SITEMAPS & CRAWLING
Sitemap Freshness Analyzer
lastmod tells search engines which pages changed and are worth recrawling, but only if the dates are true. Many generators stamp every URL with the time the sitemap was built, and search engines learn to ignore them. This analyzer shows how the dates are spread across your sections.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing you paste is uploaded
- Free, no sign-up
- CheckEntries with no or invalid lastmod
- CheckNearly all entries sharing one date
- CheckDates in the future
- CheckAge bands and per-section freshness
Free
no sign-up, no usage limit
0 uploads
what you paste stays on your device
4 checks
what the tool looks at
Offline
works once the page has loaded
Loading the tool…
HOW IT WORKS
How to use the Sitemap Freshness Analyzer
Sitemap XML, pasted.
Paste a sitemap (a URL set, not the index).
Check the age bands and the per-section table.
Review the oldest entries, and fix the generator if every date is the same.
WHAT IT CHECKS
What it looks at, and how to read it.
Entries by age, each section’s newest date and stale count, the oldest entries and warnings about untrustworthy dates.
What it checks
- Entries with no or invalid lastmod
- Nearly all entries sharing one date
- Dates in the future
- Age bands and per-section freshness
How to read the results
- Old dates on pages you still sell or promote may mean the content needs an update, or the dates are not being set.
- Identical dates across a whole sitemap almost always mean the generator uses the build time.
The concepts behind it, in the SEO glossary: XML sitemap.
GOOD TO KNOW
Common mistakes, an example and the limits.
Common mistakes
- Updating lastmod without changing the page, to look fresh. Search engines notice and stop trusting it.
A worked example
In the example, product pages changed this month while every blog post is over a year old.
Limitations
- Reads lastmod as the sitemap states it; it cannot tell whether the page really changed then.
- Sections are the URL’s first folder.
FAQ
Questions about the Sitemap Freshness Analyzer
Straight answers about what it does and where its limits are.
Does Google use lastmod?
Google says it uses lastmod when it is consistently and verifiably accurate.
Need this for a whole website, over time?
The NdovuSEOLabs platform connects your own Search Console, analytics and server logs, and audits every page on a schedule.