XML sitemap checker
Find out whether your sitemap is valid — and whether the pages it lists are ones search engines can actually index.
- No sign-up to start
- 138 checks
- 500 pages free
XML sitemap checker: what’s checked
A sitemap is a list of the pages you want search engines to index. A malformed one gets ignored, and a well-formed one can still do damage: listing URLs that 404, redirect or carry noindex tells search engines your sitemap isn’t to be trusted.
This checker reads the sitemap at /sitemap.xml — following a sitemap index into its child sitemaps — and checks each listed URL against what the crawl found on your live site. You also get the indexing checks that decide whether a listed page can rank at all.
4 Sitemap A sitemap tells crawlers which URLs you consider worth indexing. These checks make sure it exists, parses, and does not list pages that contradict it.
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Missing sitemap.xml
An XML sitemap helps search engines discover all your pages. Generate one and reference it in robots.txt.
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Sitemap lists broken or redirecting URLs
Your sitemap tells search engines these URLs are worth indexing, but they error or redirect. Remove the dead entries and point the rest straight at their final URL so crawl budget goes to real pages.
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Sitemap lists pages that block indexing
These pages are listed in the sitemap as worth indexing, yet the pages themselves say otherwise via noindex or a canonical pointing elsewhere. One of the two is wrong — decide which, then make them agree.
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sitemap.xml malformed
A malformed sitemap can be ignored by search engines. Validate and fix the XML so all URLs are discoverable.
14 Crawling & indexing Pages have to be crawled and indexed before they can rank at all. These checks cover the files, canonicals and directives that tell search engines what they may fetch and keep.
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Broken canonical tag
A canonical tag pointing to a broken or wrong URL can deindex the page. Point it at the correct, reachable preferred URL.
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Canonical tags chained through another page
Google does not follow canonical tags from one page to the next -- a chained canonical is treated as a weak hint and it picks its own winner instead, so the consolidation you set up is forfeited. Point every canonical straight at the final URL.
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Missing canonical tag
A canonical tag tells search engines which URL is the “real” one when several are similar. Add <link rel="canonical"> to avoid duplicate-content dilution.
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Missing robots.txt
robots.txt tells crawlers what they may access. Add one (even an allow-all) and point it at your sitemap.
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Page blocked by robots.txt
Googlebot won’t crawl this page, so its content can’t rank — and a noindex on it is never seen. If the page should be found, remove or narrow the Disallow rule shown; if it’s meant to be private, stop linking to it and keep it out of the sitemap. Test the rule in Search Console’s robots.txt report.
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Page set to noindex
This page tells search engines not to index it, so it can’t rank. If that’s unintended, remove the noindex directive.
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Pages buried too deep
Pages many clicks from the homepage get crawled and ranked less. Flatten your structure and link to deep pages.
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SEO-unfriendly URLs
Long, parameter-heavy URLs are harder for users and search engines to parse. Use short, readable, keyword-relevant paths.
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Scripts or CSS blocked by robots.txt
Google renders pages with their CSS and JavaScript. Blocked files can make a page look broken or empty to it. Remove the Disallow rules that cover theme, plugin or asset folders; there’s no SEO reason to hide scripts and stylesheets.
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Sitemap URLs blocked by robots.txt
The sitemap asks Google to crawl URLs that robots.txt forbids, which Search Console reports as “Submitted URL blocked by robots.txt”. Either take those URLs out of the sitemap or stop blocking them.
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Soft 404 (server returns 200 for missing URLs)
Returning HTTP 200 for missing pages makes search engines index empty pages. Serve a real 404 status for URLs that don’t exist.
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robots.txt doesn’t name a sitemap
Add a line like “Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml” to robots.txt. Every crawler reads robots.txt first, so this is how Bing and others find your sitemap without a manual submission.
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robots.txt malformed
A malformed robots.txt can accidentally block your whole site. Validate it and confirm it isn’t disallowing important paths.
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www / apex not canonicalized
Serving both www and non-www without redirecting splits your ranking signals. Pick one and 301-redirect the other.
How it works
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Enter your URL
Paste your homepage. No account, no install, no verification.
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We crawl your site
The crawler follows your internal links and runs every check against each page it reaches.
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Get your results
See your score and issue counts at once. A free account shows every finding, page by page, with how to fix it.
Frequently asked questions
Where does it look for my sitemap?
At /sitemap.xml on your domain. If that file is a sitemap index, it follows it into the child sitemaps it lists.
What counts as a bad sitemap URL?
One that returns an error or redirects somewhere else, or a page that tells search engines not to index it through noindex or a canonical pointing elsewhere. A sitemap should list only the final, indexable version of each page.
Is there a limit to how many URLs it reads?
It reads up to 1,000 URLs from the sitemap, across up to 10 child sitemaps, and checks them against the pages the crawl reached.
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Ready to check your site?
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