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Free XML Sitemap Validator
Free sitemap checker with index support. Validate URLs, detect duplicates & errors. Verify Google compliance.
What is an XML Sitemap?
XML sitemaps help search engines discover and crawl your pages efficiently. A valid sitemap follows specific rules: proper namespace, size limits (max 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed), valid absolute URLs, and W3C datetime format for dates.
Sitemap Validation Checklist
- Valid XML with proper namespace declaration
- All URLs are absolute (start with http:// or https://)
- No duplicate URLs
- lastmod dates in W3C datetime format (YYYY-MM-DD)
- Under 50,000 URLs and 50MB per sitemap
- Sitemap index for large sites
- Referenced in robots.txt
- Submitted to Google Search Console
Common Sitemap Errors
Invalid XML
Missing closing tags, incorrect nesting, or unescaped characters (&, <, >).
Wrong date format
Using formats like "01/15/2024" instead of "2024-01-15".
Relative URLs
Using "/page" instead of "https://example.com/page".
Too large
Over 50,000 URLs or 50MB file size. Use sitemap index for large sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a sitemap validator?
A sitemap validator checks your XML sitemap for compliance with the sitemaps.org protocol. It verifies proper XML structure, absolute URLs, date formats, size limits, and detects duplicate URLs.
How do I check my sitemap for errors?
Enter your sitemap URL above (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml) and click Validate. The tool will fetch and parse your sitemap, showing any errors, warnings, and statistics.
What is changefreq in a sitemap?
changefreq indicates how frequently a page is likely to change. Values include always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and never. It's a hint to search engines, not a directive. Google largely ignores it in favor of actual crawl data.
What is a sitemap index?
A sitemap index is an XML file that lists multiple sitemap files. Use it when your site has more than 50,000 URLs or your sitemap exceeds 50MB. The index file can contain up to 50,000 child sitemaps, allowing up to 2.5 billion URLs total.
How do I validate my sitemap for Google?
Use this validator to check for structural errors, then submit your sitemap in Google Search Console to verify Google can fetch and parse it. Check the coverage report for any URLs Google couldn't index.
Validated one sitemap. HotelSignal monitors your sitemap health and automatically submits updates to search engines.
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