SEO-014
Sitemap lists pages that return errors
MediumDefault severity · SEO / Quality · SEO, quality and performance
Last reviewed
What it checks
Up to 6 same-site URLs from the sitemap, requested with HEAD (redirects followed).
Why it matters
Search engines waste crawl budget on dead pages and trust the sitemap less.
Recommended fix
Generate the sitemap from the pages that actually exist, and remove or redirect the dead ones.
How to verify
Request each listed URL and confirm 200, then resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console.
Example fix prompt
Generic prompt (your report adds the evidence)
Please fix this production issue in my app.
Issue SEO-014: Sitemap lists pages that return errors
Site: https://your-app.example
First confirm the issue in the code or live config. If it is not present, say so and change nothing.
Task: Fix the sitemap so it only lists pages that return 200: remove the URLs in the evidence (or restore those pages), and generate the sitemap from the real routes so it cannot drift again.
Constraints: make the smallest change that fixes this, keep the current design and behaviour, never paste secret values into code or chat, and tell me which files you changed.
Done when: Request each listed URL and confirm 200, then resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console.