Technical SEO
Crawl, render, index, migrate
- Access
Stage 1: Access
XML sitemap inspector
Reads an XML sitemap or sitemap index and checks each URL status, the lastmod dates and whether the sitemap is listed in robots.txt.
Free to use. No login, nothing stored.
What it checks
Access- Sitemap found via robots.txt or the default paths, read and parsed (status, type, size)
- URL count against the 50,000-per-file limit, duplicates and relative URLs
- http:// entries, URLs on another host and mixed trailing slashes
- lastmod format, future dates and identical values; changefreq and priority noted
- Sitemap index children (first 5) and whether robots.txt lists the sitemap
- Optional: HTTP status of 10 sampled URLs
Method question for this stage: Can crawlers reach and render every key page?
Run the check
Results
No check run yet
- Info
Three groups of rows: Discovery, URLs, robots.txt
How each sitemap file was found and read (status, type, size, namespace, 1 MB cap), then checks over the URLs (count, absolute, duplicates, protocol, host, trailing slash, lastmod, changefreq and priority), then whether robots.txt lists the sitemap. A second step checks the response of 10 sampled URLs.
A sitemap is a hint about which URLs exist, not a request Google has to honour. Stage 1 of the method.
How we check
The rules this tool tests, and where they come from
A result is a check against a published rule, not a prediction. Every row shows its working.
Rules and sources
- sitemaps.org: Sitemaps XML format (protocol)
- Google: build and submit a sitemap
- Google: manage sitemaps with a sitemap index file
Links go to the operator's or standards body's own documentation. We do not link to third-party summaries.
Read more
Next step
Fix what it finds
This check belongs to the Access stage of the Crawl-to-Citation Method. The service below covers the fix; the Diagnostic ranks it against everything else.
Most engagements start with the Search Visibility Diagnostic ($2,500).
It covers all six method stages, so what this tool finds is ranked against everything else before you commit to any work.
Book the diagnosticSitemap questions
What the rows mean, and where the rules come from.
Still have questions? Book a callDo changefreq and priority matter?
Not for Google: its sitemap documentation says it ignores both values. They are part of the sitemaps.org protocol and harmless to keep, which is why the tool reports them as an Info row rather than a problem. The one value Google does read is lastmod, and only when it is consistently accurate across the sitemap, so time spent on dates is better spent than time spent on priorities.
Why does the tool stop at 1 MB and 5 child sitemaps?
Our fetch route reads at most 1 MB of any file and runs each check in your browser, so a 50 MB sitemap or a 40-file index would take minutes and tell you little more. When a file is cut at 1 MB the row says so and the counts are marked partial; when an index has more than five children the Info row says how many were read. Sampling the first children is enough to catch generator problems, which repeat across files; it is not a full inventory. Search Console's sitemap report has the full numbers.
Should I use a sitemap index or one file?
One file is fine up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed; beyond that the protocol requires splitting into several sitemaps listed in an index. Many sites use an index well below the limit so that each section (pages, posts, products) can be regenerated on its own. Google says the sitemaps an index references must sit on the same site as the index and in the same directory or below it. Either way, list the index or the file once in robots.txt so every crawler can find it.
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