Free Sitemap Checker Tool

Type a domain and get a full inventory of its sitemaps. The checker follows the route a crawler takes: Sitemap lines in robots.txt first, then the usual file locations. Index files are opened for you, and every sitemap gets a status, a URL count and a last-modified date. No account needed.

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What is a sitemap checker?

A sitemap checker inspects the sitemap files a website publishes and tells you whether they work. It answers the questions a search crawler asks on its first visit: is there a sitemap, where does it live, does it load, and how many URLs does it list?

You will also see this kind of tool called a sitemap finder or a sitemap validator. A finder locates files you did not know existed. A validator inspects one file for mistakes. This page covers both jobs in a single run: it discovers the sitemaps, then checks each file for the problems described further down.

A sitemap check confirms that your list of pages exists and can be read. It does not visit each page on the list. To learn whether those pages redirect, return errors or carry a noindex tag, you need a crawl, which is a separate job.

How to check a sitemap online

Checking whether a website has a sitemap takes about ten seconds.

Enter the site. Type a domain or paste any page address. Sitemaps are declared per host, so the tool reduces your input to the site's root. If you already know the sitemap's address, paste it instead.
Press Check sitemaps. A progress window shows what the tool is doing: reading robots.txt, trying common locations, and opening index files.
Read the summary. The header shows how many sitemaps were found and the total URL count. The checklist beneath it flags what needs attention.
Open the individual files. Each sitemap has its own row. Use the arrow on an index row to see the sitemaps inside it.
Copy or export. Copy URLs puts every address from one sitemap on your clipboard. Download Report saves the full table as a CSV file.

What the sitemap checker reports

Every file in the results shows the same set of facts, so you can compare them at a glance.

Report field	What it tells you	When it looks wrong
Sitemap address and source	Where the file lives and how it was found: declared in robots.txt, found at a default path, or listed inside an index.	A file found only at a default path should also be declared in robots.txt.
HTTP status	Whether the file actually loaded.	Anything other than 200 on a declared sitemap needs fixing, or its robots.txt line needs removing.
Format	XML sitemap, sitemap index, RSS or Atom feed, HTML page, or a compressed `.xml.gz` file.	An `.xml` address that returns a web page is usually an error page in disguise.
URL count	How many entries the file lists. For an index, the total across the sitemaps inside it.	Compare it with the number of pages you expect to be indexable. A large gap in either direction points to a bug.
Last modified	The date the sitemap, or its newest URL, reports.	An old date on a site that publishes often suggests the sitemap has stopped regenerating.
Issues	Plain-language warnings such as duplicate URLs, relative addresses, mixed hosts, or size limits.	Work through them from errors to warnings to notes.

How to find the sitemap of any website

If you prefer to look by hand, there are three places to check, in the order crawlers use them.

robots.txt. Open yourdomain.com/robots.txt and look for lines that begin with Sitemap:. This is the only discovery method defined for sitemaps themselves, and a site can list several files.
The common paths. Try /sitemap.xml, then /sitemap_index.xml. Most CMS platforms and SEO plugins publish to one of the two.
The index, if there is one. A sitemap index lists other sitemaps instead of pages. The page URLs sit one level down, inside the files it points to.

Many platforms use a predictable address. Treat the table as a starting point and confirm it against robots.txt.

Platform	Where the sitemap usually is
WordPress (built-in)	`/wp-sitemap.xml`
WordPress with Yoast SEO or Rank Math	`/sitemap_index.xml`
Shopify	`/sitemap.xml`, an index that links to separate product, collection, page and blog sitemaps
Wix and Squarespace	`/sitemap.xml`
Webflow	`/sitemap.xml`, once automatic sitemap generation is switched on in site settings
Next.js	`/sitemap.xml`, generated from an `app/sitemap.ts` file

Sitemap rules and limits

A single sitemap file can list up to 50,000 URLs and can be at most 50 MB uncompressed. A site that needs more splits its URLs across several files and ties them together with a sitemap index, which can itself point to up to 50,000 sitemaps. Every address must be absolute, so it starts with https:// and the domain, and the file must be UTF-8 encoded. The full specification is on sitemaps.org.

Each URL entry can carry four tags, but search engines do not treat them equally. Google's guidance, in its sitemap documentation, is that it uses lastmod when the value is consistently accurate and ignores priority and changefreq.

Tag	Required	What to do with it
`<loc>`	Yes	The full canonical address of the page.
`<lastmod>`	No	Set it to the date the content really changed. Stamping every URL with today's date teaches crawlers to ignore it.
`<changefreq>`	No	Safe to drop. Google ignores it.
`<priority>`	No	Safe to drop. Google ignores it.

Common sitemap errors and how to fix them

Sitemap not found (404)

The file is not at the address you expected. Look at what robots.txt declares, find where your CMS or plugin writes the file now, and make the two agree. If you have no sitemap at all, generate one with your CMS or an SEO plugin.

robots.txt points to a sitemap that no longer exists

Typically a migration leftover: the new platform publishes to a different path and nobody updated robots.txt. A declared sitemap that returns 404 wastes a crawler's first request, so update the line or remove it in the same release that moves the file.

The sitemap returns a web page instead of XML

If an address ending in .xml comes back as HTML, the server is serving a styled error page or redirecting to the homepage with a 200 status. Fix the route so it returns real XML with an XML content type.

Mixed http and https, or www and non-www

Sitemap entries should use the same protocol and host as the canonical version of your site. Mixed addresses send crawlers through redirects and dilute the signal the file is meant to give.

A sitemap that is too large

Beyond 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed, search engines may not read the whole file. Split it by section, such as posts, pages and products, and publish a sitemap index.

The same last-modified date on every URL

This usually means the sitemap is regenerated on a schedule and stamped with the build time. Pull the date from each page's real update time, or leave the tag out.

An index whose child sitemaps are missing

An index can return 200 while several of the files it lists were never deployed. That is why this checker opens each child file and reports it on its own row.

Compressed sitemaps (.xml.gz)

Gzipped sitemaps are valid and common on large sites. This tool decompresses them in your browser, so the URL count is correct whenever the server delivers the raw compressed file.

URLs that redirect, are blocked, or carry noindex

A sitemap tells crawlers to index a page, and the page can contradict it. Listing pages that redirect, are blocked in robots.txt, or have a noindex tag wastes crawl effort. Sitemap checkers read the list, not the pages, so check these with a crawl or in Google Search Console.

Sitemaps and AI search crawlers

AI answer engines have to find a page before they can cite it. There is no separate AI sitemap format. The ordinary XML sitemap, declared in robots.txt, accurate, and returning a 200 status, serves every crawler that reads it.

Crawlers that fetch pages on demand have no long history with your site, so a clean list of URLs and honest lastmod dates can help them reach your newest content. Before relying on that, make sure the crawlers you want are not blocked: run your file through the robots.txt checker, which tests Googlebot, GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot together. Then see whether AI tools actually name your brand with the AI visibility checker.

After the check: get your sitemap in front of search engines

Declare it in robots.txt.Add a line such as Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml with the full address. Every major crawler reads it, and you can list more than one.
Submit it in Google Search Console.Open the Sitemaps report, enter the file's path, and check that the status reads Success.
Submit it in Bing Webmaster Tools.This covers Bing and the search products that draw on its index.

You only need to submit once. Crawlers come back to the file on their own schedule, so there is nothing to resubmit after each update.

When to run a sitemap check

Right after a launch, redesign or platform migration.
After a CMS, theme or SEO plugin update, which can change where the file is published.
When Search Console reports that a sitemap could not be fetched or read.
When pages are slow to appear in search and you suspect a discovery problem.
When you audit a client's or competitor's site and want its structure at a glance.

Sitemap checker FAQ

How do I check if a website has a sitemap?

Enter the domain in the checker above and run it. The tool reads robots.txt for Sitemap lines, tries the usual file locations, and lists every sitemap it can open. If nothing is found, the site either has no sitemap or publishes it at an address that robots.txt never mentions.

How do I find the sitemap of any website?

Start with /robots.txt on the domain and look for Sitemap lines. If there are none, try /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml. The checker on this page does all of that in one pass and also opens any index file it finds.

What is a sitemap checker used for?

It confirms that a site’s sitemaps exist, load, and list roughly the number of URLs you expect. SEOs use it after launches and migrations, and agencies use it to inspect a prospect’s site before a first call.

Where should my sitemap.xml file be located?

On the same host as the pages it lists. The root, /sitemap.xml, is the convention and the easiest for tools to find, but a custom path works as long as robots.txt declares it.

How many URLs can one sitemap contain?

Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites split their URLs across multiple sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index.

Do I need a sitemap for SEO?

Not always. A small site where every page is reachable within a few clicks is crawled fully without one. A sitemap matters most for large sites, new sites with few inbound links, and sites with weak internal linking. It helps pages get discovered. It does not make them rank.

What is the difference between an XML sitemap and an HTML sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a machine-readable file for search engines. An HTML sitemap is an ordinary page of links for visitors. They serve different audiences, and one does not replace the other.

How do I extract all URLs from a sitemap?

Run the checker and press Copy URLs on the sitemap you want. For an index file, open the child sitemaps first, because the page URLs live in those files. By hand, every page address sits inside a <loc> tag in the XML.

Why does my sitemap show a 404 or “couldn’t fetch” error?

The address in robots.txt or Search Console no longer matches where the file is published, the file was never deployed, or a security rule is blocking the request. Open the address in a browser, then correct the path or restore the file.

How often should I update my sitemap?

Whenever the set of indexable pages changes. Most CMS platforms and plugins regenerate it automatically on publish, so the real task is to verify that this still happens after updates and migrations.

How do I submit my sitemap to Google?

Add a Sitemap line to robots.txt, then open the Sitemaps report in Google Search Console, enter the file’s path and submit it. Google fetches it again by itself afterward.

Does this tool check every page listed in the sitemap?

No. It checks the sitemap files themselves: status, format, URL count, last-modified date and file-level issues. Checking the status of each listed page requires a crawl.

A working sitemap gets pages found. Content gets them chosen.

PilotDeck researches what your buyers search for, publishes against it every month, keeps watch on your technical foundation, and tracks which AI engines name you.

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LLM Trackers

A sitemap gets your pages found. PilotDeck also watches what the big AI assistants say about your brand, so you can see where you are named, cited or missing.