Free XML Sitemap Validator

Ensure your XML sitemap is error-free and follows the official protocol. Enter your sitemap URL below to validate it and improve your website's visibility in search engines.

Why Validate Your XML Sitemap?

XML sitemaps are crucial for search engine optimization as they help search engines like Google, Bing, and others discover and index your website's pages efficiently. A properly formatted sitemap ensures that:

• Search engines can find all your important pages
• New content gets discovered and indexed faster
• Search engines understand your site structure
• Your crawl budget is used efficiently

Common XML Sitemap Errors

Even small errors in your sitemap can prevent search engines from properly crawling your site. Our validator checks for these common issues:

• Invalid XML structure: Malformed XML with syntax errors
• Missing required elements: Each URL entry must include mandatory tags
• Incorrect URL formatting: URLs with invalid characters or improper encoding
• Date format issues: Lastmod dates not following the ISO 8601 format
• Size limitations: Sitemaps exceeding the 50MB or 50,000 URL limits
• Protocol violations: Not adhering to the official sitemaps.org protocol

How Our Sitemap Validator Works

Our validator performs a comprehensive check of your XML sitemap against the official protocol specifications:

1. We fetch your sitemap from the provided URL
2. The XML structure is analyzed for syntax errors
3. Each URL entry is checked for required and optional elements
4. The validator ensures all URLs are from the same domain
5. Date formats, priorities, and change frequencies are validated
6. Size and URL count limitations are verified
7. A detailed report of any issues is provided

Types of Sitemaps We Validate

Our tool can validate different types of XML sitemaps:

• Standard XML sitemaps: The most common type containing URLs of your web pages
• Sitemap indexes: Files that list multiple sitemap files for large websites
• Image sitemaps: Specialized sitemaps that help search engines discover your images
• Video sitemaps: Sitemaps that provide information about video content on your site
• News sitemaps: Sitemaps specifically designed for news content

How to Fix Common Sitemap Issues

If our validator finds issues with your sitemap, here are some general steps to fix them:

• XML syntax errors: Use an XML validator to identify and fix syntax problems
• Missing elements: Ensure each URL entry has all required tags, especially the <loc> tag
• URL formatting: Make sure all URLs are properly encoded and from the same domain
• Date formatting: Use the ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DD) for all dates
• Size issues: Split large sitemaps into multiple files and use a sitemap index
• Protocol compliance: Follow the guidelines at sitemaps.org for proper implementation

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I validate my sitemap?

It's recommended to validate your sitemap whenever you make significant changes to your website structure, after adding new content in bulk, or at least once a month as part of your regular SEO maintenance.

Where should I place my sitemap file?

Typically, sitemaps are placed in the root directory of your website (e.g., example.com/sitemap.xml). You should also specify the location in your robots.txt file and submit it through Google Search Console.

What's the difference between warnings and errors?

Errors indicate issues that make your sitemap invalid according to the protocol and will likely prevent proper processing by search engines. Warnings highlight potential problems that might affect performance but don't necessarily make the sitemap invalid.

Can I validate a password-protected sitemap?

Our tool cannot access password-protected sitemaps. For such cases, you would need to temporarily make the sitemap publicly accessible or use a local validation tool.