NuxtSEO

$ nuxt-seo tools

XML Sitemap Validator

Validate XML sitemaps for errors and ensure search engine compliance. Test sitemap structure and optimize for better crawl efficiency.

What Makes a Valid Sitemap?

XML sitemaps help search engines discover and crawl your pages efficiently. A valid sitemap follows specific rules:

  • Proper namespace: Must include xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
  • Size limits: Maximum 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed
  • Valid URLs: Absolute URLs with proper encoding
  • Date format: W3C datetime format (YYYY-MM-DD)

Common Sitemap Errors

Invalid XML
Missing closing tags, incorrect nesting, or unescaped characters (&, <, >). Always escape special characters.
Wrong date
Using formats like "01/15/2024" instead of "2024-01-15". Use W3C datetime format.
Relative URLs
Using "/page" instead of "https://example.com/page". Always use absolute URLs.
Too large
Over 50,000 URLs or 50MB file size. Use sitemap index for large sites.

Sitemap Best Practices

What to Include

  • Important content pages
  • Recently updated pages
  • Pages hard to discover through navigation
  • Canonical versions of URLs only

What to Exclude

  • Duplicate or near-duplicate pages
  • Session ID URLs
  • API endpoints
  • Admin or private pages
  • 404 or error pages

Submitting Your Sitemap

Once validated, submit your sitemap to search engines:

  1. Google: Submit through Search Console under Indexing → Sitemaps
  2. Bing: Submit through Bing Webmaster Tools
  3. Robots.txt: Add Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml to your robots.txt

Dynamic Sitemaps with Nuxt

Generate sitemaps automatically with the Nuxt Sitemap module: 

# Install the module
npm install @nuxtjs/sitemap

# Configure in nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: ['@nuxtjs/sitemap'],
  sitemap: {
    // Auto-discovery enabled by default
    exclude: ['/admin/**', '/api/**']
  }
})
Learn more about Nuxt Sitemap →

Official References

Sitemaps Protocol

Official specification for XML sitemaps including format and requirements.

Google: Build and Submit a Sitemap

Google's guide to creating and submitting sitemaps.

Google Search Console

Submit and monitor your sitemap for indexing.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Submit your sitemap to Bing for indexing.

Related Resources

Sitemap ModuleRobots.txt ModuleSitemap GuideMeta Tag CheckerNuxt SEO Docs