Compare two sitemaps
Put last month’s sitemap next to today’s and see what a release, migration or plugin update really changed: URLs added, URLs dropped and dates rewritten.
in your browser to compare against next time.
When a sitemap diff pays off
- After a migration or redesign. Every removed URL should either redirect or be intentionally gone. A diff turns “did we lose anything?” into a list.
- After a CMS or plugin update. Generators change quietly: tag archives appear, paginated URLs vanish, trailing slashes flip. The section table shows which area moved.
- Monitoring lastmod honesty. If thousands of URLs are re-dated with no content change, lastmod has become noise. Google says it uses lastmod only when it is consistently accurate, so churn can cost you that signal.
- Competitor watching. Compare a competitor’s public sitemap month to month to see which sections they are building out.
URLs are compared exactly as written, because http:// and https://, or /page and /page/, are different URLs to a crawler. Use the loose option only when you deliberately want to see past those differences.
Questions
How do I compare two sitemaps?
Load the older version on the left and the newer one on the right, by URL, upload or paste. The tool lists URLs that were added, removed, or kept with a changed lastmod, and groups the changes by top-level section.
How do I get an old version of my sitemap?
Save a copy before each release (this page can remember one snapshot in your browser), export one from your CMS or repository history, or pull an archived copy from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine and paste it in.
Does it treat http and https, or trailing slashes, as the same URL?
By default no, because search engines treat them as different URLs. Tick “Ignore protocol and trailing slash” to match them anyway, for example when checking a migration from http to https.
What should I do with removed URLs?
Check each removed URL still resolves the way you intend: a 301 to its replacement if the content moved, a 404 or 410 if it is gone. Removed URLs that still earn traffic or links deserve redirects.