Free tool
Sitemap Checker
Find where a site's sitemaps live, confirm they load, and list what they contain.
How it works
What is the Sitemap Checker?
The Sitemap Checker is a free tool that finds where a website's sitemaps live and confirms each one loads. It looks in robots.txt, then the common sitemap paths, then links on the homepage, and reports each sitemap's HTTP status, file size and how many URLs or child sitemaps it holds.
How to use the Sitemap Checker
- Enter the website's domain, such as example.com. The search starts from the root of the domain.
- Press Find sitemap. The tool reads robots.txt for
Sitemap:lines. If there are none, it tries /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml and /sitemap-index.xml, then looks for sitemap links on the homepage. - Read the list of sitemaps found. Each line shows the URL count, or for an index the number of sitemaps it lists, plus the file size and HTTP status.
- Look for any sitemap that shows an error instead, such as an HTTP status code, "Did not parse as XML" or "Not a recognised sitemap format". Crawlers cannot use those files.
How do I find the sitemap of a website?
Check robots.txt first. Open the site's /robots.txt and look for a line starting Sitemap:, which gives the sitemap's full URL. If there is none, try /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml at the root of the domain.
This checker follows the same order. It tries the common paths when robots.txt declares nothing, and reads the homepage's links when both come up empty.
Does a sitemap need to be in robots.txt?
No, but robots.txt is the best place to declare one. Every crawler that follows robots.txt fetches that file, so a Sitemap: line there is visible to search engines and AI crawlers that have no submission console. A Search Console submission reaches Google alone.
The Sitemap: line must use a full URL, can appear anywhere in the file, and can be repeated once for each sitemap.
Why would a sitemap exist but not work?
A sitemap address can be declared and still be useless to a crawler. The checker catches the common cases: an HTTP error such as a 404 or 403, a file that does not parse as XML, and a file with no <urlset> or <sitemapindex>, which is usually an HTML page served in its place.
The URL count matters too. A sitemap that loads but lists far fewer URLs than your site has is visible here as a small number. To test each sitemap inside an index in detail, run it through the XML Sitemap Validator.
Questions
- Where is a sitemap usually located?
- A sitemap is usually at the root of the domain, at /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml. WordPress core uses /wp-sitemap.xml, Yoast and Rank Math use /sitemap_index.xml, and Shopify uses /sitemap.xml. The site's robots.txt often names the exact location in a
Sitemap:line. - Can a website have multiple sitemaps?
- Yes. A website can have several sitemaps, declared with one
Sitemap:line each in robots.txt or grouped under a sitemap index. Problems start when two plugins each write their own and one of them stops updating. - What if the checker finds no sitemap?
- If the Sitemap Checker finds nothing, the site either has no sitemap or keeps it at an unusual path that robots.txt does not declare. Create one, then add a
Sitemap:line with its full URL to robots.txt so crawlers can find it. - How do I check a sitemap manually?
- To check a sitemap manually, open its URL in a browser and confirm it shows XML with
<url>or<sitemap>entries rather than an error page. Then open a few of the listed URLs to confirm they load, and check Search Console's Sitemaps report for errors Google found.
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