--- title: "XML Sitemap Checker & Validator - Validate Your Sitemap | Free Tool by Snezzi" canonical: https://snezzi.com/tools/sitemap-checker/ source: https://snezzi.com/tools/sitemap-checker/ --- > Canonical page: https://snezzi.com/tools/sitemap-checker/ Live utility ## Use Sitemap Checker Enter the required input below and review the result immediately. Paste your sitemap XML ### Validation Summary ### Errors Found ### Warnings ### URLs Found # URL Last Modified Frequency Priority Status ### Email me the validation report Enter your name and work email to download the full sitemap report, including every error, warning, and URL. The checker stays free. No spam. Just your export and the occasional useful tip. [Or: book a Snezzi demo →](/strategy-session/) Copied to clipboard! ## Common XML sitemap errors Most sitemap problems fall into a handful of recurring patterns. The table below explains what each error means and how to fix it, so your sitemap passes validation and search engines can crawl every listed page. Error What it means How to fix it Missing A entry has no location tag, so there is no page for the crawler to fetch. Add a with the full absolute URL inside every block, or remove the empty entry. Malformed URL The value in is not a valid absolute URL (missing protocol, spaces, or unescaped characters). Use complete https:// URLs and escape special characters (& becomes &, spaces become %20). Over 50,000 URLs / 50MB A single sitemap file exceeds the protocol limits and may be rejected or truncated. Split the URLs across multiple sitemap files and reference them all from one sitemap index file. Non-canonical or redirected URLs Listed URLs redirect elsewhere or are not the canonical version, wasting crawl budget and sending mixed signals. List only final, canonical, 200-status URLs that match your preferred protocol and hostname. URLs blocked by robots.txt You are asking search engines to index pages that your robots.txt tells them not to crawl, a direct contradiction. Remove blocked URLs from the sitemap, or unblock them in robots.txt if you do want them indexed. What it checks ## A focused result you can act on 01 ### XML structure validation 02 ### URL count and analysis 03 ### Missing tag detection 04 ### Duplicate URL detection 05 ### Detailed error reporting Understand the wider opportunity ## Connect this check with the questions customers ask Free tools answer one focused question. Snezzi helps you track AI visibility, understand competitors and cited sources, prioritize improvements and measure what happens afterward. [Book a demo](/strategy-session/)[View pricing](/pricing/) Related utilities ## Continue with another focused check [**Robots.txt Generator**Generate robots.txt with AI crawler rules](/tools/robots-txt-generator/) [**Sitemap Generator**Create XML sitemaps from URLs](/tools/sitemap-generator/) [**Sitemap URL Extractor**Extract URLs from sitemaps](/tools/sitemap-url-extractor/) Tool questions ## Sitemap Checker FAQ How the utility works, what its result means and where its limits are. What is an XML sitemap? An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website, helping search engines like Google and Bing discover and crawl your content more efficiently. It follows the sitemap protocol defined at sitemaps.org. Why validate my sitemap? Invalid sitemaps can prevent search engines from discovering your pages, leading to poor indexing and reduced organic traffic. Validation catches errors like malformed XML, missing required tags, invalid URLs, and duplicates before they cause problems. What should a sitemap contain? At minimum, a valid XML sitemap should contain a root element with one or more entries, each containing a tag with the full page URL. Optional tags include (last modification date), (change frequency), and (crawl priority). How large can a sitemap be? A single XML sitemap file can contain a maximum of 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50MB when uncompressed. If your site has more URLs, you should use a sitemap index file that references multiple sitemap files. How often should I update my sitemap? Update your sitemap whenever you add, remove, or significantly change pages on your website. Many CMS platforms and SEO plugins generate and update sitemaps automatically. For dynamic sites, daily or weekly updates are recommended. How do I check my sitemap? Paste your sitemap XML into the checker above and it will report the URL count, missing tags, duplicate URLs, and structural errors instantly. You can also open the sitemap in a browser to confirm it loads, or use the Sitemaps report in Google Search Console to see how many URLs Google discovered and whether it flagged any errors. How do I validate a sitemap? Validation confirms your XML is well-formed and follows the sitemaps.org protocol: a root, one per , valid dates, and allowed changefreq and priority values. Paste your XML into this tool to run those checks automatically, or cross-check the results in Google Search Console. Fixing every reported error and warning before submitting helps search engines crawl your pages reliably. Where can I find a website's sitemap? Try the common paths first: /sitemap.xml or /sitemap\_index.xml on the domain. If those return nothing, open the site's robots.txt file at /robots.txt, which usually lists the sitemap location on a 'Sitemap:' line. For sites you own, Google Search Console's Sitemaps report shows every sitemap it has found. What makes an XML sitemap invalid? Common causes include malformed XML (unclosed tags or bad characters), a missing or root, entries with no , URLs that are not absolute or return errors, more than 50,000 URLs or over 50MB in one file, and invalid changefreq or priority values. Any of these can stop a search engine from processing the sitemap. The checker above flags each of these issues so you can fix them before submitting. Move from findings to growth ## Improve how often your business appears in AI answers See how Snezzi turns visibility gaps into content, technical, backlink and distribution work your team can execute and measure. [Book a demo](/strategy-session/) [View pricing](/pricing/)