to growing past it), use a sitemap index that references multiple child sitemaps.
50,000 is Google's hard cap per file. Above it, the file is rejected entirely. Split into multiple sitemaps under an index file before you reach 45k to be safe.
Yes — robots.txt allows crawling, but a sitemap accelerates discovery. They serve different purposes.
Whenever URLs change. Most CMSes regenerate the sitemap automatically on publish. For hand-rolled sitemaps, regenerate at least daily and on every publish event.
Enter the domain above and the tool probes the standard locations — /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml — and reads robots.txt for any declared Sitemap: line, which is where most sites point crawlers at a non-standard path.
The checker parses the XML, confirms the urlset or sitemapindex structure, and reports malformed entries, non-absolute URLs, entries over the 50,000-URL limit and files above the 50 MB uncompressed cap.