Check a sitemap

What is checked

• Structure: valid XML, correct namespace, limits of 50,000 addresses and 50 MB
• Addresses: duplicate entries, relative information, foreign domains, spaces
• Dates in lastmodeFormat and plausibility
• Objection to robots.txt: addresses that are listed but blocked
• Accessibility of a sample of pages contained

If only one domain is specified, the test searches for the sitemap itself – first via robots.txt, then under the usual paths.

For what Google Using the sitemap – and for what not

It is a proposal, not an instruction. Google The sitemap makes sure that addresses are known at all, which is why it gets the most out of large websites, newly published pages and wherever internal links are missing. Google Even without it all.

What it can't do: Influence ranking. Priority and changefreq Valued Google for years no longer out – the values do not harm, but also use nothing. lastmodeAnyone who writes today's date for all pages every day loses this trust permanently.

The Three Most Common Contradictions

• Listed, but blocked – the address is in the sitemap and is prohibited in robots.txt. Google Read this as two opposing instructions and report it in Search Console.
• Listed, but on noindex The same inconsistency one level deeper, both of which almost always come from sites that were once public and were later withdrawn.
• Listed, but canonical elsewhere - the page itself points to a different address than the authoritative one; then it belongs in the sitemap, not this one.

In all three cases, the sitemap is rarely the problem, but rather the directory from which it is generated. If you maintain it by hand, you should check it again after each major remodel - addresses that no longer exist do not disappear on their own.