Sitemap Analytics & Insights

How this tool computes its result

Unlike the plain sitemap extractor, this always calls a backend crawl endpoint (capped at 200,000 URLs) rather than accepting pasted XML. The response includes total URL count, distinct domain count, max path depth, and booleans for whether <lastmod>, <priority>, and <changefreq> appear anywhere in the sitemap, plus a directory-level distribution and a depth distribution that the UI turns into percentages client-side. Up to 3 recommendations are generated from fixed conditions in a fixed order (missing lastmod, then missing priority, then missing changefreq), and the opening summary line differs depending on whether the root document was a plain urlset or a sitemapindex combining multiple inner sitemaps.

Worked example

Analyzing a sitemap index with 4 inner sitemaps totaling 12,000 URLs across 3 domains and no <priority> tags anywhere produces the summary line "Analyzed sitemap index with 4 inner sitemaps containing 12,000 total URLs" plus the recommendation "Consider <priority> tags for critical URLs that drive visibility" -- the lastmod and changefreq recommendations only appear if those tags are also absent.

When not to use this tool

Because analysis always requires a live, fetchable URL crawled server-side, this cannot analyze a sitemap that is not yet published or that sits behind authentication the backend can't reach -- there is no paste-XML fallback like the plain sitemap extractor tool has.

Common mistakes

• - Expecting all 3 recommendation types to always appear -- the list is capped at the first 3 matching conditions in a fixed order, so fewer missing tags simply means fewer recommendations shown, not a different order.
• - Reading a "Domains" count above 1 on what you believe is a single-site sitemap as a real problem -- it usually just reflects protocol or subdomain variation (http vs https, www vs bare) rather than genuine cross-domain mixing.
• - Running this against a sitemap index and expecting per-child-sitemap breakdowns -- directory and depth distributions are computed across the combined URL set from every inner sitemap, not split out by source file.

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