About Sitemap XML Validator

Validate sitemap.xml structure and check for common issues. Part of the DevTools Surf developer suite. Browse more tools in the Web / Frontend collection.

Use Cases

• SEO specialists auditing sitemap coverage before site launches
• Web developers verifying sitemap generation in CMS builds
• Marketing teams ensuring new landing pages appear in sitemaps
• DevOps engineers validating sitemap output in CI/CD pipelines

Tips

• Check for URLs exceeding the 50,000 entry limit per sitemap
• Validate lastmod dates are in W3C Datetime format
• Ensure the sitemap index file references all child sitemaps

Fun Facts

• The Sitemaps protocol was jointly created by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft in 2006 and submitted to sitemaps.org — a rare moment of cooperation among search engine rivals.
• A single sitemap XML file can contain at most 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50 MB uncompressed — larger sites must use sitemap index files.
• Google's John Mueller has confirmed that lastmod dates in sitemaps are only trusted when they accurately reflect actual content changes — padding dates is detected and ignored.

FAQ

What does it check?

XML schema compliance, URL format (absolute, reachable), lastmod date format, limits (50,000 URLs max per file, 50MB uncompressed), encoding.

Does it verify URLs return 200?

No — URL reachability requires live HTTP requests, which the browser can't do cross-origin. Use a crawler (Screaming Frog, Sitebulb) for full checks.

Common issues?

HTTP URLs when site is HTTPS, trailing slash inconsistencies, URLs from other domains (sitemap should only list same-domain URLs), and invalid dates.

What about sitemap indexes?

Yes — validates the index structure (list of sitemap URLs) and each referenced sitemap in turn. Common for large sites.