FREE TOOL / NO ACCOUNT / RUNS ON THE PAGE YOU GIVE IT
Sitemap checker
Find your sitemap the way a crawler does, then check that what is inside it is real: valid entries, working URLs, and a lastmod that means something.
We read your robots.txt, try /sitemap.xml, follow one level of sitemap index, and request five of your URLs to see whether they answer.
QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS TOOL
- Where should my sitemap live?
- Anywhere on your domain, as long as robots.txt declares it with a Sitemap: line. /sitemap.xml is the convention crawlers try first, so it is the safest place. Declaring it in robots.txt matters more than the filename.
- What is lastmod, and does Google use it?
- lastmod is the date a page last changed meaningfully. Google says it uses the value when it is consistently accurate, and ignores it when it is not, which is what happens on sites that stamp today's date on every page at every build.
- How many URLs can one sitemap hold?
- 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed, whichever comes first. Past that you split the file and list the parts in a sitemap index. This checker reads the index and then follows the first sitemap in it.
- Why do URLs on another domain count against me?
- A sitemap may only list URLs on the same host as the sitemap file itself. Entries on another domain are ignored, so they are dead weight and usually a sign the file was generated with the wrong base URL.
- Do you crawl my whole site?
- No. We read robots.txt and the sitemap, then send five HEAD requests to a spread of the URLs it lists. That is the whole footprint.
A TOOL CHECKS ONCE. SEOBUILDER KEEPS WATCH.
We can watch this for you.
A sitemap breaks quietly. A deploy changes the base URL, a section drops out, lastmod freezes. We check yours on a schedule and tell you when the answer changes, alongside whether AI answers name you for your category.