Sitemaps Status
Sitemaps Status lists every sitemap Search Console knows about for your site, when each was last read, how many URLs Google found in it, and any warnings or errors Google reported. A broken or stale sitemap is one of the most common silent causes of indexing problems — Google won't tell you out loud that 30% of your URLs aren't being discovered, but this report will.
What it measures
- Sitemap URL — the location of the sitemap file or sitemap index.
- Type — sitemap, sitemap index, RSS feed, etc.
- Last submitted / last read — when you submitted it and when Google last downloaded it.
- URLs submitted — how many URLs Google found in the sitemap on its last read.
- Warnings / Errors — counts of validation issues Google reported.
How we compute it
- We pull the sitemap inventory from the Search Console Sitemaps API for your verified property.
- For each sitemap we capture its last-read timestamp, submitted URL count, and any warning/error counts Google reported.
- The report is sorted with errored sitemaps surfaced first.
Scenarios you'll see
Last-read recent, URL count matches expectations, zero errors. No action needed.
Last-read several months ago. Either re-submit, or the sitemap URL changed and the old one is no longer maintained. Audit and clean up.
Errors > 0. Google could not parse parts of the file (invalid URLs, broken XML, oversized file). Inspect in Search Console; fix and resubmit.
Submitted-URL count fell sharply since previous read. Either you intentionally removed pages, or your sitemap generator is misbehaving (CMS issue, permission failure). Investigate.
A sitemap-of-sitemaps. Required when a single sitemap exceeds 50,000 URLs or 50 MB. Confirm each child sitemap is itself healthy.
Sitemap URL is itself disallowed by robots.txt. Common after a mis-configured rewrite. Allow the sitemap path explicitly.
What to do with it
- Verify the URL counts match what your CMS / catalogue actually contains. A meaningful gap is the most common silent indexing leak.
- Treat any sitemap with errors as urgent; fix the file and resubmit in Search Console.
- Retire orphaned sitemaps you no longer maintain — Search Console treats every listed sitemap as a discovery surface.
Caveats & limits
- "URLs submitted" is what Google read from your sitemap, not the count of URLs Google actually indexed. Cross-check with Index Coverage.
- Search Console can take a day or two to reflect a freshly submitted or updated sitemap.
Related reports
- Index Coverage — what actually got indexed.
- Crawl Stats — Googlebot’s overall crawl behaviour.