πΊοΈ XML Sitemap Validator
Paste your sitemap, catch errors before Google does.
The sample contains 3 URLs with one intentional error (an invalid priority). See if the validator catches it.
Sitemap Summary
URLs found (first 50)
Everything runs in your browser. Your content never leaves your device.
How to Use This Validator
Paste the raw XML of your sitemap and get an instant verdict: how many URLs it contains, whether the XML is well-formed, and a line-by-line list of errors and warnings to fix before submitting to Google.
Paste your sitemap XML into the box. Open your sitemap URL in a browser, view the page source, and copy everything, or paste it from your SEO plugin's file.
Click Validate. The tool counts the URLs, lists the first 50, and runs every check: well-formed XML, correct root element, loc on every entry, absolute URLs, and valid lastmod, changefreq, and priority values.
Fix every red error. Errors are problems that can get the sitemap rejected or URLs skipped, like a missing loc or a priority outside 0.0 to 1.0.
Review the amber warnings: duplicates, suspicious lastmod dates, and optional tags Google ignores. Warnings will not break submission, but they waste crawl budget.
Submit the fixed sitemap in Google Search Console and reference it in robots.txt.
What the Validator Checks
Every url entry must have a loc, and it must be an absolute URL starting with http:// or https://. Relative paths are one of the most common sitemap errors. The root element must be urlset for a URL sitemap; if the file is a sitemapindex, the tool says so and lists the child sitemaps instead. Lastmod must follow the W3C date format, like 2026-10-01 or 2026-10-01T14:30:00+05:00. Changefreq accepts only always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never. Priority must be a number from 0.0 to 1.0. The tool also flags duplicate URLs and warns when the file approaches the 50,000 URL or 50MB limits.
Worked Example
Click "Load sample sitemap" to load this file:
The validator reports 3 URLs, well-formed XML, and a correct urlset root. Then it flags one error: entry 3 has priority 1.5, which is outside the allowed 0.0 to 1.0 range. Google would ignore the invalid value, but a clean sitemap leaves nothing to chance. Fix it to a value like 0.8 and the file validates with zero errors.
Sitemap Limits and Best Practices
Respect the hard limits: 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed per file. Large sites split into multiple sitemaps under one sitemap index. List only URLs you want indexed: no 404s, no redirects, no pages blocked by robots.txt, and no URLs with a noindex tag. Keep every loc under 2,048 characters, use UTF-8 encoding, and escape ampersands and angle brackets as entities. Update lastmod honestly when content changes; fake freshness dates train Google to ignore your sitemap. Regenerate automatically from your CMS or build process so the file never goes stale. Everything you paste here stays in your browser.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a machine-readable file that lists a site's important URLs so search engines can discover and crawl them efficiently. It is especially useful for large sites, new sites with few backlinks, and pages buried deep in the site structure. A sitemap does not guarantee indexing, but it removes discovery as a bottleneck.
How many URLs can a sitemap have?
A single sitemap file can contain up to 50,000 URLs and must be no larger than 50MB uncompressed. Sites with more URLs split them into multiple sitemap files and list those files in a sitemap index file, which itself is submitted to Google. Most small business sites need only one sitemap.
Do I need lastmod, changefreq, and priority?
Only lastmod is worth your effort. Google has said it largely ignores changefreq and priority, but it does pay attention to lastmod when deciding which pages to recrawl. The catch: lastmod must be honest. Stamping every URL with today's date teaches Google to distrust your sitemap, so update it only when the page content actually changes.
Where do I submit my sitemap?
Submit it in Google Search Console under the Sitemaps report, and in Bing Webmaster Tools for Bing. Also add a Sitemap: line pointing to it in your robots.txt so any crawler can discover it. After submitting, Search Console reports how many of the listed URLs were actually indexed, which is the real measure of sitemap health.
How often should I update my sitemap?
Continuously and automatically. The sitemap should regenerate whenever pages are added, removed, or meaningfully changed, with accurate lastmod dates. A sitemap full of 404s, redirects, or canonicalized URLs wastes your crawl budget and erodes Google's trust in the file. Validate it here after any bulk change.