Free redirect tool
Sitemap Redirect Checker
Enter a sitemap URL or a domain, and TrueURL reads the sitemap, checks up to 500 of its page URLs and lists the ones that redirect or fail. A clean sitemap lists only final URLs that return 200 OK.
Cloudflare's edge always validates certificates, so this cannot skip the check. Certificate problems are reported in the result.
Sent with the first request, up to 16 KB. JSON bodies are sent as application/json, others as a form, unless you set a Content-Type header.
1 to 50. Browsers stop after 20.
Sites can redirect phones, crawlers and link preview bots differently.
Sent with every request in the chain.
No custom headers.
Enter a value to send this header. Header values are never saved.
Follow <meta http-equiv="refresh"> tags and Refresh headers found in HTML pages.
Follow simple, unconditional redirects such as location.href = "…" in page scripts.
Settings are remembered in this browser. Cookies, header values and the POST body are never saved.
Why redirects don't belong in a sitemap
A sitemap tells search engines which URLs you want crawled and indexed, so every URL in it should be canonical and return 200 OK directly. A URL that redirects sends a mixed signal: the sitemap says index this, while the redirect says this address has moved. Google Search Console reports such URLs as Page with redirect, and they use up crawl requests that real pages could have had.
Broken URLs, such as 404, 410 or 5xx errors, are worse. They show crawlers that the sitemap is out of date and may make search engines trust it less.
How the sitemap check works
- Enter the full sitemap URL, or just a domain, in which case TrueURL tries
/sitemap.xmland then theSitemap:lines in yourrobots.txt. - Standard
<urlset>sitemaps, sitemap index files (up to 10 child sitemaps), gzip-compressed.xml.gzfiles and plain-text sitemaps with one URL per line are supported. - Up to 500 page URLs are checked in the order they appear, with the same redirect engine as the other tools. They are checked a few at a time to respect rate limits, so a full run can take several minutes.
- The results can be exported to CSV or JSON.
If your sitemap isn't found that way, enter its full URL.
Fixing what the check finds
- Redirected URLs: replace each one with its final URL from the results, or remove it if the final page is already listed.
- http:// or wrong-host URLs: the sitemap generator is usually using the wrong base URL. Fix the site address setting rather than individual entries.
- Trailing slash mismatches: the sitemap uses one style and the site redirects to the other. See the Trailing Slash Checker.
- 404 and 410 URLs: remove deleted pages from the sitemap.
- Bot challenges: if many URLs return a challenge page, your firewall or bot protection is blocking automated requests. Make sure verified search engine crawlers are allowed through.
Most sitemap problems come from the generator, so fix the plugin or build step and regenerate the file instead of editing it by hand.
Sitemap best practices
- List only canonical, indexable URLs: no redirects, no errors, no
noindexpages and no URLs blocked byrobots.txt. - Keep each sitemap under 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed, and use a sitemap index for more.
- Use absolute URLs with the same scheme and host as your canonical site.
- Keep
<lastmod>accurate. Google uses it when it's consistently correct and ignores<changefreq>and<priority>.
Frequently asked questions
How many URLs can the sitemap checker test?
Up to 500 page URLs per run, from up to 10 child sitemaps of a sitemap index. If your sitemap contains more, the result says so; check the remaining child sitemaps by entering their URLs directly.
Does it work with sitemap index files and .gz sitemaps?
Yes. TrueURL recognises sitemap index files, reads up to 10 of their child sitemaps and decompresses gzip-compressed sitemaps automatically. Plain-text sitemaps with one URL per line work too.
Can I check a sitemap that isn't at /sitemap.xml?
Yes. Enter the full sitemap URL, such as https://example.com/sitemap_index.xml or https://example.com/post-sitemap.xml. If you enter just your domain, TrueURL tries /sitemap.xml and then the Sitemap: lines in your robots.txt.
Is a redirecting URL in my sitemap really a problem?
It won't stop your site from being indexed, but it sends a signal you didn't intend: search engines are asked to index a URL that isn't the canonical one, and they spend crawl requests on the redirect. Replace every redirecting entry with its final URL.
Why do all URLs show the same error?
Does the checker submit my sitemap to Google?
No. It only reads the sitemap and checks the URLs in it. Submit the cleaned-up sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and reference it in your robots.txt.