Sitemap Analyzer

How Sitemap Analysis Works

XML sitemaps are files that list all the pages on a website, along with metadata about each page like when it was last modified, how often it changes, and its relative priority. Search engines use sitemaps to discover and index pages more efficiently.

This tool fetches the sitemap (or sitemap index), parses the XML, and presents a structured breakdown of all URLs and their attributes. It also identifies common issues like missing lastmod dates, incorrect priorities, and inconsistent update frequencies.

What Gets Analyzed

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  Sitemap Structure: Detects whether the URL points to a sitemap index (containing child sitemaps) or a single URL set. Reports the total number of child sitemaps and their locations.
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  URL Inventory: Lists every URL found in the sitemap with its associated metadata: lastmod, changefreq, and priority values.
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  Freshness Metrics: Shows what percentage of URLs have lastmod dates, how recently they were updated, and the distribution of changefreq values.
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  Priority Distribution: Analyzes priority values across all URLs. Identifies pages marked as high-priority vs. low-priority and calculates the average.
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  Issue Detection: Flags common problems: missing attributes, unreachable URLs, duplicate entries, and sitemaps exceeding the 50,000 URL limit.

Use Cases

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  SEO Auditing: Verify your sitemap includes all important pages, has accurate lastmod dates, and follows best practices. Catch missing pages before search engines do.
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  Crawl Planning: Before scraping a site, analyze its sitemap to understand the scope and plan your crawl strategy. Sitemaps give you a complete URL list without following links.
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  Content Monitoring: Track changes to competitor sitemaps over time. Detect new pages, removed content, and update frequency patterns.
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  Site Migration QA: Compare sitemaps before and after a migration to ensure no pages were lost and all redirects are in place.

Frequently Asked Questions