Manage your sitemaps using the Sitemaps report

Use the Sitemaps report to tell Google about any new sitemaps for your property, to see your sitemap submission history, and to see any errors that Google encountered when parsing your submitted sitemaps.

Open Sitemaps report

 

What is a sitemap? Do I need this report?

A sitemap is a file on your site that tells Google which pages on your site we should know about.

• If you're using a web hosting service such as Squarespace or Wix, they probably manage your sitemap for you, in which case you don't need to make your own sitemap or use this report. Search your hosting provider for information about sitemaps.
• If you have a small site (fewer than 100 pages) and you can reach any page on your site by following one or more links from your homepage, you probably don't need a sitemap or this report. In that case, simply request indexing of your homepage (unless you're using a web hosting service, as mentioned previously, in which case you don't need to do anything at all).

Learn more about sitemaps.

Manage your sitemaps

Sitemaps API

You can also use the Search Console Sitemaps API to manage your sitemaps. The API provides all the same functionality and information as this report.

Submit a sitemap

"Submitting" a sitemap means telling Google where to find the file on your site. You cannot actually upload a sitemap to Google.

To submit a new sitemap for crawling:

1. You must have owner permissions on a property to submit a sitemap using the Sitemaps report. If you don't have owner permissions, you can list the sitemap in your robots.txt file instead of submitting it with this report.
2. Post the sitemap on your site.
   • The sitemap must use one of the acceptable sitemap formats. Follow the sitemap guidelines for syntax, file location, and so on.
   • We recommend putting a sitemap at your site root, but if you're using a site hosting service (such as Blogger, Wix, or GoDaddy) you should read your service's documentation to learn where and how to post your sitemap (or if it's even necessary).
   • Use an XML sitemap generator to create and test your sitemap for syntax errors.
3. Test that your sitemap is available to Google. The sitemap must be accessible to Googlebot and must not be blocked by any login requirements. You can test if the sitemap is accessible to Googlebot by running a live URL inspection and checking that Page fetch is "Successful".
4. Open the Sitemaps report, copy the URL you tested in step 3, paste it into the Add a new sitemap box in the Sitemaps report, then click Submit.
5. The sitemap should be fetched immediately. However, it can take some time to crawl the URLs listed in a sitemap, and it is possible that not all URLs in a sitemap will be crawled, depending on the site size, activity, traffic, and so on.
6. If the sitemap status is not Success, click the row in the report to find details about the failure, and read about the errors below.

Check back periodically to confirm whether Google can fetch and process your sitemaps.

Resubmit a sitemap

If a sitemap has been successfully crawled, Google will periodically recrawl the sitemap at a pace unrelated to the regular site crawl.

If you make big changes to a sitemap, you might want to resubmit your sitemap with a new request. Otherwise, if your sitemap doesn't have critical updates must be processed immediately, let Google follow its regular crawling schedule.

If a sitemap fetch fails, either from the first request or after a later scheduled recrawl, Google will retry for a few days, and then stop if the sitemap continues to be unavailable or has critical errors. In that case, you should fix the problem and resubmit your sitemap with a new request. The status of the latest crawl for each request is shown in the report.

Delete a sitemap

Deleting a sitemap removes the sitemap from this report, but Google won't forget the sitemap or any URLs listed in it. If you want Google to stop visiting the URLs listed in a sitemap you will need to use a robots.txt rule.

To delete a sitemap from the report:

1. In the table on the main Sitemaps report, find and click sitemap that you wish to delete.
2. In the details page for the sitemap, click the more options button
3. Click Remove sitemap.
4. To prevent Google from continuing to visit the sitemap or any URL listed in it, use any of the following methods for the sitemap or page URL:
   • Use a robots.txt rule to block Google from reading it, or
   • Delete the sitemap file or page from your website, or
   • Add a noindex rule or response header. (For a sitemap, you'll need to use a response header; for a web page, you can use a meta tag or a response header.)

Sitemap crawling schedule

Google will try to crawl a sitemap as soon as you submit it. If the request succeeds, Google will continue to recrawl the sitemap at a pace independent of the site crawl schedule.

If a sitemap fetch or parse fails, Google will continue trying to fetch and process the sitemap for a few days. If the attempts continue to fail, Google will stop trying to crawl that URL. Issues affecting individual URLs within a sitemap won't prevent Google from continuing to read the sitemap, as long as the sitemap can be fetched and read in general.

Reading the report

1. On the top-level Sitemaps report page, see the status of Google's requests for all sitemaps submitted using this report or the API. The report shows the status of the last request for each sitemap. Each sitemap will have one of the following values, which shows the status of the last request:
   1. Success: The sitemap was fetched and read without any errors.
   2. Couldn't fetch: Google couldn't fetch the sitemap.
   3. Sitemap had X errors: The sitemap could be fetched and partially read, but encountered some errors.
2. Click into a specific sitemap to see a details page showing information about the sitemap and the request.
   • If the details page says Sitemap could not be read, then the fetch failed for one of these reasons, as shown in the details page. Expand the section below the error to see more details. Try to fix the problem and resubmit the sitemap to the report. If a sitemap fetch fails, Google will try a few more times, but will eventually stop trying to read that sitemap.
   • If the details page says Sitemap can be read, but has errors, you will see a list of errors in the details page for that sitemap. Expand the section below the error to see more details about the error. Read here to learn more about these errors and how to fix them.

Important:

• This report shows only sitemaps that were submitted using this report or the API. It does not show any sitemaps discovered through a robots.txt reference or other discovery methods. However, even if Google has already discovered a sitemap through other means, you can still submit it using this report in order to track our success and error rates.
• The report shows only sitemaps that are in the current property. If you're not seeing a sitemap that you expect to, make sure that you're not confusing http/https, or www/non-www properties.
• If a sitemap cannot be fetched after several attempts, Google will eventually stop trying to read that sitemap. You should fix the errors and resubmit the sitemap.
• If Google was able to read a sitemap, it will remember that information. A later failure or success to read a sitemap will not cause Google to "forget" the information from previous reads. However, new information about a given URL will overwrite older information about that same URL.
• You can submit image, video, or news URLs in your sitemap. However, the report doesn't currently show any data for those types of URLs.
• The report can show a maximum of 1,000 submitted requests. You may submit more, but only 1,000 can be shown here (which are not shown in order of submission). There currently isn't any way to see the additional requests in Search Console.

 

The following information is shown for each sitemap:

Sitemap URL

The exact URL specified when the sitemap was submitted. Redirects are not followed. Only sitemaps submitted using this report or the API are shown here.

Type

The type of sitemap. Possible values:

• Sitemap: Sitemap in XML or text format.
• Sitemap index: A sitemap of sitemaps.
• RSS: Sitemap in RSS feed format.
• Atom: Sitemap in Atom feed format.
• Unknown: The submitted file is not a known sitemap type or the sitemap hasn't been processed yet.

Submitted

The date when the sitemap was last submitted to Google using this report.

Last read

The last time the sitemap was fetched by Google. Only present if Google could fetch the sitemap.

Status

Status of the latest crawl. Possible values:

• Success: The sitemap was loaded and processed successfully with no errors. All URLs will be queued for crawling.
• Has errors: The sitemap could be fetched, but has one or more errors. Any URLs that could be parsed without errors from the sitemap will be queued for crawling. Click the sitemap in the table to see the list of errors with more details. See full parsing error descriptions below.
• Couldn't fetch: The sitemap could not be fetched for some reason. See how to troubleshoot fetch errors.

Discovered pages

The number of page URLs that were parsed from the sitemap. If this is a sitemap index, the number is the count of all URLs in all child sitemaps. Duplicate URLs are counted only once. There is no guarantee that a page URL discovered in a sitemap has been or will be crawled or indexed by Google. You can filter the Page indexing report by sitemap to see how many page URLs in this sitemap have been indexed.

Discovered videos

The number of video URLs that were parsed from the sitemap. This is no guarantee that these URLs have been or will be crawled or indexed by Google. You can filter the Video page indexing report by sitemap to see how many page URLs in this sitemap have a video that was indexed. Note that Search Console does indicate if a different video URL was indexed on the page than the video URL given in the sitemap. A sitemap listed here will link to the Video page indexing report if it contains any indexed pages that contain any videos when crawled by Google.

See index coverage

Click to open a report showing the index coverage of all URLs in this sitemap. For a sitemap index, it includes all URLs listed in child sitemaps that were already crawled.

 

My sitemap isn't listed!

Here are a few reasons that your sitemap might be not listed in the report:

• It lives in another property. Sitemaps associated with one property won't be visible in another property. Thus, sitemaps that you've submitted for the site http://example.com won't be visible in the Sitemaps report for http://m.example.com. or https://example.com. To address this issue, make sure that you've added all versions of your site.
• You didn't submit the sitemap using this report or the API. Only sitemaps submitted using this report or the Search Console API are listed; sitemaps found or submitted using other methods won't be shown, even if Google can find and use them.

Sitemap errors

The following errors are reported by the sitemaps report. This list isn't complete, but it's long enough, and it covers most of the errors you might see.

Sitemap fetch errors

If the sitemap status is Couldn't fetch on the top level Sitemaps page, this means that Google couldn't retrieve the sitemap file itself. There are several possible reasons for this:

• The sitemap is blocked by your robots.txt file. Google respects robots.txt when fetching sitemaps. You must remove the rule that prevents Google from fetching your sitemap.
• Your site has a manual action. Sitemaps are not read when a site has an unresolved manual action. Check the manual actions report. Fix the issue and resend your sitemap.
• The URL provided for the sitemap is wrong (HTTP 404 error: sitemap not found at the address provided). Try visiting the URL in your browser to see if it exists.
• Some other general error: Sometimes other errors can prevent Google from retrieving a sitemap from your site, such as a server unavailability. Some of these errors can be transient: wait a bit and see if Google continues to encounter this error in later crawl attempts.
• There is low crawl demand for the sitemap. The higher the quality of the site’s content, the higher the crawl demand. Learn more about creating high-quality content.

Debugging fetch errors

1. Click the sitemap in the list to see details about the last fetch request.
2. Click the error name in the details page to see more details about the error.
3. Confirm the error in the URL Inspection tool:
   1. Copy the sitemap URL from the Sitemaps report details page.
   2. Paste the URL into the URL Inspection tool and press Enter.
   3. Click Live test in the URL Inspection tool.
   4. Expand the Page availability section to see why Google isn't able to fetch the sitemap. You can find information about all the fields here, but basically you want to see Crawl allowed? = "Yes", Page fetch = "Successful."

Sitemap parsing errors

The following errors are possible when processing a fetched sitemap:

URLs not accessible

Google encountered an error when attempting to crawl a URL in your sitemap. Inspect the URL in the sitemap using the URL inspection tool to see whether the URL is available to Google.

URLs not followed

Google couldn't crawl all the URLs listed in your sitemap. Here are some possible reasons:

• The URL contains too many redirects for Google web crawlers to follow. We suggest that you replace any redirect URLs in your sitemaps with the URLs that should actually be crawled.
  • If you are permanently redirecting from one page to another, use a permanent redirect.
  • Avoid using JavaScript or meta-refresh type redirects.
• Google is having problems with relative URLs in your sitemap. Where possible, use absolute or complete links rather than relative links. For instance, when linking to another page in your site, link to https://www.example.com/mypage.html rather than simply mypage.html.

URL not allowed

Your sitemap includes some URLs that are at a higher level or different domain than the sitemap file.

Higher level: If your sitemap is at http://www.example.com/mysite/sitemap.xml, the following URLs are not valid for that sitemap:

• http://www.example.com/ - Higher level than the sitemap
• http://www.example.com/yoursite/ - In a sibling directory of the sitemap (you must go up and then down to get to it).

Different domain: Check that the URLs all begin with the same domain as your sitemap location. For instance, if your sitemap is at http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml, the following URLs are not valid for that sitemap:

• http://example.com/ - Missing "www"
• www.example.com/ - Missing "http"
• https://www.example.com/ - Using https rather than http

Compression error

Google encountered an error when trying to uncompress your compressed sitemap file. Recompress your sitemap (using a tool such as gzip), upload it to your site, and resubmit it.

Empty sitemap

Your sitemap doesn't contain any URLs. Check your sitemap to ensure that it is not empty.

Sitemap file size error: Your sitemap exceeds the maximum file size limit.

Your sitemap is larger than 50MB when uncompressed. If your sitemap is larger than the limit, break it into several smaller sitemaps and list these in a sitemap index file and submit the sitemap index file(s).

Invalid attribute value

You assigned an invalid value to an XML tag attribute. Check your sitemap to make sure that only the allowed attributes are present, and that you assign only allowed values according to the sitemap specifications. Check your attributes and values for typos.

Invalid date

Your sitemap contains one or more invalid dates. This error could be because a date is in the incorrect format, or the date itself is not valid. Dates must use W3C Datetime encoding, although you can omit the time portion. Make sure your dates match one of the following W3C Datetime formats:

2005-02-21 
2005-02-21T18:00:15+00:00

Specifying time is optional (the time defaults to 00:00:00Z), but if you do specify a time, you must also specify a time zone.

Invalid tag value

Your sitemap contains one or more tags with an invalid value. Check the specifications for your sitemap type (index, standard, video, and so on).

Invalid URL

A URL in your sitemap is not valid. This error might be because it contains unsupported characters, spaces, or other characters such as quotes, or it might be incorrectly formatted (for example, htp:// instead of http:// ).

Make sure that the URLs listed in your sitemap are encoded for readability and escaped properly. Check for any incorrect characters such as spaces or quotes. You also try copying the URL into a browser to see if the browser can understand the URL and load the page.

Invalid URL in sitemap index file: incomplete URL

Your sitemap index file doesn't include the full URL for each sitemap file that it lists. When we see a sitemap index file, we look in the same directory for the files that it references. For instance, if your sitemap index file is http://www.example.com/folder1/sitemap_index.xml and lists a sitemap as sitemap.xml (no / at the beginning), then we'll look for that sitemap at http://www.example.com/folder1/sitemap.xml. If we can't find it there, you'll see this error.

Update your sitemap index file to include the complete path to each listed sitemap file, then resubmit.

Invalid XML: too many tags

Your sitemap contains duplicate tags. For example, the following entry would cause this error because the <loc> tag is listed twice:

<url>
  <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
  <loc>http://www.example.com/page1.html</loc>
  <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>
  <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
  <priority>0.8</priority>
</url>

The error lists the problematic tag and the line number. Remove the duplicate tag and resubmit your sitemap.

Missing XML attribute

A tag in your sitemap is missing a required attribute. Check your sitemaps to make sure that no required attributes are missing. Once you have fixed the attribute values, resubmit your sitemap.

Missing XML tag

One or more entries in your sitemap is missing a required tag. The error message lists the line number. Review the sitemap fundamentals page for information on required tags.

Missing thumbnail URL

One or more video entries is missing a URL to a thumbnail image. Make sure that the location of any thumbnail URLs are specified using the <video:thumbnail_loc> tag.

Missing video title

One or more video entries is missing a title. Make sure that each video in your sitemap has a title, specified in the the <video:title> tag.

Incorrect sitemap index format: Nested sitemap indexes

One or more entries in your sitemap index file uses its own URL or the URL of another sitemap index file. A sitemap index file can't list other sitemap index files, only sitemap files.

Remove any entries pointing to sitemap index files, then resubmit your sitemap.

Parsing error

Google could not parse the sitemap's XML.

Often, this problem is caused by an unescaped character in the URL. As with all XML files, any data values (including URLs) must use entity escape codes for certain characters such as & ' " < > symbols. Be sure that your URLs are properly escaped.

Temporary error

Our system experienced a temporary problem that prevented us from processing your sitemap. Generally, when you receive this error, you do not need to resubmit your sitemap. Google can try to retrieve your sitemap again later. If the error still exists after several hours, try resubmitting your sitemap.

Too many sitemaps

Your sitemap index file lists more than 50,000 sitemaps. Split your sitemap index into multiple sitemap index files and ensure that each lists no more than 50,000 sitemaps.

Too many URLs

Your sitemap lists more than 50,000 URLs. Split your sitemap into multiple sitemaps and ensure that each contains no more than 50,000 URLs. You can also use a sitemap index file to manage your sitemaps.

Unsupported format

Your sitemap is not in a supported format.

Some common XML mistakes:

• Your sitemap must use the correct header. For example, if your sitemap contains video information, it would have the following header:

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
  <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
          xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">

• The namespace in the header must be "http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" (not .9).
• All XML attributes must enclosed in either single quotes (') or double quotes (") and those quotes must be straight, not curly. Word-processing programs such as Microsoft Word can insert curly quotes.

Path mismatch: Missing www

The path to your sitemap does not contain the www prefix (for example, http://example.com/sitemap.xml), but the URLs it lists do (for example, http://www.example.com/myfile.html).

Modify your sitemap to remove "www" from all the URLs to match your sitemap location.

Path mismatch: Includes www

The path to your sitemap contains the www prefix (for example, http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml), but the URLs it contains do not (for example, http://example.com/myfile.xml.

Modify your sitemap to add "www" to all the URLs to match your sitemap location.

Incorrect namespace

The root element of your sitemap doesn't contain the correct namespace, or the namespace is declared incorrectly, or has a typo or incorrect URL.

Be sure that you are using the correct namespace for your file type. For example:

• A sitemap file: xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
• A video sitemap file: xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1"
• A sitemap index file: <sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
• Other sitemap types...

Leading whitespace

Your sitemap begins with leading whitespace, rather than a namespace declaration. XML files should begin with the XML declaration that specifies the version of XML being used.

This error won't prevent Google from processing your sitemap, but you might want to remove the whitespace so that the file adheres to the XML standard and you no longer see this error.

HTTP error [specific code]

Google encountered a 400-level HTTP error when when attempting to download your sitemap. This message displays the status code we received (for example, 404). Make sure that the sitemap URL you specified is correct and that the sitemap exists at that location. Then, resubmit your sitemap.

General HTTP error

Google encountered another HTTP error not covered by a more specific error listed here. Expand the details to see what kind of error occurred. This can also be caused by a 404 (page not present) error, which is a fetch error.

Thumbnail too large

The video thumbnail image specified in your sitemap is too large. Resize your video thumbnail image to 160 x 120 px. Update your sitemap with the new information, and then resubmit it. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.

Thumbnail too small

A video thumbnail image specified in your sitemap is too small. Resize your video thumbnail image to 160 x 120 px. Update your sitemap if necessary. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.

Video location and play page location are the same

In a video sitemap, the video content URL and the player URL cannot be the same. If you provide both <video:player_loc> and <video:content_loc>, the URLs must be different. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.

Video location URL appears to be a play page URL

In a video sitemap, the <video:content_loc> URL points to the page hosting the player. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.

Too many News URLs

More than our specified maximum number of URLs (1,000) open in the sitemap file. More information about adding news information to a sitemap.

Missing <publication> tag

Each URL in a News sitemap must have a <publication> tag. More information about adding news information to a sitemap.

Sitemap contains urls which are blocked by robots.txt

Google cannot access your sitemap, or can't access all the content listed in your sitemap, because it is blocked by a robots.txt file. Use the URL Inspection tool to confirm which file is being blocked, and modify your robots.txt file to allow Googlebot to access it.