Free Tool

Sitemap Validator

Validate your XML sitemap for errors, compliance, and SEO optimization.

Guide

Sitemap validation, explained

What a sitemap validator checks, the errors that block indexing, and how to fix them.

What is a sitemap validator?

A sitemap validator checks your XML sitemap against the official sitemap protocol that Google, Bing, and other search engines follow. A sitemap is only useful if crawlers can actually read it — one broken tag, a wrong namespace, or a malformed URL and search engines may silently skip the file. When that happens, new pages take longer to get indexed and Google Search Console shows errors like “Sitemap could not be read”.

This validator fetches your sitemap, parses the XML, and reports every problem it finds: syntax errors, missing required tags, invalid URLs, bad date formats, and files that break the 50,000-URL or 50 MB limits. It works on regular sitemaps and sitemap index files alike.

How to validate an XML sitemap

  1. Find your sitemap URL. It usually lives at /sitemap.xml. Not sure where it is? Use the Sitemap Finder & Checker to locate it.
  2. Paste it above and click Validate. The tool fetches the file and checks it against the sitemap protocol.
  3. Fix the errors and re-check. Each error includes what went wrong, so you know exactly what to change.

Once your sitemap passes, submit it in Google Search Console and add a Sitemap: line to your robots.txt file — our free Robots.txt Generator does that for you. Don't have a sitemap yet? Build one with the XML Sitemap Generator.

Frequently asked questions

How do I validate an XML sitemap?

Paste your sitemap URL into the validator above and click Validate. The tool fetches the file, checks it against the sitemaps.org protocol, and lists every error and warning it finds. Fix the issues in your sitemap, then re-run the check until it passes.

What errors does a sitemap validator check?

It checks for broken XML syntax, a missing or wrong xmlns namespace, missing URL (loc) entries, invalid or relative URLs, bad lastmod date formats, and sitemaps that go over the 50,000-URL or 50 MB size limit. These are the same problems that make Google Search Console report "Couldn't fetch" or "Sitemap could not be read".

How many URLs can an XML sitemap contain?

One sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs and must stay under 50 MB uncompressed. Bigger sites split their URLs across several sitemap files and list them all in a sitemap index file.

Why does Google Search Console say my sitemap could not be read?

The usual causes are an XML syntax error, a server returning an HTML error page instead of XML, a robots.txt rule blocking the sitemap, or a typo in the submitted URL. Run the sitemap through this validator to see the exact error.

Is this sitemap validator free?

Yes. The validator is completely free, needs no signup, and has no usage caps. Validate as many sitemaps as you like.

Last reviewed June 2026.