# Sitemap URL Extractor & SEO Freshness Audit (XML, .gz, lastmod) (`provenplaza/sitemap-url-extractor-audit`) Actor

Extract every URL from any website's XML sitemaps (auto-discovered via robots.txt, sitemap indexes, .gz) with lastmod freshness stats.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/provenplaza/sitemap-url-extractor-audit.md
- **Developed by:** [Zachary Vorsteg](https://apify.com/provenplaza) (community)
- **Categories:** SEO tools, Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$0.40 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

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 URL Extractor & Freshness Audit

Extract every URL from a website's XML sitemaps and see how fresh the content is. Auto-discovers sitemaps from robots.txt (falls back to /sitemap.xml and /sitemap_index.xml), follows sitemap indexes, and reads .xml.gz files.

### Output fields

url, sitemap, lastmod, lastmodAgeDays, changefreq, priority. A SUMMARY record in the key-value store gives per-site counts and lastmod age buckets (<30d, 30-180d, 180d-1y, >1y).

### Data source & compliance

Only fetches public sitemap and robots.txt files, which sites publish so crawlers can read them. Waits 300 ms between files.

### Pricing (proposal)

Pay per result: **$0.0004 per result ($0.40 per 1,000)**, plus Apify's default start event. See `.actor/pricing.proposal.json`. Competitor prices are in `../../evidence/apify_competitor_pricing.json` (fetched 2026-10-09).

### Example

See `samples/sample-output-first5.json` (the full test run is in `samples/sample-output.json`).

### Local test

Tested 2026-10-09: docs.apify.com gave 300 URLs (capped at 300). python.org gave 0 URLs because it publishes no sitemap; this is recorded in SUMMARY.sitemapErrors.

Run again with: `../_test.sh sitemap-url-extractor-audit '<input json>'`

# Actor input Schema

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

Domains (https://example.com) or direct sitemap URLs.

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

Max URLs per site

## `maxSitemapsPerSite` (type: `integer`):

Max sitemap files per site

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    "https://www.python.org"
  ],
  "maxUrlsPerSite": 5000,
  "maxSitemapsPerSite": 50
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Dataset items (one row per result).

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

Per-site sitemap freshness summary.

# 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://www.python.org"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("provenplaza/sitemap-url-extractor-audit").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://www.python.org"] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("provenplaza/sitemap-url-extractor-audit").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://www.python.org"
  ]
}' |
apify call provenplaza/sitemap-url-extractor-audit --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

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

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/S8SbxWuJeqc3MwPHw/builds/UC3dSWnschmynK06B/openapi.json