Sitemap Validator Guide
Learn how to check sitemap availability, sitemap type, URL entries, duplicates, and common XML sitemap problems.
A sitemap checker helps you confirm that a sitemap is reachable, parseable, and useful for search engine discovery.
You can start with the free Sitemap Validator. Paste a sitemap URL and it reports the sitemap type, entry count, child sitemap count, warnings, and fetch errors.
What to check first
Start with basic availability:
- Does the sitemap URL return HTTP 200?
- Does the response look like XML?
- Is the file blocked by a firewall or bot protection rule?
- Does the sitemap contain URL entries or child sitemap entries?
If a sitemap returns 403, 404, or a non-XML response, search engines may not be able to use it reliably.
Sitemap index vs URL set
A sitemap can be a URL set or a sitemap index.
A URL set lists pages directly. A sitemap index lists other sitemap files. Large websites often use a sitemap index because a single sitemap file should not grow forever.
If the checker finds child sitemaps, open important child sitemap URLs and check those too.
Duplicate entries
Duplicate URLs make a sitemap noisier than it needs to be. Duplicates usually come from inconsistent canonical URL handling, trailing slash differences, HTTP and HTTPS variants, or CMS plugin conflicts.
The Sitemap Watch checker reports duplicate URL entries when it sees them in the parsed XML.
Broken XML
Malformed XML can prevent a sitemap from being parsed. Common causes include unescaped characters, plugin errors, truncated responses, or cached error pages served from the sitemap URL.
After fixing a sitemap, rerun the checker and verify that the entry count and type look right.
Next steps
If you do not know the sitemap URL, use the Find Sitemap tool. If you need to create a simple sitemap, use the XML Sitemap Generator. It can crawl a small site directly or generate XML from a manual URL list.