Indexability and crawling
How to fix XML sitemap problems
A sitemap is how search engines discover pages your own links do not lead to well, and how they learn something changed. Two things go wrong with it: there is not one, or the one you have lists URLs that do not work.
No XML sitemap
We could not find a valid XML sitemap. Google will still find pages by following links, but a sitemap is how it discovers pages that are not well linked, and how it learns when something changed.
What it is, and what it costs
How to fix it
Publish a sitemap.xml of your indexable pages and reference it from robots.txt and Google Search Console.
- WordPress: Yoast and Rank Math generate and update one automatically at
/sitemap_index.xml. - Shopify: a sitemap is generated for you at
/sitemap.xml. - Hand-coded: generate one at build time and keep it current as pages change.
How to check your site
Try yoursite.com/sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml. Submit whichever exists in Search Console.
Related: sitemaps that list broken URLs.
Questions people ask
- Do small sites need a sitemap?
- Less urgently: a small, well-linked site is easy to crawl. It still helps Google see changes faster.
Sitemap URLs that do not work
Your sitemap lists URLs that do not work. A sitemap is a statement that these are the pages you want indexed, so broken entries actively mislead search engines about your site.
What it is, and what it costs
How to fix it
Regenerate the sitemap so it contains only live, indexable URLs that return 200. If a plugin builds it, make sure it updates when pages change; if it is hand-built, automate it.
How to check your site
Open your sitemap and spot-check the URLs, or crawl them and flag any that are not 200 and indexable.
Related: adding a sitemap in the first place.
Questions people ask
- Should redirected URLs be in the sitemap?
- No. List the final destination URL, not the one that redirects to it.
Does your site have this?
Check your site to see whether a valid sitemap is published.
See also
- How to fix canonical tag problemsA canonical tag names the real URL for a page when the same content is reachable more than one way. Getting it wrong is quieter than most SEO faults: nothing on the page looks broken, and its value quietly goes to the wrong address — or to one that cannot rank at all.
- How to fix a page accidentally set to “noindex”If a page you care about is nowhere in Google, not even when you search its exact title, a noindex tag is the first thing to rule out. It is one line, it overrides everything else you do for that page, and it usually got there by accident.
- How to fix a robots.txt that blocks your whole siteDisallow: / in your robots.txt is the fastest way to disappear from search. It asks every crawler to skip the whole site at once, and it is a common leftover from launch day.
- How to fix redirect chains on your siteA redirect that points at another redirect makes the reader wait through every hop, and a bit of the value from the original link leaks away at each one. Chains build up quietly over years of moving pages around.