SEO checks / Sitemap

Sitemap lists a broken or redirecting URL

A sitemap should list only final, live URLs — ones that return HTTP 200 directly. A sitemap entry that 404s, 500s, or redirects wastes the crawl budget search engines allocate based on what's in your sitemap, and signals the sitemap itself is out of date.

Why it matters

Search engines treat a sitemap full of broken or redirecting URLs as a maintenance red flag, and every hop or error costs crawl efficiency that could go toward pages actually worth indexing.

How to fix it

Remove or update sitemap entries for pages that no longer exist.
For redirected URLs, list the final destination directly instead of the URL that redirects to it.
Regenerate the sitemap automatically from live routes so removed/moved pages can't linger in it.

Is this happening on your site?

We'll crawl your site, check it for this and every other issue on this list, and send you a free report.

Get my free SEO check