A sitemap.xml file in a code window with one line highlighted red for an unescaped ampersand, above tags reading 50,000 URLs, 50 MB uncompressed and UTF-8

Guides11 Nov 2026 · 4 min read

XML sitemaps search engines can read: limits and common errors

One unescaped character can stop a crawler reading the rest of your sitemap. Here’s what belongs in an XML sitemap, the limits set by sitemaps.org and Google, the errors that break it, and how to validate yours.

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