XML Sitemap Inspector
Validate sitemap XML, count URLs, catch duplicates, wrong hosts, http entries, inconsistent slashes and unreliable lastmod dates, and export the URL list.
How to use the sitemap inspector
- Open your sitemap in a browser. For most WordPress sites that is /sitemap_index.xml (Rank Math, Yoast) or /wp-sitemap.xml (core). View the source and copy everything, including the XML declaration.
- Paste it in. The tool parses the XML properly, so malformed files are reported with the parser’s message rather than guessed at.
- Enter your domain to catch URLs on the wrong host or on http.
- Read the issues, then scan the URL table. Use the filter box to narrow to a section, for example /blog/ or .pdf, and copy the list or a CSV for further checks.
- For an index file, paste each child sitemap separately to inspect its URLs.
What the checks cover
- Structure. Valid XML, the sitemaps.org namespace, a urlset or sitemapindex root, the 50,000 URL and 50 MB limits, every entry having an absolute loc without spaces.
- Consistency. Duplicate URLs, mixed hosts (usually www versus non-www), http entries on an https site, and inconsistent trailing slashes, which usually means half the entries redirect.
- lastmod quality. Missing dates, invalid formats, dates in the future, and the tell-tale case where every entry has the same date because the generator stamps “now”. Google has said it uses lastmod when it is consistently accurate and ignores it when it is not.
- Ignored fields. Priority and changefreq are validated for completeness, but Google does not use either. Do not spend time tuning them.
What a sitemap should and should not contain
A sitemap is a list of the URLs you want indexed, in their canonical form. It should not contain redirected URLs, noindexed pages, paginated archives, tag pages you have chosen to keep out of search, or parameter variants. Every URL in it should return 200 and have a self-referencing canonical. If the sitemap and the canonical tags disagree, Google trusts the canonical and treats the sitemap as noise.
For WordPress sites the usual cleanup is: exclude attachment pages, exclude tags and author archives if they are noindexed, make sure removed posts drop out (Rank Math and Yoast do this automatically, static generators do not), and submit the index URL in Search Console once. Resubmitting does nothing; Google refetches the sitemap on its own schedule.
Frequently asked questions
Can the tool fetch my sitemap by URL?
No. It runs in your browser and browsers block cross-site fetches. Viewing the source and pasting takes a few seconds and keeps the data local.
Does a sitemap guarantee indexing?
No. It helps discovery and tells Google which version you prefer. Whether a page is indexed depends on its quality and on internal links; a page that only exists in the sitemap and is linked from nowhere is a weak signal.
Should images and videos be in the sitemap?
Image entries help Google associate images with pages, especially for e-commerce. Video sitemaps matter if video is a core part of the content. The tool reports how many entries carry image data.
Related tools
Background reading: sitemap and indexing checks, in the technical SEO audit checklist.