Sitemap Analyzer API | sitemap.xml SEO Audit

Parse, analyze, and audit sitemap.xml files at scale. Discover URL structure, content update patterns, dead links, and site architecture — essential for technical SEO audits.

Store Quickstart

• Start with store-input.example.json to analyze one public sitemap with a small URL cap.
• If that matches your SEO workflow, switch to store-input.templates.json and pick one of:
• Quickstart (Dataset) for a fast structural audit
• Large Site Audit for deeper coverage and status checks
• Webhook Alert for change-driven monitoring

The Store example keeps checkStatus=false so the first run is fast. Turn it on when you want broken-link sampling.

What does this actor do?

Fetches and parses sitemap.xml files (both standard urlsets and sitemap indexes), then provides deep structural analysis. Auto-discovers /sitemap.xml if you provide just a domain URL.

Key Features

• 🗺️ Sitemap index support — Handles nested sitemap structures
• 📊 Structure analysis — Top directories, depth distribution, file extensions
• 📅 Update pattern detection — lastmod distribution, changefreq analysis
• 🔗 Dead link checker — Optional HEAD request sampling to find broken URLs
• 🏗️ Architecture insights — Understand site structure from sitemap alone
• 📋 Bulk processing — Analyze multiple sitemaps per run

Use Cases

Who	Why
SEO agencies	Technical SEO audits — sitemap completeness and structure
Content strategists	Identify content update patterns and stale pages
Web developers	Verify sitemap structure before search engine submission
Competitive analysts	Map competitor site architecture from public sitemaps

Input Example

{
  "sitemapUrls": ["https://apify.com/sitemap.xml"],
  "maxUrls": 5000,
  "checkStatus": false,
  "concurrency": 3
}

Output Example

{
  "sitemapUrl": "https://apify.com/sitemap.xml",
  "status": "ok",
  "analysis": {
    "type": "urlset",
    "totalUrls": 1247,
    "structure": {
      "topDirectories": [
        { "path": "/store", "count": 890, "percentage": 71 },
        { "path": "/blog", "count": 156, "percentage": 13 }
      ],
      "depthDistribution": { "1": 45, "2": 890, "3": 312 }
    },
    "updateFrequency": {
      "lastModRange": { "oldest": "2023-01-15", "newest": "2026-02-20" },
      "urlsWithLastmod": 1100
    }
  }
}

A fuller ready-to-share payload is available in sample-output.example.json for Store and README proof.

Cost

Zero external costs. Fetches public XML files — no API keys, no proxies. Analyzing a 5,000-URL sitemap takes ~10 seconds.

Commercial Ops

Set up .env first:

$cp -n .env.example .env

Cloud Task/Schedule setup (idempotent):

$npm run apify:cloud:setup

Daily reliability checks:

npm run canary:check
npm run contract:test:live

OpenClaw cron commands:

• openclaw-cron-commands.md

Related actors

• structured-data-validator — validate schema on the URLs and templates surfaced by the sitemap audit.
• robotstxt-ai-checker — inspect AI crawler policy alongside crawl/index structure.
• ai-visibility-monitor-actor — monitor whether crawl/index improvements lead to visibility gains.