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name: sitemap-domain description: "Use when applies to sites that have recently migrated from HTTP to HTTPS, changed domain name, or have www/non-www redirect configurations. Use when sitemap submission reports low coverage." metadata: category: seo priority: medium difficulty: beginner estimatedTime: "10" source: frontendchecklist.io url: https://frontendchecklist.io/rules/seo/sitemap-domain

Keep sitemap URLs on the correct domain

Google ignores sitemap entries from domains it cannot verify as yours — cross-domain URLs are simply skipped, meaning those pages lose the crawl-discovery benefit of the sitemap.

Quick Reference

• Every <loc> URL must use the same domain and protocol (https://www.example.com) as the sitemap file itself
• Cross-domain URLs in a sitemap are ignored by Google
• Mixing http:// and https:// URLs in one sitemap creates conflicting signals
• Mixing www and non-www variants indicates a canonicalization issue to fix first

Check

Parse all <loc> values in the sitemap and extract the protocol and hostname. Flag any URL whose protocol or hostname differs from the sitemap's own URL. Common mismatches: http vs https, www vs non-www, old domain vs new domain.

Fix

Update all <loc> URLs to use the canonical-url protocol and hostname. If the site is on https://www.example.com, every sitemap URL must start with https://www.example.com/. Regenerate and resubmit the sitemap.

Explain

Explain why Google restricts sitemap URLs to the same domain, how cross-domain URLs are silently dropped, and how domain mismatches in a sitemap reveal underlying canonicalization problems.

Code Review

Review metadata generation, rendered HTML, structured data, and response headers related to Keep sitemap URLs on the correct domain. Flag exact routes or templates where search-facing output violates the rule, and describe how to verify the final page output.

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For full implementation details, code examples, and framework-specific guidance, see references/rule.md.

Rule page: https://frontendchecklist.io/rules/seo/sitemap-domain