A sitemap exists and every listed URL is live

A sitemap exists and every listed URL is live is check A3 in the fifteen-point audit. sitemap.xml is served, lists indexable URLs, and none of them redirect or 404.

What counts as evidence

The status code we received for each URL in the sitemap.

How to fix it

Remove dead and noindex URLs from the sitemap, point entries at final URLs, and drop tracking parameters.

Where this sits

A is the group: accessibility, comprehension, or extractability. The groups run in order — a crawler that cannot reach the page never reaches the reading checks — so fix the earliest failing group first. The full definition of all fifteen items is in the standard.