The XML Sitemap Checker finds your sitemap by reading robots.txt and trying the usual locations, then reports what it holds. You see the number of URLs, whether it is a single sitemap or an index, and how many entries carry a lastmod date. It flags URLs on another host, plain http URLs, duplicates and sitemaps over 50,000 URLs.
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The checker looks for a Sitemap line in your robots.txt, then tries /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml. Once it finds a sitemap it lists the first 15 URLs and runs 12 checks. It also tests up to 25 of the listed URLs, compares the file with the pages your homepage links to, and lets you download every URL it read as a CSV.
If the file is a sitemap index, it reads the first 3 child sitemaps to sample the set.
Each check is a pass, a warning or a fail.
A single sitemap file can hold up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Bigger sites split their URLs across several files and list them in a sitemap index.
| Check | What it flags |
|---|---|
| Sitemap found | No sitemap at any location it tried |
| Declared in robots.txt | No Sitemap line in robots.txt (warning) |
| All URLs on this domain | Entries that point to another host, which crawlers ignore |
| All URLs https | Entries that use plain http |
| No duplicates | The same URL listed more than once (warning) |
| lastmod dates present | No lastmod values, so crawlers cannot tell what changed (warning) |
| lastmod dates are real | One date on every URL, or dates that match the time the file was built (warning) |
| Listed URLs don't redirect | Sampled entries that send the visitor to another address (warning) |
| Listed URLs load | Sampled entries that return an error or no response |
| Listed URLs are indexable | Sampled entries set to noindex, in the page or the header (warning) |
| Pages linked from the homepage are listed | Internal pages the homepage links to that the sitemap leaves out (warning) |
| Under 50,000 URLs | More URLs than a single sitemap file allows |
Each URL in a sitemap can have a lastmod date, the last time the page changed. Google and Bing only use it when it's accurate. If every URL has the same date, or the date changes on every deploy whether the page did or not, they learn to ignore it.
Set lastmod from the page's real content changes, like the date you last edited the copy. The checker warns when all the dates match, or when they all equal the time the sitemap was built.
ChatGPT search partners with outside search providers, and OpenAI links Microsoft's privacy policy for those queries, so pages Bing hasn't indexed are less likely to show up there. A clean sitemap is one of the easiest ways to help Bing find your pages.
Submit your sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools as well as Google Search Console, and use IndexNow to tell Bing when a page changes. The checker flags URLs that redirect, error or are set to noindex, since those waste crawls and make the whole file less trusted.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2026-10-28</lastmod>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/pricing</loc>
<lastmod>2026-09-14</lastmod>
</url>
</urlset>Each URL goes in its own <url> block with a full <loc>. lastmod is optional. Search engines ignore changefreq and priority, so you can leave them out.
Most sitemap problems come from a plugin or framework setting. Fix the setting, regenerate the file, and run the checker again. The robots.txt generator writes a robots.txt with a Sitemap line if yours is missing one.
Peak Answer runs checks like these every week, then writes the content and gets the placements.