Broken Link Analysis · Free Tool

Find Broken Links in Your Sitemap

A broken URL in your sitemap.xml hurts you twice: Googlebot wastes crawl budget hitting dead pages, and your sitemap loses authority as a trustworthy index of your content. PerfBee scans every URL in your sitemap and flags every 404, redirect chain, and server error.

Why a clean sitemap matters

Your XML sitemap is a direct line to Google about what you want indexed. When it contains dead URLs, you signal to Google that your site is poorly maintained — and you train Googlebot to expect 404s when it crawls your sitemap, which means it crawls your sitemap less often.

How sitemap broken links happen

Most broken sitemap entries come from automated sitemap generators (Yoast SEO, RankMath, Next.js sitemap.ts, etc.) that include URLs based on database content but don't check whether those URLs actually return 200 OK. Pages can be unpublished, password-protected, behind authentication, or accidentally noindex'd while still being listed in the sitemap.

What to do with broken sitemap URLs

For each broken URL: if the page is permanently gone, remove it from the sitemap (don't just 301 — clean it out). If the page moved, update the sitemap entry to the new URL. If the page is intentionally unpublished, exclude it from your sitemap generator's rules. Never leave a 404 in your sitemap.

Beyond 404: other sitemap link issues to fix

A "broken" sitemap URL isn't always a 404. Watch for: 301 redirects (replace with the final URL), 302 temporary redirects (almost always a configuration mistake in sitemaps), pages that return 200 but contain a noindex tag (Google ignores them), and pages that return 200 but contain a canonical pointing elsewhere (dilutes the sitemap's clarity).

Common causes on sitemap

Deleted blog posts still indexed by sitemap generator plugins
Pages set to draft but not removed from sitemap rules
Old product URLs from e-commerce platforms that auto-include archived products
Pages behind authentication that got accidentally included
Pages migrated to a new URL where the sitemap wasn't updated
HTTP-to-HTTPS migrations where the sitemap still lists HTTP URLs

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find broken links in my XML sitemap?

Paste your sitemap URL into a sitemap crawler that tests every URL listed inside. PerfBee's Site Crawler (free plan available) reads your sitemap.xml, then HTTP-checks every URL listed inside and reports which ones return 404, 5xx, redirect chains, or have noindex tags.

Do broken sitemap URLs hurt SEO?

Yes. Google has confirmed that sitemaps with errors reduce trust in the sitemap as a discovery signal. Googlebot will crawl your sitemap less frequently if it consistently finds dead URLs, which means new content takes longer to be indexed.

How many URLs can be in a single sitemap?

Google supports up to 50,000 URLs per sitemap file and a maximum file size of 50MB. For larger sites, use a sitemap index file that references multiple sub-sitemaps. PerfBee handles sitemap indexes automatically — point it at your root sitemap and it follows every referenced sub-sitemap.

Should I remove or redirect broken sitemap URLs?

If the page is permanently gone, remove the entry from your sitemap. Redirects from inside a sitemap are a code smell — sitemaps should list canonical destination URLs, not URLs that redirect. Update your sitemap generator to output only final URLs.

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Crawl your entire site for broken links

PerfBee scans every page across your site, runs daily checks, and alerts you the moment a new broken link appears. No manual checking needed. Get daily crawl reports, broken link alerts, Core Web Vitals tracking, and AI fix suggestions — across your entire site.