Sitemap URLs that should not be listed, by site type (October 2026 live check)
| Site type | Sites | Sampled URLs | Bad URLs | Redirect | 404/410 | Sites with any bad URL | Sites with 10%+ bad |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All checked sites | 187 | 6,004 | 4.6% | 3.4% | 0.7% | 25.1% | 9.1% |
| Business sites | 78 | 2,660 | 5.2% | 2.9% | 1.4% | 28.2% | 9.0% |
| WordPress sites | 82 | 2,566 | 4.5% | 4.3% | 0.1% | 24.4% | 8.5% |
Source: PageSpeed Matters, Oct 2026. Stores are not shown because too few had usable checks.
Summary
An XML sitemap is a list of the pages you want search engines to crawl and index. Every URL in it should load directly with a 200 and be the page you want indexed. URLs that redirect, return an error or point their canonical elsewhere send mixed signals and waste crawl time.
We sampled sitemap URLs on 187 ranking sites and checked each one live. 25.1% of the sites listed at least one URL that should not be there, and 4.6% of the 6,004 URLs we checked were bad. This is a small sample, so read it as a snapshot of common habits rather than a web-wide rate.
What we measured
We started from 298 sites in a 300-site sample of sites that rank in Google: 100 stores, 100 WordPress sites and 100 business sites. For each site we looked for a sitemap in robots.txt and at the standard paths, and followed sitemap index files up to two levels deep.
In October 2026 we requested up to 35 random sitemap URLs per site and recorded the status code each one returned before any redirect. A URL counts as bad if it redirects, returns a 404 or 410, or carries a canonical tag pointing to a different page. Canonical status is known only for URLs our crawl of these sites covered.
Store platforms blocked most of these checks, so stores are mostly missing from the checked set and we make no store claims. Sites that blocked the check or did not respond are excluded.
Most bad sitemap URLs are old redirects
Of the 6,004 sampled URLs, 4.6% should not be in the sitemap. 3.4% redirect, 0.7% return a 404 or 410 and 0.5% carry a canonical pointing to another page.
Redirects are the main problem. 205 of the 275 bad URLs redirect, and 183 of those 205 end on a working page. In most cases the content still exists, but the sitemap lists its old address. That is usually a sign the sitemap is not generated from the site's current URLs, or a URL change was made without updating it.
At the site level, 25.1% of the 187 sites had at least one bad URL in the sample and 9.1% had 10% or more. Missing sitemaps were rare: only 7 of the 238 sites that answered (2.9%) had no sitemap we could find.
25.1%
Share of 187 sampled ranking sites with at least one sitemap URL that redirects, is gone or canonicalises elsewhere.
Business sites had the highest bad-URL rate
Business sites had the highest bad-URL rate, 5.2% of 2,660 sampled URLs on 78 sites, against 4.5% of 2,566 URLs on 82 WordPress sites. 28.2% of the business sites and 24.4% of the WordPress sites listed at least one URL that redirects, is gone or canonicalises elsewhere.
The mix differs too. On WordPress sites almost all bad URLs are redirects (4.3% of sampled URLs), with 404s rare at 0.1%. Business sites had fewer redirects (2.9%) but more dead URLs (1.4% returned a 404 or 410). The gaps are small and the groups are under 100 sites each, so treat them as directional.
What this means for your site
A clean sitemap lists only final, indexable URLs. Most fixes are about keeping it in sync with the site.
- Let your CMS or SEO plugin generate the sitemap from live pages, rather than keeping a hand-edited file.
- After any URL change or redirect project, regenerate the sitemap so it lists the new addresses, not the old ones.
- Run your sitemap URLs through a crawler or header checker and remove anything that does not return a 200.
- Check that each listed URL's canonical points to itself, and drop pages whose canonical points elsewhere.
- Review the sitemaps report in Search Console after each change.
Sources
- PageSpeed Matters live sitemap check of 300 ranking sites (stores, WordPress sites and business sites), October 2026
- Google Search Central, build and submit a sitemap: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap
Embed this research
Paste this on your site to embed the chart. It links back to the source automatically.
<iframe id="psm-xml-sitemap-errors" src="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/embed/data-studies/xml-sitemap-errors" width="100%" height="600" style="width:100%;border:1px solid #E2E3E1;border-radius:12px" loading="lazy" title="XML Sitemap Errors: 1 in 4 Sampled Sites List URLs Google Shouldn't Index - PageSpeed Matters"></iframe>
<script>window.addEventListener("message",function(e){if(e&&e.data&&e.data.psmEmbed==="xml-sitemap-errors"&&e.data.height){var f=document.getElementById("psm-xml-sitemap-errors");if(f){f.style.height=e.data.height+"px";}}});</script>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif">Source: <a href="https://www.pagespeedmatters.com/resources/data-studies/xml-sitemap-errors">XML Sitemap Errors: 1 in 4 Sampled Sites List URLs Google Shouldn't Index - PageSpeed Matters</a></p>
Frequently asked questions
How common are XML sitemap errors?
In our sample of 187 ranking sites, 25.1% listed at least one sitemap URL that redirects, is gone or canonicalises elsewhere. Of the 6,004 URLs we checked, 4.6% should not have been listed.
What is the most common sitemap error?
Redirects. 3.4% of sampled sitemap URLs redirect, and 183 of the 205 redirecting URLs end on a working page, so the sitemap is listing an old address.
Should redirected URLs be in my sitemap?
No. A sitemap should list the final URL that returns a 200, so replace any redirecting address with the page it now lands on.
Sitemap errors usually come from a sitemap that drifted out of sync with the site, and regenerating it from live pages clears most of them. Need help with this? See our technical SEO services.