Sitemap XML Validator
Validate your XML sitemap structure. Check for errors, count URLs, find duplicates & ensure compliance with the sitemap protocol.
Sitemap XML
💡 Sitemap Protocol
Required Structure
- Must start with <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
- Root element: <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
- Each URL in a <url> element with a required <loc> child.
- Maximum 50,000 URLs or 50MB file size per sitemap.
📖 Optional Tags
Additional Elements
- lastmod: Last modification date (ISO 8601 format).
- changefreq: How often the page changes (daily, weekly, monthly).
- priority: Relative importance 0.0–1.0 (default 0.5).
- Google largely ignores changefreq and priority — focus on lastmod.
🎯 Best Practices
Sitemap Tips
- Include only canonical, indexable URLs (no noindex pages).
- Keep URLs consistent — don't mix www and non-www.
- Reference your sitemap in robots.txt: Sitemap: URL
- Use a sitemap index for large sites with multiple sitemaps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a sitemap for SEO?▾
While not strictly required, sitemaps help search engines discover and crawl your pages more efficiently. They're especially important for large sites, new sites with few backlinks, sites with deep page hierarchies, and sites that use rich media content.