Free Sitemap Finder and Checker

What is an XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important URLs on your website that you want search engines to crawl and index. Think of it as a roadmap that helps search engine bots like Googlebot discover and understand the structure of your site more efficiently.

While search engines can discover pages through links, a sitemap provides additional metadata like when a page was last modified, how often it changes, and its relative priority compared to other pages. This helps search engines crawl your site more intelligently and keep their index up to date.

Sitemaps are especially important for large sites, new sites with few external links, sites with rich media content, or sites with pages that aren't well linked internally.

Types of Sitemaps

Declaring Sitemaps in Robots.txt

The recommended way to help search engines find your sitemaps is to declare them in your robots.txt file. This file is one of the first things search engine bots look for when crawling a site.

You can declare multiple sitemaps in robots.txt. This is especially useful if you have separate sitemaps for different content types like posts, pages, products, or media. Our checker specifically looks for these declarations first.

Common Sitemap Issues

• Not in robots.txt: If sitemaps aren't declared, search engines rely on common paths. Always declare in robots.txt for reliable discovery.
• Stale content: Outdated lastmod dates or including noindexed/redirected URLs wastes crawl budget and sends mixed signals.
• Size limits exceeded: Sitemaps over 50MB or 50,000 URLs won't be processed. Use sitemap index files instead.
• XML errors: Malformed XML prevents parsing. Validate your sitemaps after any changes to your sitemap generation logic.
• Wrong URLs: Including URLs that return 404, are blocked by robots.txt, or are non-canonical dilutes sitemap effectiveness.

Sitemap Best Practices

1. Keep it current

   Update lastmod dates only when content significantly changes. Automatic daily updates for all pages are counterproductive.

2. Include canonical URLs only

   Only include URLs you want indexed. Skip paginated pages, filtered views, and URLs with noindex tags.

3. Use consistent URLs

   Match the URL format used in your canonical tags. Don't mix www/non-www or http/https versions.

4. Submit to search consoles

   While robots.txt helps discovery, submitting directly to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools ensures processing.

5. Segment large sites

   Use separate sitemaps for posts, pages, products, and media. This helps with debugging and monitoring.