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What to extract from a sitemap
A standard sitemap is XML. Its root is usually <urlset>, containing <url> entries with a required <loc> URL. Optional elements can include <lastmod>, <changefreq>, and <priority>. A sitemap index instead has a <sitemapindex> root and lists other sitemap files in <sitemap><loc> entries.
The Sitemap protocol format consists of XML tags, according to sitemaps.org’s protocol documentation. Use fully qualified absolute URLs and respect the host and protocol scope allowed for the sitemap’s location. Google’s documentation sets a per-file limit of 50 MB uncompressed or 50,000 URLs; split larger collections across files and use an index to point to them. See Google Search Central’s large sitemap guidance.
Extracting a URL from a sitemap does not establish that the page is indexed, reachable, or eligible for search results. Treat <lastmod> as update metadata only when your workflow needs it, not as proof of indexing.
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Extract URLs and follow a sitemap index with Python
Install the dependencies with python -m pip install requests lxml. Save the following as extract_sitemap.py. Pass the URL of a sitemap or sitemap index as the first command-line argument.
import sys
from urllib.parse import urlparse
import requests
from lxml import etree
NS = {"sm": "http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"}
TIMEOUT = 30
MAX_DEPTH = 10
MAX_SITEMAPS = 1000
def fetch_root(url):
response = requests.get(url, timeout=TIMEOUT)
response.raise_for_status()
# Do not enable DTD loading or entity resolution for untrusted XML.
parser = etree.XMLParser(resolve_entities=False, load_dtd=False, no_network=True)
return etree.fromstring(response.content, parser=parser)
def extract_urls(sitemap_url, visited=None, depth=0):
if visited is None:
visited = set()
if depth > MAX_DEPTH:
raise ValueError(f"Maximum sitemap depth ({MAX_DEPTH}) exceeded")
if sitemap_url in visited:
return []
if len(visited) >= MAX_SITEMAPS:
raise ValueError(f"Maximum sitemap count ({MAX_SITEMAPS}) exceeded")
visited.add(sitemap_url)
root = fetch_root(sitemap_url)
root_name = etree.QName(root).localname
if root_name == "sitemapindex":
child_urls = root.xpath("/sm:sitemapindex/sm:sitemap/sm:loc/text()", namespaces=NS)
results = []
for child in child_urls:
child = child.strip()
if child:
results.extend(extract_urls(child, visited, depth + 1))
return results
if root_name != "urlset":
raise ValueError(f"Unexpected sitemap root element: {root_name}")
return [value.strip() for value in root.xpath(
"/sm:urlset/sm:url/sm:loc/text()", namespaces=NS
) if value.strip()]
if __name__ == "__main__":
sitemap_url = sys.argv[1]
parsed = urlparse(sitemap_url)
if parsed.scheme not in ("http", "https") or not parsed.netloc:
raise SystemExit("Provide an absolute http:// or https:// sitemap URL")
for page_url in extract_urls(sitemap_url):
print(page_url)Run it like this:
python extract_sitemap.py https://example.com/sitemap.xmlThe XPath expressions include the standard sitemap namespace explicitly. That matters because XML parsers do not treat namespaced tags as unqualified names: a query for plain loc can return no matches even when the document contains many URLs. The code checks the HTTP response before parsing, trims surrounding whitespace, distinguishes an index from a URL set, and uses a visited set to avoid processing the same sitemap repeatedly.
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Preserve update metadata when needed
If your task also needs lastmod, select the <url> entries and read both fields from each entry rather than collecting separate lists that could lose their pairing. For example, replace the final return expression with:
return [
{
"url": (entry.findtext("sm:loc", namespaces=NS) or "").strip(),
"lastmod": (entry.findtext("sm:lastmod", namespaces=NS) or "").strip() or None,
}
for entry in root.xpath("/sm:urlset/sm:url", namespaces=NS)
]Do not retain optional fields you have no use for; they do not change the extracted page URL.
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Make extraction safer and more useful
- Validate URLs and scope. Check that extracted values are absolute URLs and, where your application requires it, belong to the expected host and protocol. Do not assume every child URL in an index is safe to fetch merely because it appeared in a document.
- Set resource budgets. The example caps recursion depth and the number of distinct sitemap files. Tune those limits to your use case, and add a total URL cap if the downstream process cannot accept an unbounded result.
- Handle duplicate page URLs deliberately. If duplicates should be removed, preserve order with
list(dict.fromkeys(urls)). Avoid normalizing paths, query strings, trailing slashes, or percent-encoding unless your application has an explicit canonicalization policy. - Support compressed files when required. Some sources publish
.xml.gzsitemaps. Requests typically handles HTTP content encoding, but a gzip file served as a gzip archive may need explicit decompression before XML parsing. Detect and decompress the gzip payload with Python’sgzipmodule, then parse the decompressed bytes. Enforce a decompressed-size limit to avoid excessive memory use. - Stream or split large output. The example returns a list in memory. For large collections, write each result as it is discovered or process batches so the full URL set need not remain in memory. Keep the protocol’s per-file 50 MB uncompressed and 50,000-URL limits in mind when validating sitemap files.
- Disable unsafe XML features. The parser configuration in the example disables entity resolution, DTD loading, and network access. Keep equivalent protections enabled if you use a different XML library.
Other ways to extract sitemap URLs
Scrapy
For a crawling project already built with Scrapy, its SitemapSpider accepts sitemap URLs and yields parsed entries. Scrapy removes namespaces from tags in its item representation, so its field handling differs from namespace-aware XPath in lxml. Use the approach that fits the rest of your crawler rather than introducing a second framework for a one-off extraction.
Hosted extraction API
A hosted service can avoid maintaining the fetch-and-parse code, but check index recursion, depth and URL caps, authentication, compression support, and export format before relying on it. SitemapKit documents an authenticated extraction endpoint, recursive index support up to depth 5, and a maxUrls parameter capped at 50,000: SitemapKit documentation. Those are documented service limits, not general sitemap protocol limits.
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Generate or export from the source system
If you control the site and need a dependable recurring inventory, Google recommends extracting URLs from the site’s database or having the website software generate the sitemap. That can be more direct than downloading and parsing a public XML file. See Google Search Central’s sitemap creation guidance.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Troubleshooting common extraction problems
- The script returns an empty list. Check the root element and namespace. Standard sitemap tags use
http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9; use the namespace-aware XPath shown above. Also confirm you are parsing aurlset, not expecting URLs directly from an index. - HTTP 403, 404, or 5xx response. The sitemap URL may be wrong, unavailable, access-controlled, or rejecting the request. Verify it in a browser or with an HTTP client, then use the correct public sitemap URL or request authorized access.
raise_for_status()surfaces these responses instead of quietly parsing an error page. - Timeout or connection error. The host may be slow or temporarily unreachable. A finite timeout prevents a request from hanging indefinitely. For production jobs, add bounded retries with backoff for transient network and server errors; do not retry malformed XML as though it were a network failure.
- XML parse error. Inspect the response body and content type: servers sometimes return an HTML challenge or error page at a sitemap URL. Also check whether the file is gzip-compressed and whether it is truncated or malformed.
- Only some URLs appear. The top-level document may be an index; recurse into every child sitemap. Check whether your own depth, file-count, or output caps stopped processing, and record those stopping conditions so partial output is not mistaken for a complete export.
- Repeated URLs or sitemaps. A sitemap can list duplicate entries, and indexes can point to repeated files. Deduplicate page URLs only if your use case permits it; use a visited set for sitemap files.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does extracting a sitemap URL mean the page is indexed by Google?
No. A sitemap is a URL discovery signal, not proof that a page is indexed.
Why does an XML sitemap parser need a namespace?
Sitemap elements are qualified by the standard sitemap namespace. A parser that searches only for unqualified tag names may find no <loc> entries.
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