Sitemap Checker

Sitemap Checker: Review the URLs in Your Sitemap

A sitemap is an XML file that lists the URLs a site wants search engines to know about. This tool parses a sitemap and extracts the URLs it contains.

What a Sitemap Does

Sitemaps help search engines discover pages, especially those that are new, deep in the site structure, or not well linked internally. They do not guarantee indexing, but they make discovery more reliable. Sitemaps can also include optional information such as the last modification date, change frequency, and priority.

What the Checker Reports

The tool reads the sitemap and lists the URLs found. This is useful for confirming that the sitemap contains the pages you expect and for spotting entries that should not be there.

Common Problems

• Missing pages: important URLs omitted from the sitemap.
• Stale URLs: pages that have been removed or redirected but still appear.
• Invalid XML: syntax errors that prevent search engines from parsing the file.
• Wrong URLs: entries using a different protocol, host, or trailing slash than the canonical version.
• Broken sitemap index: an index file referencing child sitemaps that do not exist or are inaccessible.
• Too many URLs per file: exceeding size or count limits defined by the sitemap protocol.

Practical Uses

• Verifying that a new sitemap includes all key pages.
• Checking a sitemap after a migration or restructuring.
• Finding stale URLs that should be removed.
• Reviewing a sitemap index and its child files.

Limitations

The checker parses the sitemap and extracts URLs. It does not crawl the site to compare the sitemap against all existing pages, and it cannot verify whether search engines have indexed the listed URLs.

Summary

Sitemaps help search engines discover your content and should reflect the URLs you want indexed. This checker parses a sitemap and lists its URLs, helping you spot missing, stale, or malformed entries.