Sitemap lists pages that should not be there
Addresses in the sitemap that answer an error, redirect, say noindex, or name another page as canonical. The sitemap is the list of pages you ask to have indexed; entries the site itself refuses teach search engines to trust it less.
WarningCRAWL-010 · Crawlability · checked once for the whole site
Where it usually comes from
A sitemap generated once and never again, a plugin that lists every address ever published, or pages moved without the sitemap following.
How to fix it
- Generate the sitemap from the pages as they are now: only addresses that answer 200, with no redirect.
- Leave out pages with noindex and pages whose canonical points elsewhere.
- Resubmit the sitemap in Search Console after the change.
How to check it yourself
Open sitemap.xml and request a few of its addresses: each should answer 200, without redirecting, without noindex and with a canonical naming itself.
What it looks like in a report
Warning The sitemap lists this address, but it redirects to /shop/boots. · /boots
The sitemap is generated from an old list of addresses; it should list the pages as they are now. (An example shop; the numbers are illustrative.)
How the audit counts it
CRAWL-010 is a warning in the crawlability category, and weighs moderately in that category’s score. It is a fact about the site as a whole, so it is reported once, not once per page.
If the finding is deliberate on your site, it can be accepted as intentional in the report. It then leaves the list and the score, and comes back on its own if what it shows changes.
Other crawlability checks
- Sitemap URLs blocked by robots.txt · CRAWL-001
- Response other than 200 · CRAWL-002
- Redirect chain · CRAWL-003
- Page missing from the sitemap · CRAWL-004
- URL with session parameters · CRAWL-005
- Internal links to pages blocked by robots.txt · CRAWL-006
- Pages that could not be downloaded at all · CRAWL-007
- The site is published on two addresses · CRAWL-008
- http:// serves the site instead of redirecting to https:// · CRAWL-009
- Mixed content: http files on an https page · CRAWL-011
- HSTS header missing · CRAWL-012
Find it on your site
A Trakis audit runs this check and the other 65 on your site, and tells you on how many pages each one sits. Or go back to all the rules.