Pages in my sitemap return errors or redirects
Updated 2026-10-17
Short answer: your sitemap is the list of pages you're telling search engines to index. If pages on it fail, redirect or are marked noindex, Google wastes its visits on them, and the sitemap stops being trusted. It's also where a plugin update that broke one page shows up first.
How to check it yourself
- Open
/sitemap.xml(or the sitemap index it links to). - Pick the addresses and check each status:
curl -I, or an online header checker. - Every page should return 200, not 3xx, 4xx or 5xx, and shouldn't carry noindex.
- Remove or fix the bad ones, then resubmit the sitemap in Google Search Console.
Why it matters
Search engines treat your sitemap as your own list of the pages that matter. When that list keeps pointing at broken or redirected pages, crawlers spend their time on dead ends, new pages get found more slowly, and a page that quietly broke after an update can stay broken for weeks because nobody visits it directly.
Common causes
- A page was deleted or moved, but the sitemap plugin still lists the old address.
- The site moved from http to https, or from www to no-www, and the sitemap still uses the old form.
- A page was set to noindex but left in the sitemap.
- A plugin or theme update broke one template, so every page using it returns an error.
What Preventionlabs shows
Every report loads up to 50 pages from your sitemap and reports the ones that fail, redirect, are set to noindex or are slow, plus pages with no title, duplicate titles, no description, or images without alt text.
Price
First report free, no card needed. Then A$50 a month, up to 10 domains.