# Sitemap Extractor & Broken Link Checker (`bloodyslav/sitemap-checker`) Actor

Get every URL from a website's XML sitemaps (auto-discovered via robots.txt, sitemap indexes and .gz files) with lastmod, priority and hreflang, and optionally check each page for 404s, redirects and response time.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/bloodyslav/sitemap-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Ivan Popov](https://apify.com/bloodyslav) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools, Automation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.70 / 1,000 urls

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Sitemap Extractor & Broken Link Checker

Enter a website and get **every URL listed in its XML sitemaps**: lastmod, change frequency, priority, image count and hreflang languages. Turn on status checking to find **broken pages (404/5xx), redirects and slow URLs** in the same run.

- 🔎 **Automatic sitemap discovery**: reads `Sitemap:` lines from robots.txt, then tries `/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml` and `/wp-sitemap.xml`
- 🗂️ **Follows sitemap indexes** (any depth) and reads **gzip (.xml.gz)** and plain-text sitemaps
- 🌍 **hreflang and image data**: language alternates and image counts per URL
- 🚦 **Broken link check**: HTTP status, redirect count, final URL, response time. HEAD first, GET fallback
- 🧹 **"Only problems" mode**: save just the broken and redirected URLs as a ready-made fix list
- ⚡ No browser, no proxy, so it's fast and cheap

### Use cases

- **SEO audits:** find sitemap URLs that 404, redirect or are slow. Google flags these in Search Console.
- **Site migrations:** export the full URL list before and after, and check every old URL still resolves.
- **Content inventory:** list all blog posts or product pages (`Only URLs containing: /blog/`) with their last-modified dates.
- **Competitor research:** see how many pages a site has and how often they're updated.

### Example output

```json
{
  "site": "https://docs.apify.com",
  "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors",
  "lastmod": "2026-10-28",
  "changefreq": "weekly",
  "priority": 0.5,
  "sitemap": "https://docs.apify.com/sitemap.xml",
  "status": 200,
  "broken": false,
  "redirects": 0,
  "finalUrl": "https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors",
  "responseTimeMs": 169
}
```

A `SUMMARY` record per site lists the sitemap files found, sitemap errors, and the counts of URLs, broken and redirected pages.

### Tips

- Start with **Max URLs per site = 100** to preview, then raise it.
- Keep **Parallel checks** low (default 5) on small sites. The checker identifies itself with a clear User-Agent.
- Pass a direct sitemap URL (e.g. `https://example.com/post-sitemap.xml`) to process just that file.

### Pricing

Pay per URL saved.

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

A website (e.g. https://example.com) to auto-discover its sitemaps from robots.txt and the usual locations, or a direct sitemap URL (e.g. https://example.com/sitemap_index.xml).

## `maxUrlsPerSite` (type: `integer`):

Stop collecting after this many page URLs per website. Each saved URL is billed.

## `checkStatus` (type: `boolean`):

Request each URL and record its HTTP status, redirect chain length, final URL and response time. Broken = 4xx/5xx or unreachable.

## `onlyProblems` (type: `boolean`):

With status checking on, save only URLs that are broken or redirect, which is a clean to-do list for fixing your sitemap. All URLs are still counted in the SUMMARY record.

## `urlIncludes` (type: `string`):

Keep only URLs that contain this text, e.g. "/blog/" or "/products/".

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

How many URLs to check at once. Keep it low to be gentle on the website.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://docs.apify.com"
  ],
  "maxUrlsPerSite": 100,
  "checkStatus": true,
  "onlyProblems": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 5
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `urls` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        "https://docs.apify.com"
    ],
    "maxUrlsPerSite": 100,
    "checkStatus": true
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("bloodyslav/sitemap-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": ["https://docs.apify.com"],
    "maxUrlsPerSite": 100,
    "checkStatus": True,
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("bloodyslav/sitemap-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://docs.apify.com"
  ],
  "maxUrlsPerSite": 100,
  "checkStatus": true
}' |
apify call bloodyslav/sitemap-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,bloodyslav/sitemap-checker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/hfcF0pYZVBlWfo0rq/builds/6Kc62rFLDZgGb9Deh/openapi.json