Sitemap Quality
Scan another siteWhat This Check Covers
Validates sitemap presence, structure quality, freshness signals, and robots.txt linkage.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Sitemap Quality in the context of AI?
- While traditional search engines are forgiving, AI agents often rely on perfectly structured sitemaps with accurate <lastmod> dates to quickly find new products without doing a full site crawl.
- Why is the lastmod attribute so critical now?
- AI agents have limited token windows and execution time. A fresh, accurate lastmod attribute allows them to only fetch products that have recently changed.
Basic vs AI-Optimized Sitemap
| Aspect | Basic Sitemap | AI-Optimized Sitemap |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | Flat list of URLs | Organized via sitemap index by category/type |
| Lastmod | Often missing or hardcoded | Dynamically updated accurately on product change |
| Discovery | Submitted via Search Console | Linked explicitly in robots.txt |
Field Guide
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
status_code/content_type/final_url |
Fetch result metadata for sitemap.xml. |
url_count |
Number of <url> entries in sitemap files. |
sitemap_count |
Number of child sitemaps in a sitemap index. |
has_lastmod |
Whether lastmod fields are present. |
fresh_lastmod |
Whether newest lastmod appears fresh (<=30 days old). |
robots_sitemap_directive |
Whether robots.txt declares a Sitemap: directive. |