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Sitemap Checker – Validate Your XML Sitemap

Validate an XML sitemap or sitemap index, and spot-check the pages listed in it.

About Sitemap Checker

Search engines use your sitemap to find pages, so a broken one quietly slows indexing. Run the sitemap checker after launching a site, after switching CMS or SEO plugin, or when Google Search Console or Baidu Search Resource Platform reports sitemap errors. Enter the sitemap address, or just the site, and the checker looks in robots.txt and at /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml, /sitemap-index.xml and /sitemap.txt. If robots.txt doesn't point to your sitemap yet, the Robots.txt Tester flags the missing Sitemap line.

It reads XML sitemaps, gzip-compressed ones and plain text lists, whether a urlset or a sitemap index, in which case the first 10 child sitemaps are opened too. It checks the namespace, the 50,000 URL and 50 MB limits, full addresses, URLs on other hosts, lastmod dates, changefreq values, priority between 0 and 1, duplicates and missing lastmod. Then it requests 10 of the listed URLs, which should answer 200. Up to 5,000 URLs appear in a table you can export as CSV. To build a sitemap, use the XML Sitemap Generator.

How to use Sitemap Checker

  1. 1
    Enter the sitemap or site

    Paste the sitemap URL, or the site address to have the sitemap found for you.

  2. 2
    Click Check

    The sitemap is downloaded, unzipped if needed, and read entry by entry.

  3. 3
    Review the warnings

    Fix format errors, off-site URLs and invalid dates or values first.

  4. 4
    Look at the spot check

    Make sure the sampled URLs answer 200, then export the list.

Why use Cubfile for this

  • Finds your sitemap

    Looks in robots.txt and four common locations.

  • XML, gzip and text

    Handles urlset files and sitemap indexes.

  • Protocol limits

    50,000 URLs, 50 MB, full URLs and valid lastmod, changefreq and priority values.

  • Live spot check

    10 listed URLs are requested to confirm they answer 200.

FAQ

Sitemap Checker: questions and answers

How many URLs can a sitemap have?
Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. For bigger sites, split the URLs across several sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index.
Why does the checker say URLs are on another host?
A sitemap should only list URLs on its own host, so https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml shouldn't list pages on example.com or a CDN domain. Mixing www and non-www is the usual cause.
Do lastmod, changefreq and priority matter?
Google uses lastmod when it's consistently accurate and ignores changefreq and priority. The checker still validates all three so the file follows the protocol. To tell Bing and Yandex about changed pages right away, use the IndexNow URL Submitter.
Can it read a sitemap index?
Yes. It lists the child sitemaps and opens the first 10 of them to confirm they load and to count their URLs.
Why are some sampled URLs flagged?
The spot check expects each URL to answer 200 directly. A redirect, a 404 or a server error means the sitemap lists addresses that aren't the final, working pages.
Share Sitemap Checker with a friendIt runs in any browser, and they can try it without signing up.

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