How many websites pass the Sitemap Present check?

Based on 596 audited sites · Updated 2026-07-16

68.3%of audited sites pass this check↓8.7% vs last month

95% confidence interval: 64.4%–71.9%

About This Check

Checks whether a sitemap can be found (e.g. /sitemap.xml). Without a sitemap, crawlers rely more on internal links and can miss pages.

Why This Matters

LLM Discoverability

A sitemap provides AI crawlers with a machine-readable inventory of pages; without one, crawlers rely entirely on hyperlink traversal and can easily miss thin or orphaned pages.

SEO Impact

Sitemaps are the primary mechanism for submitting new URLs to search engines without waiting for link discovery; they are especially critical for fresh content and large sites.

What To Do Next

31.7% of audited sites need attention on sitemap present (189 of 596 sites are warning or failing).

Prioritize sitemap present on templates that create many URLs, because one template fix can improve a large share of bot access & control plane.
After changing the page, re-run the audit and compare the observed value for this check instead of relying on visual inspection alone.
Use the 68.3% pass rate as a benchmark: if your site fails here, passing the check moves it closer to the visible majority of crawlable, AI-readable pages.

Status Breakdown

68.3%pass(407)

31.7%warn(189)

0%fail(0)

Compliance Trend

Daily pass, warning, and failure rates across benchmark snapshots (up to 90 days).

Industry Breakdown

How different industries perform on this check.

82.1% of audited Finance & Banking sites pass this check (n=39), compared with 46.7% of E-Commerce sites (n=30).

credible samples first · then pass rateshown-industry average 68%

Industry pass rates, average audit scores, and sample sizes. A marker in each pass-rate bar shows the weighted average across the displayed industries.
Industry	Pass rate	Avg score	Sites
Finance & Banking	82.1%	72.8	39
Media & Entertainment	75%	73.8	84
Travel & Hospitality	74.5%	74.8	51
Technology	63.3%	72	278
Education	63.3%	71.8	30
E-Commerce	46.7%	69.6	30
Healthcare	100%	76.7	9limited
Automotive	100%	75.6	5limited
Retail	100%	78.3	3limited
Energy & Utilities	100%	69.7	3limited

Related Checks

Run a free audit to see whether your site passes this check, or browse the leaderboard and the audited-sites directory.