Sitemap lists only indexable, canonical URLsWhat it checks and how to fix it

What it checks

Checks that the sitemap only lists URLs worth indexing. Sitemap URLs crawled in the audit are flagged when they are noindex or declare a canonical pointing elsewhere; up to 25 sitemap URLs the audit did not crawl are fetched directly and flagged when they redirect or return an error. Any finding is a warning; otherwise the check passes.

Why it matters

Search engines treat the sitemap as your list of canonical, indexable pages. Entries that redirect, 404, are noindex or point their canonical somewhere else waste crawl budget and teach crawlers that your sitemap is unreliable, which slows down the discovery of the pages you do want indexed.

How to fix it

Generate the sitemap from the same rules that decide indexability, so it only ever contains URLs that:

• return 200 directly (list the final URL, not one that redirects),
• are not noindex,
• declare themselves as canonical.

<!-- a page listed in the sitemap should carry a self-referencing canonical -->
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/pricing">

In Rails with sitemap_generator, filter the records you add:

# config/sitemap.rb
Article.published.where(noindex: false).find_each do |article|
  add article_path(article), lastmod: article.updated_at
end

Replace redirected entries with their destination URL, and drop entries for pages that were removed.