Sitemap Validator & Generator
Create clean XML sitemaps or validate existing ones.
What This Tool Does
The Sitemap Validator and Generator provides two functions: validating existing XML sitemaps for correct structure and protocol compliance, and generating new sitemaps from a list of URLs. It checks XML syntax, URL format, and optional elements like lastmod, changefreq, and priority.
Inputs
- Validator mode: Paste an XML sitemap or provide a URL to fetch and validate its structure.
- Generator mode: Enter a list of URLs, set optional metadata, and generate a valid XML sitemap.
How It Works
The validator parses your XML and checks it against the sitemaps.org protocol specification. It verifies that the root element is a valid urlset, each URL entry has a properly formatted loc element, and optional elements use correct values. The generator takes your URL list and wraps each entry in proper XML sitemap markup with the namespace declaration.
Understanding the Results
- Validation report: Lists any errors or warnings found in the sitemap structure.
- URL count: Total number of URLs found in the sitemap.
- Generated output: A complete XML sitemap ready to save and deploy.
1. Scan Website or Enter URLs
2. Configuration
Result
Step-by-Step Example
- To validate: paste your sitemap XML into the validator input or enter the sitemap URL.
- Click Validate. The tool checks XML structure and reports any issues.
- Fix reported errors such as missing loc elements or invalid date formats.
- To generate: switch to generator mode and enter your URLs one per line.
- Set optional lastmod dates, changefreq, and priority values.
- Click Generate to produce the XML sitemap, then copy and save it as sitemap.xml.
Use Cases
- Validating sitemaps before submitting to Google Search Console.
- Creating sitemaps for small to medium websites without a CMS plugin.
- Checking that CMS-generated sitemaps follow the correct XML format.
- Building section-specific sitemaps for large websites.
- Verifying lastmod dates are accurate after a content update.
Limitations and Notes
- The validator checks XML structure but does not verify that listed URLs return 200 status codes.
- Generated sitemaps are limited by the 50,000 URL and 50 MB protocol limits.
- The tool does not support sitemap index files or image/video sitemap extensions.
- Changefreq and priority are hints that search engines may ignore.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an XML sitemap?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists the important URLs on your website along with optional metadata like last modification date, change frequency, and priority. It helps search engines discover and crawl your pages more efficiently.
How many URLs can a sitemap contain?
A single XML sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50 MB uncompressed. For larger sites, use a sitemap index file that references multiple individual sitemaps.
Is the lastmod date important?
Yes. Accurate lastmod dates help search engines prioritize which pages to recrawl. Only update lastmod when the page content actually changes. Inaccurate dates can reduce crawler trust in your sitemap.
Does having a sitemap guarantee indexing?
No. A sitemap helps search engines discover your URLs, but it does not guarantee they will be crawled or indexed. Pages must also meet quality standards and not be blocked by robots.txt or noindex directives.
Where should I place my sitemap?
Place your sitemap at the root of your domain, typically at https://example.com/sitemap.xml. Reference it in your robots.txt file using the Sitemap directive, and submit it through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
What is a sitemap index file?
A sitemap index file is an XML file that lists multiple individual sitemaps. It is used when a site has more than 50,000 URLs or when organizing sitemaps by content type, language, or section.
Sources and References
- Sitemaps.org Protocol: sitemaps.org
- Google Search Central - Sitemaps: developers.google.com
- Bing Webmaster - Sitemaps: bing.com
- W3C - XML Specification: w3.org
- Google Search Console Help: support.google.com