A domain finds the sitemap through robots.txt and common paths. Sitemap indexes are followed to their first 25 child sitemaps.
How to use
Enter a sitemap or paste XML
Type a sitemap URL, or a domain to find its sitemap, and press Validate. For a file behind a firewall or not yet live, choose Paste XML and paste the whole file.
Read the errors and warnings
Errors break the file or an entry and should be fixed first. Warnings, such as duplicate URLs or future lastmod dates, weaken it. Filter by level, and see which child sitemap each issue came from.
Check the listed URLs
Press Check URLs to test up to 500 listed URLs. Any that redirect, return 404 or fail are listed. Replace them with final URLs, then download the CSV as a fix list.
Why XML Sitemap Validator
- Finds the sitemap from a domain and follows sitemap indexes to 25 child files.
- Checks XML syntax, namespaces, URL format, dates, changefreq and priority values.
- Flags duplicates, cross-host URLs, image and hreflang mistakes and the size limits.
- Tests listed URLs for redirects and errors, with a CSV of every issue.
Common sitemap errors and how to fix them
Most broken sitemaps fail for one of a handful of reasons, and most come from a plugin or a hand edit. Fix errors first, since one parse error can make search engines skip the whole file.
| Problem | What the validator says | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Unescaped & in a URL | The XML is not well formed | Write & as & inside loc. |
| Relative URL such as /about | Not a full URL | Use the full address with https:// and the host. |
| Date written as 01/09/2026 | lastmod is not a W3C date | Use 2026-09-01, or a full W3C datetime. |
| changefreq set to sometimes | Not one of the allowed values | Use always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or never, or drop the tag. |
| Missing xmlns attribute | Missing namespace | Add xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" to urlset. |
| URLs that redirect or 404 | Listed in the URL check | List the final URL, or remove pages that no longer exist. |
What a healthy sitemap looks like
A healthy sitemap lists only canonical URLs that return 200, carry no noindex tag and are on the same host as the file. Each has a lastmod that changes only when the page really changes. It stays under 50,000 URLs and 50 MB, or is split with a sitemap index, and it is listed in robots.txt and submitted in Search Console.
If the validator shows no errors and the URL check shows no redirects, compare the number of URLs with the indexed count in Search Console. A large gap then points to content or duplicate problems, not to the sitemap.