Sitemap Monitoring

Your XML sitemap tells search engines which pages to crawl. If a deploy removes half of your sitemap URLs, or a sitemap file stops loading, search engines can stop finding your pages. Usually, nobody sees this.

Sitemap Monitoring reads your sitemaps once a day. It compares each check with the previous check and tells you what changed. It also checks each sitemap file against the official limits and rules.

What it answersCopy Anchor Link

• Are my sitemaps healthy, and do all sitemap files load?
• Which URLs were added to or removed from my sitemaps, and when?
• Do removed URLs still get Google clicks?
• Do my sitemap files break an official limit, for example 50,000 URLs or 50 MB?
• Which sitemap URLs are broken, redirected, noindex or not in Google's index?
• Did Googlebot visit the new URLs in my sitemap?

How it worksCopy Anchor Link

Sitemap Monitoring needs no setup. It starts when you add a domain.

1. VitalSentinel finds your sitemaps. See How sitemaps are found.
2. VitalSentinel reads every sitemap file once a day. The first check starts right after you add the domain. On a large site, it can take some time.
3. VitalSentinel compares each check with the previous check. It records the URLs that are new, removed, back in the sitemap or updated.
4. VitalSentinel checks each file against the official limits and recommendations. See Limits and recommendations.

Sitemap Monitoring is available on every plan, with no limits. You do not need to verify the domain. The module has no settings.

How sitemaps are foundCopy Anchor Link

VitalSentinel finds your sitemaps automatically, in these places:

You cannot add a sitemap by hand. To add a sitemap, add a Sitemap: line to your robots.txt, or submit the sitemap in Google Search Console. VitalSentinel looks again every day.

If a sitemap file returns "not found" for 7 days in a row, VitalSentinel stops checking it. Its status then shows No longer checked.

Removed URLs are confirmedCopy Anchor Link

Sitemap Monitoring does not report a URL as removed by mistake:

• If a sitemap file cannot be downloaded, VitalSentinel keeps its URLs. They show as Held – file not read and do not count as removed until the file downloads again.
• If a file suddenly loses many URLs, VitalSentinel downloads it again one hour later. The removals count only if the second download confirms them.

Data from other modulesCopy Anchor Link

Sitemap Monitoring does not open your pages. It uses data from other modules to show more about each URL:

A column or a card that needs a source that you did not connect shows a link to set it up.

First checkCopy Anchor Link

While the first check runs, the page shows Checking your sitemaps for the first time. The page updates automatically.

After the first check, the page shows First check done, with the number of URLs and sitemaps that VitalSentinel found. Changes show from the next check.

If VitalSentinel cannot find or read a sitemap, the page shows one of these messages:

Where to find itCopy Anchor Link

Open a domain and select Sitemap Monitoring in the Monitoring group of the sidebar. The page has three tabs: Overview, URLs and Files.

OverviewCopy Anchor Link

The Overview tab tells you if something is wrong and what changed.

Sitemap healthCopy Anchor Link

The top card shows the time of the last check and the next check. It gives a verdict: Your sitemaps look healthy or Your sitemaps need attention.

Top problems lists what to fix first, each with a link to the details:

Recommendations lists things that are not errors but are worth a fix. The list is closed by default. Click it to open it. For example, sitemap URLs whose canonical points to a different page. List the canonical URL instead.

URLs over timeCopy Anchor Link

This chart shows the number of URLs in your sitemaps, and the new and removed URLs on each check. An amber dot marks a check in which some files failed. Click a day to see what changed on it.

What changedCopy Anchor Link

This card lists the changes between two checks. By default, it compares the last check with the check before it. To compare other checks, select the dates in From and To. Highlighted days in the calendar have a check.

The tiles show the totals for each type of change. Click a tile to filter the list:

Some URLs also show a chip:

Select Still getting clicks to see the removed URLs that Google still sends visitors to. This list needs Google Search Console. The What to do column tells you the next step:

Google's index and Googlebot visitsCopy Anchor Link

• Google's index shows how many of the inspected sitemap URLs are not in Google's index, and why. It needs Indexing Monitoring.
• Googlebot visits shows when Googlebot last read a sitemap, and how many new URLs from the last 30 days Googlebot did not visit yet. It needs Server Log Monitoring.

Files that could not be downloadedCopy Anchor Link

Click See which files on a download problem to open Sitemap files that could not be downloaded. The panel shows each file, why it failed and when it last downloaded. If you use Server Log Monitoring, it also shows whether Googlebot can read the file. If only the VitalSentinel crawler is blocked, select Your firewall to see the steps to let the crawler in.

URLsCopy Anchor Link

The URLs tab lists every URL in your sitemaps. Select a view:

A sitemap must list only pages that load and can be indexed. Fix each broken page, or remove it from the sitemap.

The table shows URL, Sitemap file, Our crawl, In Google's index, Googlebot visit and Google clicks (last 90 days). Each column shows only when its source is connected. Use the filter bar at the bottom of the screen to narrow the list.

Click a URL to open its panel. It shows the sitemaps that list the URL, its canonical and redirect, its Google clicks, its history in your sitemaps, and links to other modules.

FilesCopy Anchor Link

The Files tab lists every sitemap file.

A file can also show a chip for its limit findings: Over limit, Error, Close to limit or Recommendation.

Click a file to open its panel. It shows the status of the file and its limit findings, with the rule and how to fix it. It also shows the URLs over time, the sitemaps that the file lists, and its downloads.

Limits and recommendationsCopy Anchor Link

VitalSentinel checks each sitemap file against the rules of Google, Bing and sitemaps.org.

Limits:

• Over 50,000 URLs: a sitemap file can list up to 50,000 URLs.
• Over 50 MB: a sitemap file can be up to 50 MB uncompressed, also when it is gzipped.
• Index lists over 50,000 sitemaps: a sitemap index can list up to 50,000 sitemaps.
• Over 1,000 images on a page: an entry can list up to 1,000 images.
• Over 1,000 news entries: a news sitemap can list up to 1,000 news entries.

Errors:

• Index inside an index: a sitemap index can list only sitemap files.
• URLs of 2,048 characters or more: each URL must be shorter than 2,048 characters.
• Not full URLs: each URL must start with http:// or https://.
• Entries with two <loc> tags: each entry must have exactly one <loc> tag.
• Empty sitemap: a sitemap must list at least one URL.
• URLs on another host or protocol: URLs must use the same protocol and host as the sitemap.
• URLs above the sitemap's folder: URLs must be in the folder of the sitemap or below it. This rule does not apply if you submitted the sitemap in Search Console or named it in robots.txt.
• Index lists sitemaps on another host and Index lists sitemaps above its folder: the same rules for sitemap indexes.
• Wrong namespace and Not UTF-8: the file must use the sitemaps.org namespace and UTF-8 encoding.
• Dates not in W3C format: lastmod dates must use the W3C Datetime format.
• News entries missing required tags, News language is not a code, Videos missing required tags and Video values out of range: rules for news and video sitemaps.
• hreflang without the page itself, Unusable hreflang codes and hreflang links that are not full URLs: rules for hreflang in sitemaps.

Close to limit: Close to 50,000 URLs, Close to 50 MB and Index close to 50,000 sitemaps.

Recommendations:

• More than 10,000 URLs in one file and Larger than 10 MB: VitalSentinel recommends smaller files. This is stricter than the official limit.
• Large file sent uncompressed: send large files with gzip.
• Dates in the future, No dates and Invalid priority or changefreq: give accurate lastmod dates. Google and Bing use them.
• News older than two days: news sitemaps must list only recent articles.
• The same URL twice: list each URL one time. This is common practice, not an official rule.
• robots.txt names no sitemap, No sitemap submitted in Search Console and Many sitemaps without an index: rules for your whole site.

HistoryCopy Anchor Link

Sitemap Monitoring keeps 12 months of history on every plan, including Free. See Data & Privacy.

Alerts and other placesCopy Anchor Link

• Sitemap Monitoring alerts tell you when a sitemap file fails, a sitemap shrinks or grows, or removed URLs still get clicks.
• Site Health Monitoring opens issues from sitemap data, for example Sitemap files unreadable.
• The Server Log Monitoring Sitemap report compares your sitemap with what Googlebot fetched.
• The public API and the MCP server can read Sitemap Monitoring data.

RelatedCopy Anchor Link