How do I check my sitemap?

Use the Sitemap check on Audit, Site Health. Enter your address, or paste your sitemap's address, and press Check sitemap. Your sitemap is the list of pages you ask Google to index, so the check shows where it disagrees with your site: listed pages that no longer load, ones that redirect, and ones also tagged noindex. If you have no sitemap, it can build one from your last site scan.

#Run the check

1. Open Audit, then Site Health, and find Sitemap check.
2. Your address is filled in. You can paste a sitemap address directly instead, such as https://yoursite.co.uk/sitemap.xml.
3. Press Check sitemap. It reads the sitemap and opens a sample of the pages it lists, which can take up to half a minute.

#Reading the results

For each sitemap (a large site may have an index pointing to several files), the check shows:

• URLs listed, and any listed twice.
• sampled: how many of the listed pages it opened.
• not loading: listed pages that return an error.
• redirecting: listed pages that send visitors elsewhere. List the final address instead.
• noindexed: pages you ask Google to index in the sitemap but tell it not to index on the page. Pick one.
• Whether the dates in the sitemap look genuine.

Each finding has a level, a count and examples. If all is well, it says Nothing wrong with this sitemap.

The check opens a sample of pages, not every one, so percentages are estimates from that sample. The results say how many of the listed pages were checked.

#No sitemap? Build one

Build one from my last scan makes a sitemap.xml from the pages your last site scan found. It leaves out pages tagged noindex, pages that point their canonical tag to another address, and pages that did not load properly, and says how many it left out.

• Copy XML or Download sitemap.xml.
• Save it as sitemap.xml at the root of your site (for example yoursite.co.uk/sitemap.xml) and add a Sitemap line to your robots.txt.

You need a site scan first. See run a site scan.

#Questions people ask

#What is the difference between this and the Sitemap tab on Site Audit?

This check looks for problems in your sitemap. Site Audit, Sitemap draws your sitemap as a map of your site's sections, so you can see how it is organised. See the Site Audit sitemap.

#Should I submit my sitemap to Google?

Yes, once it is clean. Add it in Search Console, under Sitemaps. See connect Search Console.