How to Find and Check a Website's Sitemap for Errors

To check a sitemap for errors, find it, fetch it and confirm it parses. The sitemap checker does all three: it reads each site's robots.txt for Sitemap: lines, fetches the sitemap (or /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml when none is listed) and reads it as a URL set, a sitemap index or a text sitemap, with its URL count and any problems. Paste one site or up to 100 (500 after a free Google sign-in).

It checks the sitemap file. It does not visit the pages inside it, which is a separate job covered below.

Step 1: paste the websites

Paste one site or a list, one per line. No account is needed for up to 100 a run; sign in with Google for up to 500.

Step 2: run the check

Each site's robots.txt is read first, then up to three Sitemap URLs from it are tried. If robots.txt lists none, the tool tries /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml. That is the order search engines use to discover a sitemap, along with Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools submissions, which a public check cannot see.

Step 3: read the verdict

Verdict	What it means	What to do
Sitemap found	A URL set that parses, with its URL count	Nothing to fix
Sitemap index	A list of other sitemaps	Check the children separately; they are listed but not fetched
Empty sitemap	The file loads but holds no URLs	Find out why the generator produced nothing
Not a sitemap	The URL answers, but not with sitemap XML or text. Often an HTML error page	Fix the route or the redirect
No sitemap	Nothing at robots.txt's lines or the default paths	Create one, or add a Sitemap: line if it lives elsewhere
Unreachable	The site did not answer	Check the site is up

The CSV carries each sitemap's URL, type and count, and where it was found.

What makes a sitemap valid

The sitemaps.org protocol allows three forms. An XML <urlset> of <url><loc> entries, an XML <sitemapindex> of <sitemap><loc> entries pointing at other sitemaps, or a plain text file with one URL per line. Each file may hold at most 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed, and may be gzipped. A larger site splits its URLs across several sitemaps and lists them in an index. Google's guide to large sitemaps covers the index approach.

The Sitemap: line in robots.txt is how most crawlers find the file; RFC 9309 leaves those lines to the sitemaps protocol. If your robots.txt is not right, fix that first: see checking robots.txt for AI crawlers and the robots.txt checker.

Common errors the check finds

• A URL that answers with an HTML page instead of XML. Typically a redirect to the home page or a 404 page served with a 200 status.
• An empty file. The generator ran but found no pages.
• More than 50,000 entries. Split it and add an index.
• A Sitemap: line in robots.txt that does not load. Often left pointing at an old domain or path after a migration. See auditing redirects after a site migration.

Checking the pages inside the sitemap

This tool reads the sitemap file only. It does not check that each URL returns a good status, and it does not read lastmod dates or image and video extensions. For the sites themselves, use the bulk website status checker and read how to check if a list of websites is online. To see titles and canonicals on the home page, see checking page titles and meta descriptions in bulk.

What this check cannot do

• Child sitemaps of an index are not fetched, so their URLs are not counted.
• It does not check the URLs inside the sitemap, their lastmod dates, or image and video extensions.
• Up to three Sitemap lines from robots.txt are tried. Files are read up to 3 MB, or 10 MB once unzipped.
• It cannot see sitemaps submitted only through Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools.
• The limit is 100 sites a run without an account and 500 signed in.

If you are contacting the site owners

A sitemap tells you a site is maintained; it does not give you a working contact. Check the addresses on your list on the verify page: the first 100 email checks are free with a Google sign-in, no card. Each comes back valid, risky or invalid with a reason, and nothing is sent to anyone on the list. For larger or recurring lists, see bulk email verification, list cleaning and pricing.

Check your sitemaps now

Paste your sites into the sitemap checker.