Sitemap checker
Enter a website or a sitemap address and this tool finds the sitemap, counts the URLs, opens each file in a sitemap index, and checks them against the sitemap protocol’s rules. Gzipped sitemaps work too.
It’s for anyone who has just published a sitemap, or wants to know why search engines aren’t picking up new pages. It first looks for Sitemap lines in robots.txt, then falls back to /sitemap.xml.
Free with a ShipScroll account.
How to use the Sitemap Checker
- Enter your domain, such as example.com, or the full sitemap address if you know it.
- Press Find sitemap. Large sitemaps can take a little longer.
- Check the URL count matches roughly how many pages you expect.
- Fix any problems listed under a file, then submit the sitemap in Google Search Console.
The rules a sitemap must follow
| Rule | Limit or requirement |
|---|---|
| URLs in one file | Up to 50,000 |
| File size | Up to 50 MB uncompressed, even if gzipped |
| Hosts | All URLs on the same host as the sitemap |
| Protocol | All URLs use the same http or https as the sitemap |
| lastmod | Optional; when the page itself last changed, as a W3C date |
| Sitemap index | Up to 50,000 sitemaps, on the same site |
What the checks mean
- URLs on another host: the most common cause is a sitemap that lists www URLs while being served from the bare domain, or the reverse.
- Different protocol: usually http URLs left over in a site that has since moved to https.
- Dates in the future: often a time zone slip or a generated value. It suggests your lastmod can’t be relied on.
- A much lower count than expected: your generator may be skipping pages, or a filter is removing them.
Get lastmod right
The protocol says lastmod should reflect when the page itself changed, not when the sitemap was generated. Setting every page to today’s date on each build makes the field meaningless. Only update it when the page’s content really changes.
Tell crawlers where it is
Add a line such as “Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml” to robots.txt. It takes a full URL, can sit anywhere in the file, and you can list more than one. If you use a sitemap index, listing the index is enough. This tool warns you if the line is missing.
Questions
Does having a sitemap get my pages indexed?
It helps search engines discover your pages, but it doesn’t guarantee they’ll be indexed. Search engines still decide based on quality and other signals. A sitemap matters most for new sites and pages with few links pointing to them.
How many sitemaps of an index does the tool read?
It opens the first 20 files in a sitemap index and tells you when there are more, so the total shown for very large sites is partial. To check a specific file, enter its address directly. Files over 10 MB can’t be read here.
My sitemap opens in the browser. Why does it fail here?
Some sites block automated requests through bot protection, so the tool may get an error your browser doesn’t. Search engine crawlers are often allowed through those rules, so this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re affected.
Do I need changefreq and priority?
They’re optional in the protocol, and this tool doesn’t flag them when missing. It’s better to spend the effort on accurate lastmod dates.
Related tools
- On-Page SEO AuditOne report on a page’s title, headings, images, links, schema and robots.txt.
- AI Visibility CheckerSee which AI crawlers your robots.txt allows, plus llms.txt and schema readiness.
- Broken Link CheckerTest every link on a page and see which are broken, redirected or blocked.