See the shape of a site from its sitemap: URL patterns, path depth, the biggest sections and how fresh lastmod dates are.
How to use the Sitemap analytics
- Enter a sitemap URL.
- Read the sections, depth and freshness charts.
- Spot sections that are stale or oversized.
What to look for
Sections with thousands of thin pages, URLs buried many levels deep, and lastmod dates that are all identical (a sign they aren't accurate).
Reading each chart
The top row gives the URL count, the average URL length in characters, how many URLs have ?parameters, and how many end in a slash. Top sections groups URLs by the first folder in the path, such as /blog or /docs, and shows the 20 biggest. Path depth counts folders: /blog/post is two levels. Freshness sorts lastmod dates into under 7 days, under 30 days, under a year, older, and no lastmod. File extensions shows endings like .html or .pdf; "(none)" is normal for modern sites.
What the patterns tell you
Most URLs four or more levels deep: important pages may be hard to reach, so link to them from higher up. Any URLs with parameters: usually filters or tracking that belong out of the sitemap. A mix of trailing-slash and no-slash URLs: pick one and redirect the other. Everything updated in the last 7 days: lastmod is likely set to the build date, which teaches Google to ignore it. A section with thousands of URLs and little traffic is a candidate for merging or pruning.