Search Console sitemap health

Submitted XML sitemaps tell Google which URLs matter. When Search Console cannot process a sitemap, discovery of new and updated pages can stall even if your own crawl still finds those URLs.

What we look for

During Search Console collection we call the Sitemaps API for the connected property. We open a Possibility when:

• Errors — Google reported a non-zero error count on a submitted sitemap.
• Pending or never downloaded — the feed is still pending, or it was submitted but Google has no last-downloaded time.

Sitemap warnings alone are stored for context and are not opened as Possibilities.

What to do

Open the sitemap URL in a browser, confirm it returns XML without login walls, and fix invalid <loc> entries. Resubmit in Search Console after the file is valid. Keep the sitemap listed in robots.txt.

Technical details

This uses the Search Console Sitemaps API, not our XML sitemap crawl. Site-wide rows attach to the homepage URL in SEO Possibilities. See Search Console data in SEO Perception.