---
title: What Gets Checked with a Sitemap Checker?
description: "The **Sitemap Checker** performs a thorough evaluation to ensure your sitemaps are valid, accessible, and optimized for search engines. ### Core Checks - **Sitemap Discovery**: Automatically locates sitemaps via `robots.txt` or standard file paths. - **Accessibility**: Confirms the sitemap returns…"
url: "https://ssh-assistant.com/docs/what-gets-checked-with-a-sitemap-checker/"
updated: "2025-12-10"
category: Site Load Tester / Sitemap Checker
---

# What Gets Checked with a Sitemap Checker?

The **Sitemap Checker** performs a thorough evaluation to ensure your sitemaps are valid, accessible, and optimized for search engines.

### Core Checks

- **Sitemap Discovery**: Automatically locates sitemaps via `robots.txt` or standard file paths.
- **Accessibility**: Confirms the sitemap returns a valid HTTP 200 response and isn’t blocked.
- **XML Validation**: Ensures proper XML formatting and structure.
- **URL Counting**: Counts all URLs, including those inside child sitemaps when using sitemap indexes.
- **Child Sitemap Analysis**: Fetches and inspects each child sitemap referenced in an index.
- **File Size**: Verifies individual and total file sizes against recommended limits.
- **Freshness**: Reviews last modified dates to highlight outdated sitemaps.
- **Metadata Quality**: Checks for `lastmod` tags (optional but recommended).
- **Best Practices**: Validates compliance with sitemap protocol specifications.
- **Issue Detection**: Flags problems that may prevent proper search engine discovery.

### Special Handling for Sitemap Indexes

When analyzing sitemap indexes, the tool:

- Fetches each child sitemap individually.
- Counts all URLs across child sitemaps (not just those listed in the index file).
- Verifies accessibility of each child sitemap.
- Provides a detailed breakdown with URL counts and file sizes per child sitemap.