Free tools
Sitemap URL Validator
Validate a list of sitemap URLs (one per line). Find invalid URLs, duplicates, and warnings for query strings or fragments — in your browser.
URL list
Normalize for duplicate checks
Warnings
Results
Validate sitemap URLs
Validate a list of URLs like the ones you’d include in an XML sitemap. This tool checks URL syntax, finds duplicates, and flags common sitemap issues like query strings or fragments.
What it checks
- Invalid URLs (bad scheme/hostname, whitespace)
- Duplicates (after optional normalization)
- Warnings for query strings (?foo=bar) and fragments (#section)
What it doesn’t do
- No fetching: it does not check HTTP status codes or robots rules
- No XML parsing: paste URLs directly (one per line)
Frequently Asked Questions
What does this validator check?
The tool checks your URLs for: valid format and syntax, duplicates that could confuse search engines, query strings (which may indicate dynamic content that shouldn't be in sitemaps), and URL fragments (hashes that should be removed). It provides warnings and errors to help you clean your sitemap.
Why should I remove query strings from sitemaps?
Query strings often create duplicate content issues (e.g.,
/page?id=1 vs /page?id=2 pointing to the same content). Search engines prefer canonical URLs without parameters. If different parameters show different content, consider using URL rewriting for cleaner addresses.How do I use this tool?
Paste your list of URLs — one per line. The tool immediately validates each URL and shows results with color coding: green for valid, yellow for warnings (like query strings), and red for errors (invalid format or duplicates). Fix any issues and re-validate before creating your sitemap.
Can I validate an existing sitemap.xml file?
Copy just the URLs from your sitemap.xml (the text between
<loc> tags) and paste them here. The tool validates the URLs themselves. For full XML validation, use an XML validator to check that your sitemap.xml follows the sitemap protocol correctly.What's the limit on URLs in a sitemap?
Standard sitemaps can contain up to 50,000 URLs or be 50MB uncompressed (whichever comes first). If you have more URLs, use a sitemap index file that references multiple sitemap files. Most sites never approach this limit.