Sitemap Analysis

Compare a domain's XML sitemap against the most recent SE Ranking website audit. Surface what the sitemap claims vs what the crawler actually found, in both directions.

Prerequisites

• SE Ranking MCP server connected.
• Claude's WebFetch tool available.
• User provides: a target domain. Optional: the sitemap URL if not at /sitemap.xml (auto-discovery from robots.txt is attempted first).
• Predecessor: seo-technical-audit (or any prior SE Ranking audit) on this domain. Without an existing audit, this skill has nothing to compare against — chain seo-technical-audit first.

Process

1. Validate target & confirm audit

   • Normalise the domain.
   • DATA_listAudits → confirm an audit exists for this domain. If none, surface a clear message: "Run seo-technical-audit first; this skill compares the sitemap to that audit's crawl."
   • Use the most recent done audit by default.
   • Firecrawl availability check. If mcp__firecrawl-mcp__firecrawl_map is available, Mode-2 (URL discovery via crawl) is offered when the sitemap is missing or suspect. Cost: ~0.5 Firecrawl credits per URL discovered, hard cap 500 URLs (~250 credits). Without Firecrawl, the skill runs Mode-1 only and notes the gap if Mode-2 was needed. User may pass --no-firecrawl to force Mode-1 even when Firecrawl is available (saves credits at the cost of orphan/missing analysis when sitemap is broken).

2. Build URL lists WebFetch (sitemap) + mcp__firecrawl-mcp__firecrawl_map (optional Mode-2)

   • Mode-1 (default). Try https://{domain}/sitemap.xml. If 404, fetch /robots.txt and look for Sitemap: directives. For sitemap-of-sitemaps, recursively fetch each child sitemap. Build the canonical URL list from the sitemap.
   • Mode-2 trigger. Switch on Mode-2 when (a) no sitemap is reachable, (b) the sitemap returns < 10% of the audit's DATA_getCrawledPages count, or (c) the user explicitly requests --discover. Always surface the trigger and the cost estimate to the user before running Mode-2.
   • Mode-2 execution (requires Firecrawl): call firecrawl_map(url=domain, limit=500). The response is the URL list Firecrawl could discover from the homepage and internal linking. Use this list as the "sitemap-equivalent" in step 6 — the diffs run identically, just with discovered URLs in place of declared sitemap URLs.
   • If Mode-2 is needed but Firecrawl is unavailable: continue with whatever sitemap data Mode-1 returned (possibly empty). Surface clearly in SITEMAP.md: Mode-2 (Firecrawl URL discovery) needed but Firecrawl not installed — sitemap-vs-audit diffs run on partial data only.

3. Pull the audit's crawled pages DATA_getCrawledPages

   • All URLs the crawler found, with status codes, indexability flags, depth.

4. Pull domain pages DATA_getDomainPages

   • Domain-level page inventory (broader than the audit's crawl scope in some cases).

5. Pull orphan-page issues DATA_getAuditPagesByIssue

   • Filter for orphan-page and depth-related issues. These intersect with sitemap analysis.

6. Compute the four diffs

   • Missing from sitemap: URLs in DATA_getCrawledPages (status 200, indexable) that don't appear in the sitemap. Probably should be added.
   • Orphans from sitemap: URLs in the sitemap that the crawler didn't find via internal links (cross-ref DATA_getAuditPagesByIssue orphan flags). The sitemap is the only thing pointing at them — investigate whether they should be linked internally.
   • Broken sitemap entries: sitemap URLs that returned non-200 in the audit's crawl. Remove from sitemap or fix the URL.
   • Lastmod issues: sitemap entries where (a) all <lastmod> dates are identical (lazy generation) or (b) <lastmod> is older than the audit's crawl date for the page even though the page changed (stale).

7. Validation

   • URL count <50,000 per file (sitemap protocol limit). Flag if exceeded.
   • Sitemap referenced in robots.txt.
   • Encoding: each URL is XML-safe (ampersands escaped, etc.).
   • HTTPS consistency: sitemap URLs match the canonical protocol.
   • <lastmod> is the only optional tag Google still consumes. Validate it (step 6). <priority> and <changefreq> have been explicitly ignored by Google for years (per Google's sitemap docs — "Google ignores priority and changefreq values"). Don't validate them; if present, flag as low-signal noise the user can strip to shrink the sitemap.

8. Synthesise SITEMAP.md

Output format

Create a folder seo-sitemap-{target-slug}-{YYYYMMDD}/ with:

seo-sitemap-{target-slug}-{YYYYMMDD}/
├── SITEMAP.md                       (synthesised report — primary deliverable)
├── recommended-sitemap-diff.md      (proposed changes: add X, remove Y — load-bearing artefact engineering applies to sitemap.xml)
└── evidence/
    └── source-data.md               (consolidated raw step output: fetched sitemap content, Firecrawl-discovered URLs if Mode-2 ran, audit's crawled-pages list, the four diffs (missing/orphans/broken/lastmod-issues) — preserved for reproducibility)

Top-level: SITEMAP.md + recommended-sitemap-diff.md. The seven raw step files (01-sitemap-raw, 01b-firecrawl-discovered, 02-audit-pages, 03-missing-from-sitemap, 04-orphans-from-sitemap, 05-broken-entries, 06-lastmod-issues) are consolidated into a single evidence/source-data.md document with the same per-step section headers — a reader who needs to replay the diff has all raw inputs in one file rather than seven.

SITEMAP.md follows this shape:

# Sitemap Analysis: {domain}

> Sitemap pulled {YYYY-MM-DD} · Audit reference {audit-date}

## Mode

- **Mode-1 (sitemap-vs-audit):** {ran / skipped — no sitemap reachable}
- **Mode-2 (Firecrawl URL discovery):** {ran with {n} URLs / not triggered / triggered but Firecrawl not installed}

## Health summary

| Metric | Value | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Sitemap URLs (Mode-1) | {n} | — |
| Discovered URLs (Mode-2, if ran) | {n} | — |
| Audit crawled URLs (200, indexable) | {n} | — |
| Missing from sitemap (probable adds) | {n} | {🔴 if >5%} |
| Orphans from sitemap (probable cuts or link-ins) | {n} | {🟡 if >5} |
| Broken sitemap entries (non-200) | {n} | {🔴 if >0} |
| Lastmod issues | {n} | {🟡 if uniform; 🔴 if stale} |

## Recommended changes

### Add to sitemap ({n} URLs)
- {URL} — found by crawler at depth {n}, status 200, indexable.
- ...

### Remove from sitemap ({n} URLs)
- {URL} — returns {status code}.
- ...

### Investigate (orphan from sitemap, {n} URLs)
- {URL} — in sitemap but not reachable via internal links. Either link from {suggested parent} or remove from sitemap.
- ...

### Fix lastmod ({n} URLs)
- {URL} — lastmod is {date} but the audit crawled the page on {date} and detected changes since.
- ...

## Validation

- Total URL count: {n} ({✓ under 50k limit | ✗ exceeds — split into sitemap-of-sitemaps})
- Referenced in robots.txt: {✓/✗}
- HTTPS consistency: {✓/✗}
- Encoding: {✓/✗}

## Apply
- See `recommended-sitemap-diff.md` for the proposed sitemap.xml changes.
- After applying, re-run `seo-technical-audit` to refresh the crawl, then re-run this skill to verify.

Tips

• Run seo-technical-audit first. Without an audit, this skill has nothing to compare.
• Re-run after deploys that change page inventory (new content, removed pages, URL restructures).
• Sitemap-of-sitemaps fan-out can be large for big sites — the skill recursively fetches all child sitemaps. For sites with 50+ child sitemaps, fetching dominates runtime; not credit cost.
• <priority> and <changefreq> are dead signals — Google explicitly ignores both. Don't waste time tuning them; if your sitemap generator emits them, the bytes are pure overhead. <lastmod> is still consumed, so keep that one accurate.
• The "investigate orphans" list is often the highest-leverage finding — pages that exist but aren't linked are usually accidentally orphaned, and adding a couple of internal links can revive them.
• Pair with seo-drift to track sitemap composition over time (URL count, lastmod patterns).
• Cost: ~5–10 SE Ranking credits typical (mostly the getCrawledPages and getDomainPages calls). Mode-2 adds Firecrawl credits at ~0.5 per discovered URL — surface the estimate before triggering.