XML Sitemap Validator

Validate public XML sitemap and sitemap-index URLs, check listed pages, and export machine-readable file, URL, and aggregate health records. This xml sitemap validator is built for recurring technical SEO audits rather than a one-off green/red badge.

It reports XML syntax, standard namespace use, nesting, malformed and duplicate locations, invalid metadata, cross-host locations, HTTP status, redirects, response time, and aggregate healthy/warning/broken counts.

What does XML Sitemap Validator do?

1. Downloads each supplied public sitemap.
2. Validates well-formed XML and a supported urlset or sitemapindex root.
3. Follows nested sitemap indexes within your limits.
4. validates loc, lastmod, changefreq, and priority values.
5. Optionally requests listed pages and records status, redirect destination, and response time.
6. Saves typed sitemap, url, and summary records to the default dataset.

The Actor does not generate a sitemap, submit one to a search engine, crawl pages that are absent from the sitemap, or decide whether a URL is indexed.

Who is this sitemap audit for?

• Technical SEO teams checking releases and migrations.
• Agencies auditing client sitemap health on a schedule.
• Site-reliability teams monitoring broken sitemap locations.
• Developers validating CMS sitemap changes in a pipeline.
• Data teams exporting repeatable sitemap findings to a warehouse.

Why use this Actor?

A browser-based validator is useful for one URL. This Actor turns the audit into structured records that can be filtered, compared, scheduled, sent to webhooks, or consumed through the Apify API. Limits are explicit, duplicate locations remain visible, nested-file provenance is preserved, and deterministic issue codes simplify automation.

Validation checks

Area	Findings
XML	malformed XML, unsupported roots, missing standard namespace
File limits	empty sitemap, excessive entry count, excessive size
Location	malformed URL, duplicate URL, cross-host URL
Metadata	invalid lastmod, changefreq, or priority
Nesting	bounded sitemap-index depth and document count
HTTP	request failure, timeout, HTTP error, or redirect

Input parameters

Field	Type	Default	Meaning
startUrls	array	required	Public HTTP(S) sitemap or sitemap-index URLs
maxUrls	integer	20	Maximum URL entries checked across the run
maxSitemaps	integer	50	Maximum XML documents fetched
maxDepth	integer	5	Maximum nested index depth
checkUrlStatus	boolean	true	Whether listed page URLs are requested
requestTimeoutSecs	integer	20	Per-request timeout
maxRetries	integer	2	Retries for transient network, 429, and 5xx failures

Only anonymous, publicly routable HTTP(S) URLs are supported. Private, loopback, link-local, and credential-bearing targets are rejected.

Get started

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Add one or more direct sitemap URLs under Sitemap URLs.
3. Keep maxUrls small for an initial audit.
4. Leave page status checks enabled when broken URLs and redirects matter.
5. Click Start.
6. Open the Dataset tab and filter recordType or issueCodes.
7. Save the input as an Apify Task when you want scheduled comparisons.

Example input:

{
  "startUrls": [{ "url": "https://www.shopify.com/sitemap.xml" }],
  "maxUrls": 25,
  "maxSitemaps": 10,
  "maxDepth": 3,
  "checkUrlStatus": true
}

Output records

Every row has a recordType:

• sitemap describes one fetched XML document.
• url describes one listed page location and its checks.
• summary provides aggregate health counts for a supplied root.

Representative URL record:

{
  "recordType": "url",
  "rootSitemap": "https://www.shopify.com/sitemap.xml",
  "sitemapUrl": "https://www.shopify.com/sitemap_products_1.xml",
  "url": "https://www.shopify.com/blog/sitemap-guide",
  "depth": 1,
  "httpStatus": 200,
  "finalUrl": "https://www.shopify.com/blog/sitemap-guide",
  "responseTimeMs": 184,
  "lastModified": "2026-01-15T12:00:00.000Z",
  "changeFrequency": null,
  "priority": null,
  "isValid": true,
  "isDuplicate": false,
  "isSameHost": true,
  "issueCodes": [],
  "issueCount": 0,
  "auditedAt": "2026-01-15T12:01:00.000Z"
}

Nullable fields are expected: not every sitemap declares optional metadata, and status fields are null when checkUrlStatus is false.

Issue-code interpretation

MALFORMED_XML and UNSUPPORTED_XML_ROOT identify file-level parsing failures. MALFORMED_LOC, DUPLICATE_LOC, and CROSS_HOST_LOC identify location findings. INVALID_LASTMOD, INVALID_CHANGEFREQ, and INVALID_PRIORITY identify metadata findings. HTTP_ERROR, REDIRECT, TIMEOUT, and REQUEST_FAILED identify request outcomes.

A redirect is a warning rather than a broken result. A request failure or HTTP error contributes to brokenUrls. Other findings contribute to warningUrls.

How much does it cost to validate XML sitemap records?

Pay-per-event pricing includes a $0.001 start fee plus $0.00072 per audit-record event on the Bronze tier. One audit-record is one sitemap-file, listed-URL, or aggregate-summary row.

Approximate Bronze examples:

Saved records	Approximate total
10	$0.0082
100	$0.073
1,000	$0.721

The exact price shown in Console depends on your Apify tier. Limits control the number of page checks, but index/file and summary rows are also useful charged records. Failed requests that produce an audit-record are charged because the failure finding is part of the audit.

Recurring technical SEO workflow

Create one Task per site, use stable limits, and schedule it after releases or daily/weekly. Send the completed dataset to a webhook or automation. Compare issueCodes, httpStatus, brokenUrls, and warningUrls with the prior run. The Actor produces snapshots; it does not retain or compare historical runs itself.

Export and integrations

The default dataset can be downloaded as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS. Connect runs to Zapier, Make, Google Sheets, Slack, a webhook, or your data warehouse through standard Apify integrations. Use recordType=summary for dashboards and recordType=url for issue queues.

Run with the Apify API

Replace YOUR_TOKEN with an Apify API token.

curl -X POST \
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~xml-sitemap-validator/runs?token=YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"startUrls":[{"url":"https://www.shopify.com/sitemap.xml"}],"maxUrls":25}'

JavaScript:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/xml-sitemap-validator').call({
  startUrls: [{ url: 'https://www.shopify.com/sitemap.xml' }],
  maxUrls: 25,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient(token="YOUR_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("automation-lab/xml-sitemap-validator").call(run_input={
    "startUrls": [{"url": "https://www.shopify.com/sitemap.xml"}],
    "maxUrls": 25,
})
items = client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).list_items().items
print(items)

Use with MCP and AI agents

Add the Actor to Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http apify \
  "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/xml-sitemap-validator"

Claude Desktop, Cursor, and VS Code can use the same HTTP MCP server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify": {
      "url": "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=automation-lab/xml-sitemap-validator"
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• “Validate this sitemap and summarize broken listed URLs.”
• “Audit the WordPress sitemap index with a 200-URL limit.”
• “Return only URL records with redirect or metadata issue codes.”

Reliability and limits

The Actor follows redirects and retries only transient conditions. It does not retry malformed input or deterministic XML errors. A sitemap document is limited to 25 MB in memory, 50,000 protocol entries are treated as excessive, recursion is bounded, and page checks run sequentially to reduce load on user-supplied sites.

Very large or slow sites should be audited in bounded runs. A site may block automated requests, vary responses by region, or rate-limit repeated checks. Reduce maxUrls, increase the timeout carefully, or schedule less frequently. No residential proxy fallback is automatically enabled.

Troubleshooting

Why is a sitemap marked invalid?

Inspect issueCodes and the run log. Common causes are malformed XML, a non-sitemap response such as HTML, an unsupported root, a private hostname, or a stable HTTP error.

Why is httpStatus null?

Page status fields remain null when page checking is disabled. On sitemap records, a null status means the XML request failed before a response was available.

Why are fewer URLs checked than the sitemap contains?

maxUrls, maxSitemaps, and maxDepth are hard safety limits. Increase only the specific limit needed. Duplicate locations still produce records and count toward maxUrls so duplicate auditing remains deterministic.

Does this prove that Google indexed every URL?

No. HTTP health and sitemap protocol checks are not search-index coverage. Use Google Search Console data for indexing decisions.

Legality and responsible use

Audit only public URLs that you are allowed to request. Respect site terms, robots policies where applicable to your organization, rate limits, and relevant law. Avoid aggressive schedules against infrastructure you do not control. The Actor does not bypass login, CAPTCHA, or access controls.

Related Actors

• Sitemap XML URL Extractor for a lightweight deduplicated URL inventory without the full health audit.
• Multi-page On-page SEO Audit Crawler for page content and on-page SEO signals beyond sitemap validation.
• Lighthouse Website Audit for performance, accessibility, best-practice, and Lighthouse SEO checks.

FAQ

Can I supply multiple root sitemaps?

Yes. Add several startUrls; one summary row is emitted for each supplied root. Run-wide URL and sitemap limits apply across them.

Are gzip sitemaps supported?

Only responses exposed to the HTTP client as text are supported. A raw .gz file that is not transparently decoded by the server/client may produce an unsupported XML finding.

Can it validate image, video, or news extensions?

The core sitemap structure and page locations are validated. Extension-specific schemas and media-resource availability are not validated.

Can I skip page requests?

Yes. Set checkUrlStatus to false for a fast structure-and-metadata audit. URL status, redirect, and response-time fields will be null.