Skip to main content

XML Sitemap Analysis

Our checker evaluates your website's XML sitemap configuration to ensure it properly guides search engines to your content.

  • Sitemap existence: We verify that your sitemap exists at the standard location or is properly referenced in robots.txt.
  • XML validity: We check that your sitemap has proper XML formatting and follows sitemap protocol standards.
  • Location compliance: We confirm whether your sitemap is in the standard location or properly referenced elsewhere.

Based on these findings, you can optimize your sitemap to improve search engine crawling, indexing efficiency, and content discovery.

XML Sitemap Best Practices​

❌ Bad Practice​

<!-- Missing XML declaration -->
<urlset>
  <url>
    <loc>http://example.com/</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

<!-- Using HTTP instead of HTTPS URLs -->
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>http://example.com/page1</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

<!-- Missing namespace declaration -->
<urlset>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/page1</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-06-12</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

<!-- Invalid date format -->
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/page1</loc>
    <lastmod>06/12/2023</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

<!-- Exceeding size limits (>50MB or >50,000 URLs) -->
<!-- No reference to sitemap in robots.txt -->
<!-- Sitemap not at standard location and not referenced in robots.txt -->

✅ Good Practice​

<!-- Properly formatted XML sitemap -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-06-15T12:30:45+00:00</lastmod>
    <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-05-28T09:15:30+00:00</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

<!-- Sitemap index for large sites -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-06-15T12:30:45+00:00</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-categories.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-06-10T15:20:10+00:00</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

<!-- Reference in robots.txt -->
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml