Sitemap is published but lists no URLs
The sitemap at its published location parses correctly but contains no entries, so it tells search engines and AI crawlers nothing.
0% · n=31 · as of 15 September 2026 of sites ShipReady scanned had this, counted across sites where this check completed.
Why it matters
The sitemap at its published location parses correctly but contains no entries, so it tells search engines and AI crawlers nothing. A site with an empty sitemap is treated exactly as one with no sitemap, except that it looks configured — which is why this survives: nothing errors, the file is there, and pages simply take longer to be discovered or are never found at all. The usual cause is a generator wired to a content source that returns nothing at build time.
How ShipReady detects it
Sitemap health — whether the sitemap a site publishes can actually be used. PRESENCE IS NOT CHECKED HERE. `missing-sitemap-xml` in readiness.py already reports a sitemap that does not exist, and reporting it twice would double-count one defect across two pillars. This module stays silent unless a sitemap is served, and then asks only whether it works: does it parse, does it list anything, and is it maintained. That split is deliberate. "You have no sitemap" is a launch-readiness gap — a box left unticked. "You have a sitemap and it is broken" is a discovery problem, because the site looks configured to its owner while search engines and AI crawlers get nothing from it, which is exactly the kind of silent failure this pillar exists to surface.
Detection is deterministic. ShipReady reports this only when it observes the condition directly, and prefers to miss a real problem over inventing one. Rule version 1.1.0.
How to fix it
This is the prompt ShipReady puts in your report — written to be pasted straight into Cursor, Claude Code, or whichever assistant built the app.
Your sitemap parses correctly but lists no URLs, so it gives search engines and AI crawlers nothing — the same outcome as having no sitemap, except that it looks configured. Check whatever generates it: a static-site generator wired to a content source that returns an empty collection at build time is the usual cause, as is a dynamic route that queries a database with a filter matching nothing in production. Regenerate it, confirm it contains a <url><loc> entry for every page you want indexed, and resubmit it in Google Search Console.
Frequently asked questions
- What does "Sitemap is published but lists no URLs" mean?
- The sitemap at its published location parses correctly but contains no entries, so it tells search engines and AI crawlers nothing.
- How serious is it?
- ShipReady rates this medium. Fix soon. Meaningfully weakens a defence or degrades how the site works.
- How common is this?
- Across the sites ShipReady has scanned where this check completed, 0% · n=31 · as of 15 September 2026.
- How do I fix it?
- Paste the fix prompt on this page into Cursor, Claude Code or your AI editor. It is the same prompt ShipReady puts in your report.
- Can I check my own site?
- Yes — ShipReady scans up to ten pages of any public site for free and reports this alongside every other check. The free report lists every issue it finds and shows full evidence and a fix prompt for the critical and high-severity ones; medium and low findings are counted and unlock on Pro.
Related checks
- Sitemap is served but cannot be parsedmedium
- Sitemap has not been updated in over a yearlow
- Your robots.txt tells search engines to stay out of the whole sitehigh
- Your site tells search engines not to index ithigh
- AI assistants are blocked from reading your sitemedium
- Canonical URL points to a different domainmedium
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