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Sitemap checker
Paste a sitemap.xml URL. We'll count the URLs, check the structure, and show whether lastmod is populated (a quiet SEO win).
Quick answer
What is an XML sitemap checker?
An XML sitemap checker fetches your sitemap file and verifies that search engines can actually read it: that the XML parses, that URLs are present and well-formed, and that the optional fields such as lastmod are populated rather than empty or fabricated. Paste your sitemap URL and this sitemap validator returns the URL count, the structure it found, and whether lastmod dates are there to be trusted.
What belongs in a sitemap - and what does not
A sitemap is a list of the URLs you want indexed. That definition excludes more than people expect:
- Include: canonical, indexable URLs that return 200 and that you would be happy to see in search results.
- Exclude: redirects, 404s, noindexed pages, pages canonicalised to another URL, and parameter variants.
- Exclude: paginated archive pages and tag pages if they are not part of your indexing strategy.
- One sitemap holds at most 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed. Past either limit, split the file and list the parts in a sitemap index.
- Reference the sitemap from robots.txt so every crawler finds it without being told.
lastmod is only useful if it is honest
Google uses lastmod as a hint about what to recrawl - but only from sites where it has proven consistent. Stamping today's date on every URL at every build is the standard way to make Google ignore the field entirely, and once it is discounted for a site it stops being a lever.
Set lastmod to the date the page's content genuinely changed. A typo fix does not count; a rewritten section does. Sites that get this right gain meaningfully faster recrawls on updated pages, which is why the check is worth running.
A sitemap is a discovery hint, not an indexing guarantee
Submitting a URL does not make Google index it. The sitemap solves discovery - it tells crawlers a page exists, which matters most for new sites, deep pages, and anything with few internal links. Indexing is a separate decision based on whether the page is worth having in the index.
So a page missing from the index despite being in the sitemap is not a sitemap problem. Check Search Console's page indexing report for the actual reason: crawled but not indexed, discovered but not crawled, duplicate without canonical, or blocked. Each has a different fix, and a bigger sitemap fixes none of them.
Where this data comes from
The tool fetches the sitemap URL you provide, parses the XML, counts the URL entries, and reports whether lastmod elements are present and populated. It reads the file as published - it does not crawl each listed URL or check status codes one by one, so a clean structural result does not confirm every URL returns 200. Pair it with Search Console's sitemap report, which shows what Google discovered and indexed from the same file.
Frequently asked questions
How many URLs can an XML sitemap contain?
Up to 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites split into multiple sitemaps referenced from a sitemap index file, which can itself list up to 50,000 sitemaps. Splitting by content type - posts, products, categories - is a good habit beyond the size limit, because Search Console reports indexing per sitemap and that makes problems easy to localise.
Does a sitemap guarantee my pages get indexed?
No. A sitemap helps Google discover URLs; whether to index them is a separate judgement about page quality, duplication, and crawl budget. If a page is in your sitemap and not in the index, the sitemap is not the problem - check the page indexing report in Search Console for the specific reason and address that instead.
Should lastmod be updated on every build?
No. Set it to the date the content actually changed. Google uses lastmod as a recrawl hint but discounts it from sites where it proves unreliable, and a deploy-stamped date on every URL is the fastest way to earn that treatment. Accurate dates on a subset of pages beat fake dates on all of them.
Do I need a sitemap if my site is small?
It helps even then, and it costs nothing - most platforms generate one automatically. A well-linked twenty-page site will be found without it, but the sitemap gives you the Search Console sitemap report, which is a useful diagnostic surface in its own right. For large, new, or thinly-linked sites it stops being optional.
What should not go in a sitemap?
Anything you would not want indexed: redirecting URLs, 404s, noindexed pages, URLs canonicalised elsewhere, parameter and session variants, and staging URLs. A sitemap full of non-indexable URLs sends a mixed signal about which pages you consider important and makes the Search Console report harder to read.
How do I submit a sitemap to Google?
Add it in Search Console under Sitemaps, and reference it in robots.txt with a Sitemap: line so other crawlers find it too. Submission is a one-time action - you do not resubmit after each update. Google refetches on its own schedule, faster for sites that publish frequently and keep lastmod honest.
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