XML Sitemap Checklist
For site owners and SEOs who create or maintain sitemaps. Use it when launching a site, after changing URL structure, or when Search Console reports sitemap or indexing problems.
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- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- A sitemap that errors or has invalid markup is ignored, so search engines get no discovery help.
- How to check or fix it
- Open the sitemap URL, check the status, and validate the XML. Search Console shows Success or an error after submission.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Redirected, noindexed or error URLs in a sitemap send mixed signals and waste crawl attention.
- How to check or fix it
- Crawl the sitemap in Screaming Frog (List mode) and filter for non-200 responses, noindex and canonicalised URLs. Remove them.
- critical
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Mismatches with the canonical version cause duplicates and can lead to the wrong version being indexed.
- How to check or fix it
- Check that every URL uses https and your chosen www or non-www host. Generate the sitemap from the same source as canonical tags.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Files over the limit are rejected or partly ignored.
- How to check or fix it
- Split large sites into several sitemaps and list them in a sitemap index file.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Submission gives you a report of discovered URLs and any errors Google found.
- How to check or fix it
- Open Indexing > Sitemaps, add the URL, and check Discovered URLs and Status. Re-check after major changes.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Other crawlers, including Bing, can discover it without a separate submission.
- How to check or fix it
- Add Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml to robots.txt using the full URL.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Google uses lastmod only when it proves reliable. Setting it to the current time on every build trains crawlers to ignore it.
- How to check or fix it
- Populate lastmod from the real content modified date in your CMS. Skip priority and changefreq, which Google ignores.
- important
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Missing important URLs delays discovery, while junk URLs dilute the signal.
- How to check or fix it
- Compare the sitemap URL count with your list of indexable pages from a crawl and from Search Console.
- nice
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Splitting by products, blog and categories shows which area has indexing problems.
- How to check or fix it
- Submit each sitemap in Search Console and compare the indexed versus submitted counts using the Pages report sitemap filter.
- nice
Why and how
- Why it matters
- Extensions can help Google discover media that is loaded in ways it might miss.
- How to check or fix it
- Use the image and video sitemap extensions with absolute URLs. Test a sample page with URL Inspection.
Checklist complete. Re-run it after your next release or major change, and use the related lists below to keep going.
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Common questions
Do I need an XML sitemap if my site is small?
A small, well-linked site can be crawled without one, but a sitemap is cheap insurance and gives you Search Console reporting. It matters more for large, new or poorly linked sites.
Does being in a sitemap guarantee a page gets indexed?
No. A sitemap helps discovery, but Google decides what to index based on quality and other signals. Pages that are duplicates or thin may stay unindexed.