Sitemap Validator

Check if your sitemap exists and is properly configured for AI crawlers. Get insights on coverage, freshness, and optimization.

Why Sitemaps Matter for AI

Sitemaps help AI crawlers discover and understand all your content systematically. A well-configured sitemap ensures nothing gets missed.

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Complete Discovery

Sitemaps ensure AI crawlers find all your pages, including those not easily discovered through internal links.

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Freshness Signals

Last modified dates help AI prioritize recent content and understand when pages are updated.

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Crawl Efficiency

Priority and change frequency signals guide crawlers to focus on your most important content.

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Structured Access

XML format provides machine-readable structure that AI can process efficiently.

Sitemap Best Practices

1. Basic Structure

Create a valid XML sitemap with all your important URLs. Place it at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.

Basic Sitemap Structure

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-12-20</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-12-19</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

2. Add to robots.txt

Reference your sitemap in robots.txt so crawlers can easily discover it.

robots.txt Reference

User-agent: *
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml

💡 Tip: This makes your sitemap discoverable without crawlers having to guess the location.

3. Optimize Metadata

Include lastmod, changefreq, and priority to help AI understand your content better.

lastmod: When the page was last modified (YYYY-MM-DD format)

changefreq: How often the page changes (always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never)

priority: Importance relative to other pages (0.0 to 1.0)

4. Sitemap Index for Large Sites

If you have more than 50,000 URLs, use a sitemap index file to organize multiple sitemaps.

Sitemap Index

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/sitemap-posts.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-12-20</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://yoursite.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-12-19</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

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✅ Sitemap Checklist

□ Sitemap.xml exists at domain root
□ Referenced in robots.txt
□ All URLs use HTTPS
□ Includes lastmod dates
□ Priority set for important pages
□ Valid XML syntax
□ Under 50,000 URLs per sitemap
□ Updated when content changes