XML Sitemap Validator: Check Your Sitemap Against the Protocol
A sitemap with a relative URL, an invalid changefreq value, or more than 50,000 entries can get rejected or partially ignored by search engines — and Search Console often reports the problem in vague terms. This validator checks a sitemap.xml (or sitemap index) directly against the sitemaps.org protocol so you know exactly what to fix.
lastmod, changefreq, and priority are all optional per-URL hints.
Only <loc> Is Actually Required
It's easy to assume lastmod, changefreq, and priority are mandatory because generators often include them by default, but the sitemap protocol only requires
The 50,000 URL / 50MB Limit
A single sitemap file can't exceed 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed. Large sites split their URLs across multiple sitemap files (sitemap-1.xml, sitemap-2.xml, etc.) and reference all of them from one
Common Validation Failures
Relative URLs in
Practical Examples
Catching a Relative URL
A common templating mistake.
- 1.
/about - 2.Error: not an absolute URL
- 3.Fix:
https://example.com/about
Splitting a Large Sitemap
Handling more than 50,000 URLs.
- 1.60,000 total URLs
- 2.Split into sitemap-1.xml (50,000) and sitemap-2.xml (10,000)
- 3.Reference both from sitemap-index.xml
What Gets Checked
- Well-formed XML
- <urlset> or <sitemapindex> root
- Required <loc>, must be absolute
- Valid lastmod date format
- Valid changefreq vocabulary
- Priority in range 0.0-1.0
- 50,000 URL limit
- Duplicate URLs
Good Use Cases
- Validating a generated sitemap before submitting to Search Console
- Debugging a Search Console sitemap error report
- Checking a sitemap index references valid sitemap URLs
- Confirming a large site's sitemap stays under the URL limit
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the required fields in a sitemap?
Only
What's the 50,000 URL limit about?
The sitemap protocol caps a single sitemap file at 50,000 URLs (and 50MB uncompressed). Sites with more URLs than that split them across multiple sitemap files and reference them all from a single
What's the difference between <urlset> and <sitemapindex>?
Does the changefreq value actually affect how often Google crawls a page?
Google has stated it treats changefreq (and priority) as a hint at best and largely determines crawl frequency using its own signals instead. It's still worth setting correctly since other search engines and tools may weight it differently, and an invalid value can cause some validators to reject the sitemap outright.
Why does the xmlns namespace matter?
The sitemap protocol requires the xmlns attribute on
Is my sitemap content uploaded anywhere?
No, validation runs entirely in your browser using the native DOMParser XML engine — no upload.