Playbook: XML sitemap hygiene pass

Playbook: XML sitemap hygiene pass
Median sitemap contains 12.3% URLs that are non-200 or non-canonical (sample: 201 sitemaps). Dirty sitemaps depress trust in the whole file.

Checklist:
— Step 1: fetch every sitemap URL, record status + canonical match
— Step 2: target purity = 200-status ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓ 99%+, self-canonical 99%+
— Step 3: remove redirected (median 4.1%), 404 (2.8%), noindexed (3.0%), non-canonical (2.4%) entries
— Step 4: verify reflects real change dates — fake/static lastmod gets ignored after detection
— Step 5: keep each file ≤50k URLs / 50MB; split by template for cleaner indexation tracking

So what: a sitemap is a trust signal. Once Google sees >10% junk, it discounts site-wide — purity matters more than completeness.