Validate your XML sitemaps
Search engines use sitemaps to discover and understand your website's content. But a malformed sitemap can prevent proper indexing of your pages. Our validator checks your sitemap against official protocols to ensure search engines can read it correctly.
Why validate your sitemap
Invalid sitemaps often go unnoticed until you spot indexing issues in Search Console. Our tool checks your sitemap against the official sitemaps.org protocol that search engines like Google and Bing rely on.
When search engines can't process your sitemap, they might:
- Miss new or updated content
- Waste crawl budget on incorrect URLs
- Skip important pages entirely
- Misunderstand your site structure
Comprehensive validation
Our tool performs deep technical validation of your sitemap files, checking both their structure and content.
It examines XML formatting, validates against the sitemaps.org protocol, and ensures all elements follow search engine requirements. We analyze everything from basic URL formatting to advanced features like lastmod dates and priority settings.
Structure validation
We verify your XML follows the sitemap protocol specification.
This includes checking the XML declaration, proper encoding, and required namespace declarations. Each sitemap must use the correct schema from.
Content checks
The validator ensures every URL entry contains required elements and follows proper formatting:
- URLs must be properly encoded without spaces or invalid characters
- All URLs must be from the same domain
- Dates must follow ISO 8601 format
- Priority values must be between 0.0 and 1.0
- Change frequency values must be valid options
Size and limit validation
We ensure your sitemap follows search engine size restrictions. This includes verifying that your sitemap:
- Stays under 50MB in size Contains no more than 50,000 URLs
- Uses proper compression if needed
- Follows URL length limits
- Maintains proper sitemap index structure
- Includes correct content type headers
Common sitemap issues
XML sitemaps can fail validation for many reasons, from simple formatting errors to complex protocol violations.
Our validator catches these issues early, helping you fix problems before they affect your site's indexing. Here are the most common issues we find:
Invalid XML structure
Many sitemaps fail because of basic XML errors.
We check for proper opening and closing tags, correct nesting, and valid character encoding.
Common problems include unclosed tags, improper nesting of elements, and incorrect XML declarations.
These issues often occur when sitemaps are generated dynamically or modified manually without proper XML validation.
Missing required elements
Each URL entry needs specific elements to be valid. We verify that required tags like <loc> are present and formatted correctly. Many sitemaps fail because they're missing mandatory elements or include them in the wrong format.
Required elements must follow strict formatting rules and appear in the correct order within each URL entry.
Date formatting problems
Lastmod dates must follow exact formats. We ensure your dates are properly formatted to prevent search engines from ignoring them.
Common date formatting issues include incorrect timezone specifications, invalid date formats, and future dates.
Search engines may ignore lastmod dates entirely if even a single date is incorrectly formatted.
Protocol violations
We check against the official sitemaps.org protocol to catch technical violations that could cause search engines to reject your sitemap.
This includes verifying correct namespaces, checking URL formats, and validating optional elements like changefreq and priority.
Protocol violations often occur when sitemaps are generated without proper attention to the specification requirements.
How to use the validator
- Enter your sitemap URL (typically sitemap.xml or sitemap_index.xml)
- Our tool fetches and analyzes the sitemap
- Review any errors or warnings found
- Fix issues using our detailed explanations
- Revalidate to ensure corrections work
Visit sitemaps.org/protocol.html to learn more about the official sitemap protocol.
Frequently asked questions
Why does the validator show warnings for valid sitemaps?
Warnings indicate potential issues that might affect performance but don't make the sitemap invalid. For example, having more than 10,000 URLs is allowed but not recommended for optimal crawling.
Should I fix all warnings?
While not required, fixing warnings can improve how search engines process your sitemap. Some warnings highlight best practices that can help with indexing efficiency.
What's the difference between a sitemap and a sitemap index?
A sitemap index helps organize multiple sitemaps for large sites. It contains links to other sitemap files rather than direct page URLs. Our validator handles both types automatically.
Keep your sitemaps valid and ensure search engines can properly discover your content. Run a validation check now to catch potential issues before they affect your site's indexing.