Key findings
- A 200 status only means the sitemap file loaded, not that its list is right.
- Dead URLs, noindex URLs, and stale dates all weaken an otherwise healthy file.
- Every URL in a sitemap should return 200, be canonical, and be indexable.
- Generate the sitemap from that rule, not from a full list of every route.
A sitemap has one job: hand Google a clean, current list of the URLs you want indexed. A 200 status means the file loaded. It says nothing about whether the list inside is correct.
What goes wrong inside a healthy file
- Dead URLs. The sitemap lists pages that now redirect or 404. Every one wastes crawl budget and lowers trust in the file.
- Noindex URLs. The file recommends a page that the page itself tells Google to drop. The two contradict each other.
- Stale dates. Every URL claims it changed today, so the
lastmodfield means nothing and Google ignores it. - Missing pages. New pages never get added, so they are found slowly, or not at all.
A sitemap that points at redirects and 404s is the exact finding our audit flags first. It is common, it is invisible in a browser, and it is quick to fix.
One rule to keep it honest
Every URL in the sitemap should return 200, be canonical to itself, and be indexable. If a URL fails any of those, it does not belong in the file. Generate the sitemap from that rule, not from a full list of every route.
That is exactly how this site builds its own sitemap: only routes that actually exist and are meant to be found. The rule is boring. The results are not.
See this on your own site, for free.
The audit runs this exact check against your live pages.
CraftDigitally Team
We run and grow our own B2B sites, then write up what we learn. Every claim here is one we check against a live site first.
