Paste your XML sitemap to find errors that can stop Google and Bing reading it, from broken XML to bad dates and relative URLs.
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What it checks
| Check | Rule |
|---|---|
| Valid XML | The file must parse, with special characters like & escaped |
| Root and namespace | <urlset> or <sitemapindex> with the sitemaps.org namespace |
| URLs | Every <loc> must be a full absolute URL |
| lastmod | W3C date format, such as 2026-11-01 or 2026-11-01T09:30:00+00:00 |
| priority | Between 0.0 and 1.0 |
| changefreq | always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or never |
| Size | Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed |
| Duplicates and hosts | Each URL once, all on the same site |
Fixing common errors
- “Not valid XML”: usually an unescaped & in a URL. Replace it with &.
- Wrong date format: 01/11/2026 isn’t valid; use 2026-11-01.
- Relative URLs: /page/ must be https://example.com/page/.
- Too big: split into several sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index.
After fixing, resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console and check the Sitemaps report for “Success”.
Frequently asked questions
Why does Search Console say my sitemap couldn't be read?
Often it’s invalid XML, the wrong address, or the file is blocked. Paste it here to check the format.
Does Google use priority and changefreq?
No, Google ignores them. It does use lastmod if it’s accurate.
Can a sitemap include URLs from another domain?
Not normally. Each sitemap should list URLs on its own site.
Is my sitemap uploaded?
No, it’s checked in your browser.
Sources
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