Quick answer
A sitemap checker finds a site's XML sitemap, reads every URL in it, and checks that the file is valid and that the URLs are ones search engines should index. Enter your domain above to see how many URLs it lists, whether they have lastmod dates, and whether a sample of them load, redirect or carry noindex.
Enter your domain, or the address of a sitemap file. The checker looks for the sitemap the way search engines do: first in your robots.txt, then at /sitemap.xml. It reads sitemap index files and the sitemaps they point to, counts the URLs, and then loads a sample of up to 25 of them to see whether they answer 200, redirect, carry noindex or point their canonical elsewhere. It is free, needs no account and allows 10 checks an hour.
What a good sitemap contains
An XML sitemap is a list of the pages you want search engines to crawl and index. It doesn't guarantee indexing, but it helps search engines find new and changed pages faster, especially on large sites and on pages with few internal links.
A clean sitemap lists only pages that should be in search results:
- Status 200. No redirects, no 404s, no server errors.
- Indexable. No
noindexmeta tag or header. - Canonical. Each URL is its own canonical. Listing a URL whose canonical points elsewhere sends mixed signals.
- One version of each URL. The same protocol and host as the site, with no duplicates.
- Accurate lastmod dates. Google uses
lastmodwhen it is consistently accurate, to decide what to recrawl. A date that changes on every build, or is missing, is ignored.
A single sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites split their URLs across several files and list them in a sitemap index.
How to read the sitemap checker results
The summary shows where the sitemap was found, each file read, and the total number of URLs. Notes flag problems in the file itself: duplicates, URLs on another host, http:// URLs on an https site, missing lastmod dates, and files over the 50,000 URL limit.
The sample table lists the URLs that were loaded, with their status. Any row marked as a redirect, an error, noindex or a canonical pointing elsewhere is a URL that shouldn't be in the sitemap. One bad URL in the sample usually means a pattern: the sitemap generator includes a whole type of page it shouldn't, such as filtered category pages or old redirected posts.
If the checker can't find a sitemap at all, check that the file exists, that it is listed in robots.txt with a Sitemap: line, and that it answers 200 to visitors who aren't logged in.
Fixing common sitemap problems
Redirected URLs. Replace each with its final address. Most sitemap plugins do this automatically once the old URLs are removed from the site's database or settings.
Noindex pages listed. Exclude them in your sitemap settings. A sitemap should never ask search engines to crawl pages you've told them not to index.
Duplicates and mixed hosts. Pick one canonical host, such as https://example.com, redirect the others to it, and regenerate the sitemap.
Missing or wrong lastmod. Use the date the main content last changed, not the date of the build. If you can't set it accurately, leave it out rather than inventing it.
Not submitted. Add the sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and list it in robots.txt so other search engines find it too.
Our technical SEO audit checklist covers how the sitemap fits with the rest of crawling and indexing, including orphan pages that are in the sitemap but not linked from anywhere.
Sample versus full checks
This tool checks a sample so it can answer in seconds. A full crawl checks every URL in the sitemap against every page the crawler finds by following links, which is how you find pages missing from the sitemap and sitemap pages nobody links to. Seotific's site crawl does that, then ranks the problems with the rest of the audit.
Check your own page
Seotific audits a URL against the keyword it should rank for and lists the fixes in order of impact. Free plan, no card.
Run a free auditFrequently asked questions
What is a sitemap checker?
A sitemap checker is a tool that finds a website's XML sitemap, reads the URLs in it, and checks both the file and the URLs: whether the XML is valid, whether URLs are duplicated, and whether the listed pages load and can be indexed.
Where should my sitemap be?
Anywhere on your domain, but /sitemap.xml is the convention, and you should list its address in robots.txt with a Sitemap: line and submit it in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Does a sitemap help SEO?
It helps search engines discover and recrawl pages, which matters most for large sites, new sites and pages with few internal links. It doesn't improve rankings by itself and doesn't guarantee indexing.
How often should the sitemap update?
Whenever pages are added, removed or meaningfully changed. Most content management systems and sitemap plugins regenerate it automatically; check that the lastmod dates reflect real content changes.