XML sitemap checker
Free, no sign-up. Takes 10 to 30 seconds.
How to check your sitemap with this sitemap checker
The tool above is a sitemap finder, validator and URL test in one run. It reads your site the way a crawler does, so what you see is what Google, Bing and AI crawlers get.
Enter a domain or sitemap URL
Type your domain to find every sitemap, or paste a sitemap address such as yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml to test that file.
We find your sitemaps
We read robots.txt for Sitemap lines, then try the usual locations, and show where each file came from.
Every file is validated
XML errors, the root element and namespace, size and URL limits, lastmod dates, duplicates and off-site URLs. Up to 10 child sitemaps of an index are opened.
A sample of URLs is loaded
Up to 10 listed pages are requested to catch redirects, 404s, noindex tags and canonicals pointing elsewhere.
Reading the result. The verdict counts the sitemaps we found, the URLs they list, and the problems worth fixing. Red items stop a sitemap working or put the wrong pages in it. Amber items work but cost you something, such as dates nobody can trust. Grey notes are context. A lime check means that test passed.
For a big site, the URL total covers the child sitemaps we opened (up to 10 per run, and the first 5 MB of any one file). The sample of 10 URLs is a spot check, not a crawl: one redirecting URL in ten is a strong hint the sitemap is out of date, but only a full crawl finds every one.
How to find the sitemap of a website
Start with robots.txt. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and look for a line that starts with Sitemap:. The protocol lets a site point to its sitemap from there, and it is the first place crawlers look. If there is no such line, try the common addresses: /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml, /wp-sitemap.xml and /sitemap.xml.gz. This checker does both and tells you which one answered, so you do not have to guess.
Watch for one trap. If example.com/sitemap.xml redirects to www.example.com/, the redirect dropped the path and you are looking at the homepage, not a sitemap. We resolve the domain your site actually serves before looking.
WordPress sitemap URL and other platform defaults
Most platforms generate a sitemap for you. Here is where each one puts it, from each platform's own documentation.
- WordPress (core)/wp-sitemap.xmlBuilt in since WordPress 5.5. Turned off when Settings > Reading asks search engines not to index the site.
- Yoast SEO/sitemap_index.xmlThe sitemap index. Requests to /sitemap.xml redirect to it.
- Rank Math/sitemap_index.xmlThe sitemap index, listing a sitemap for each kind of content you include.
- Shopify/sitemap.xmlGenerated automatically at the root of the store's domain.
- Wix/sitemap.xmlA sitemap index, updated automatically when you edit the site.
- Squarespace/sitemap.xmlGenerated and updated automatically. The site has to be public for it to load.
On WordPress, run one sitemap generator. If /wp-sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml both answer with different files, two generators are active, and the checker will usually flag the same URLs listed in more than one sitemap. A blank or broken sitemap on WordPress is often a caching or minify plugin rewriting the XML: exclude sitemap URLs from it and clear the cache.
Common XML sitemap errors and how to fix them
These are the problems the sitemap validator reports most, and what to do about each.
Your sitemap returns an HTML page
The address answers with a web page, usually a 'not found' page sent with status 200, or a redirect to your homepage. Find the real address (see the platform list above) and submit that one.
XML parse error
A raw & in a URL or title, or a tag that is never closed. Data in a sitemap must be entity-escaped, so & becomes &. On WordPress, blank space before <?xml usually comes from a theme or plugin file, and breaks the whole file.
Redirected or noindexed URLs
A sitemap is the list of pages you want indexed. A URL that redirects, returns 404 or carries noindex contradicts it. List final, indexable addresses only.
http, www or another domain
Sitemap URLs must match the protocol and host the file lives on. After a move to https or to www, regenerate the sitemap so every entry points at the live version.
lastmod that is wrong or missing
Dates must use the W3C format (2026-10-20 or 2026-10-20T14:30:00+00:00). A date in the future, or every page stamped with the build time, teaches search engines to ignore the field.
Too big for one file
One sitemap can hold 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Past that, split it and list the parts in a sitemap index. Gzip saves bandwidth but the limit is on the uncompressed size.
XML sitemap example
A valid sitemap is short. Each page gets a <url> with a full <loc> and, ideally, a <lastmod>. Note the escaped & in the last URL.
A URL list (urlset)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-10-14</lastmod>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/services/roof-repair/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-09-30T09:12:00+00:00</lastmod>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://www.example.com/shop?type=tiles&color=red</loc>
</url>
</urlset>A sitemap index
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/post-sitemap.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2026-10-14</lastmod>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/page-sitemap.xml</loc>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>Leave out <priority> and <changefreq>: Google says it ignores both. It does use <lastmod> when the dates are consistently and verifiably accurate, so set it to when the page content last changed, not when the file was generated.
Sitemap vs robots.txt: what each does
robots.txt says where crawlers may not go. A sitemap says which pages you want found. They work together: robots.txt is also where you announce the sitemap, with one line anywhere in the file.
User-agent: * Disallow: /wp-admin/ Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml
Never list a URL in your sitemap that robots.txt blocks. To see which crawlers your robots.txt lets in, run the robots.txt checker for AI crawlers.
Do sitemaps help AI crawlers like ChatGPT and Perplexity?
AI assistants find pages the same basic way search engines do: by crawling links and reading lists of URLs. A sitemap is the cheapest way to hand any crawler the full list, including pages your navigation barely links to. Google says a page has to be indexed to appear as a link in AI Overviews, and a sitemap is how you ask Google to index it. Bing's webmaster team wrote in July 2025 that lastmod “remains a key signal” in AI-powered search.
AI crawlers read sitemaps heavily. In May 2026 alone, AI crawlers made 177,353 requests for sitemap XML across WordPress sites running the LovedByAI plugin.
That figure comes from our AI crawler statistics study, where our logs recorded sitemap requests until 25 May 2026. A sitemap gets a page found; whether an assistant then recommends you depends on what it can read on the page. The free AI readiness check scores both: crawler access, sitemap, content and schema in one scan.
How to submit a sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing
Google Search Console. Open your property, go to Sitemaps, paste the sitemap address (for WordPress with Yoast or Rank Math, the sitemap_index.xml address) and submit. Google calls a submission a hint, not a guarantee that every URL is crawled.
Bing Webmaster Tools. Select your site, open Sitemaps and choose Submit sitemap. Bing shows how many URLs it found and any errors once it has processed the file.
Submit the index, not each child sitemap, and run this checker first so you are not submitting a file that redirects or returns a web page.
LovedByAI and your sitemap
LovedByAI is a WordPress plugin that makes your site readable and recommendable by AI assistants. It works alongside whichever sitemap you already have, Yoast, Rank Math or WordPress core, rather than replacing it.
Sitemap checker questions
01How do I find the sitemap of a website?
Open the site's robots.txt (yoursite.com/robots.txt) and look for a line starting with Sitemap:. If there is none, try /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml and /wp-sitemap.xml. Or enter the domain in the checker above: it reads robots.txt, tries the common locations and tells you which address answered with a real sitemap.
02How do I check if my sitemap is valid?
Enter the sitemap address or your domain in the checker above. It confirms the file is well-formed XML with a urlset or sitemapindex root and the sitemaps.org namespace, checks the 50,000 URL and 50 MB limits, validates lastmod dates, flags duplicates, relative URLs and URLs on another host, and loads a sample of the listed pages.
03What is the WordPress sitemap URL?
WordPress itself serves a sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml, a feature added in WordPress 5.5. Yoast SEO and Rank Math use /sitemap_index.xml instead, and Yoast redirects /sitemap.xml to it. If your site is set to discourage search engines from indexing it, the core sitemap is turned off.
04How many URLs can a sitemap have?
The sitemaps.org protocol allows 50,000 URLs and 50 MB (52,428,800 bytes) uncompressed per sitemap file. A larger site splits its URLs across several sitemaps and lists them in a sitemap index. Compressing a file with gzip does not raise the limit, which applies to the uncompressed size.
05Does Google use priority and changefreq in a sitemap?
No. Google's documentation says it ignores the priority and changefreq values. It does use lastmod when the dates are consistently and verifiably accurate, so keep lastmod and set it to when the page content actually changed.
06Should redirected or noindex pages be in my sitemap?
No. A sitemap is the list of pages you want indexed, so every entry should load directly with a 200 status and be indexable. A URL that redirects, returns 404 or carries a noindex tag sends search engines a mixed signal and wastes crawl requests. The checker loads a sample of your listed URLs to catch these.
07Do AI crawlers use sitemaps?
Yes. In May 2026 alone, AI crawlers made 177,353 requests for sitemap XML across WordPress sites running the LovedByAI plugin, from our own server logs. A sitemap helps any crawler find your pages; whether an AI assistant recommends you then depends on what it can read on them.
08Do I need to submit my sitemap to Google if it is in robots.txt?
It is not required, since Google reads the Sitemap line in robots.txt. Submitting it in Search Console as well is worth doing, because the Sitemaps report then shows when Google last read the file, how many URLs it found and any errors. Google treats a submission as a hint, not a promise to crawl every URL.
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