Competitive SEO: Analyzing Competitor Sitemaps (What You Can Learn)

Want to know what your competitors are publishing? Their sitemap tells you everything.

Here's what you can learn from a competitor's sitemap:

• How many pages they have
• What content types they focus on
• How often they publish
• Their site structure and organization
• Content gaps you can exploit

The best part: All this information is publicly available. No hacking, no sneaking—just smart analysis.

In this guide, I'll show you how to analyze competitor sitemaps ethically and strategically to improve your own SEO. If you're new to sitemaps, check out our guide to sitemap fundamentals first.

Why Analyze Competitor Sitemaps?

1. Discover Content Opportunities

What you can find:

• Topics they're covering that you're not
• Content formats they're using (guides, tools, calculators)
• Seasonal content patterns
• New product categories

Example: Competitor has 50 pages about "email marketing automation" but you have none. That's a content gap.

2. Understand Site Structure

What you can learn:

• How they organize content (by topic, date, category)
• URL structure and naming conventions
• Subdomain usage
• Multilingual setup

Example: Competitor uses /resources/guides/ for educational content. You could adopt a similar structure.

3. Identify Publishing Frequency

What <lastmod> dates reveal:

• How often they publish new content
• Which sections get updated most
• Seasonal publishing patterns
• Content refresh strategy

Example: Competitor updates their "best of" lists every quarter. You could do the same.

4. Find Link Building Opportunities

What you can discover:

• Resource pages worth replicating
• Linkable assets (tools, calculators, data)
• Content that likely earns backlinks
• Guest post opportunities

Example: Competitor has a free SEO calculator. You could build a better one.

5. Spot Technical SEO Patterns

What to analyze:

• Sitemap organization (index files, splitting strategy)
• Image sitemap usage
• Video sitemap implementation
• hreflang setup for international sites

Example: Competitor uses separate sitemaps for each product category. You could improve your organization.

How to Find Competitor Sitemaps

Method 1: Check robots.txt

Most common location:

https://competitor.com/robots.txt

Look for:

Sitemap: https://competitor.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://competitor.com/sitemap_index.xml

Example:

curl https://competitor.com/robots.txt | grep Sitemap

Method 2: Try Standard Locations

Common sitemap URLs:

https://competitor.com/sitemap.xml
https://competitor.com/sitemap_index.xml
https://competitor.com/sitemap/
https://competitor.com/sitemaps/sitemap.xml

Test them all:

for url in sitemap.xml sitemap_index.xml sitemap/; do
  echo "Testing: https://competitor.com/$url"
  curl -I "https://competitor.com/$url" 2>/dev/null | grep "HTTP"
done

Method 3: Use Sitemap Analysis Tools

Sitemap Explorer (Free):

1. Go to Sitemap Explorer
2. Enter competitor's sitemap URL
3. View visual tree of their entire site structure
4. See total page count instantly
5. Analyze URL patterns and organization

Other Tools:

• Screaming Frog: Desktop tool for crawling sitemaps
• Ahrefs Site Explorer: Paid tool with site structure analysis
• SEMrush Site Audit: Comprehensive site analysis including sitemaps

Method 4: Google Search

site:competitor.com filetype:xml sitemap

Sometimes reveals:

• Sitemap URLs
• Sitemap index files
• Old/archived sitemaps

What to Analyze in a Competitor's Sitemap

Quick Start: Use Sitemap Explorer to visualize any competitor's sitemap instantly. No coding required—just paste the sitemap URL and explore their entire site structure visually.

The sections below include Python examples for those who want to automate analysis, but most users will find the visual tool faster and easier.

1. Total Page Count

Using Sitemap Explorer:

1. Go to Sitemap Explorer
2. Enter the competitor's sitemap URL
3. View total URL count displayed at the top
4. Compare to your own site

What it tells you:

• How much content they have
• Whether they're publishing more/less than you
• If there are content gaps you can fill

Example insights:

• Competitor has 500 blog posts, you have 50 → They're investing heavily in content
• Competitor has 10,000 product pages → Large e-commerce operation
• Competitor has 200 pages total → Small site, easier to compete

2. Content Categories

Using Sitemap Explorer:

The visual tree view instantly shows you how competitors organize their content by folders/categories. Just expand the tree to see: - /blog/ - how many blog posts - /products/ - how many products
- /guides/, /tools/, etc. - other content types

What URL patterns reveal:

By examining the sitemap structure, you can identify: - Their main content categories - Which sections get the most content - Content types they prioritize

Example insights:

blog: 450 pages
products: 320 pages
guides: 85 pages
tools: 12 pages

This tells you they prioritize blog content over guides, and have 12 tools (potential opportunities to build better versions).

3. Publishing Frequency

Manual review:

Download their sitemap and check the <lastmod> dates to see: - When content was last updated - How often they publish new content - Seasonal publishing patterns

What to look for:

Check recent <lastmod> dates in their sitemap: - Many recent dates (last 30 days) = actively publishing - Old dates (6+ months) = stale content or infrequent updates - Clustering around certain months = seasonal content strategy

Example insights: - 50 pages updated in November → They're ramping up for holiday season - Most pages haven't been updated in 2 years → Opportunity to create fresher content - Weekly updates to their blog section → Consistent content cadence

4. URL Structure Insights

What to observe in Sitemap Explorer:

When viewing competitor sitemaps, look at their URL patterns:

URL organization examples: - /blog/category/post-title/ - organized by category - /blog/2024/11/post-title/ - organized by date - /products/category/subcategory/product/ - deep hierarchy - /products/product-name/ - flat structure

What it reveals: - Date-based URLs: Likely a news site or blog with time-sensitive content - Category hierarchy: E-commerce or large content library - Flat structure: Small site or prioritizing simplicity - Short URLs: SEO-focused approach

5. Image and Video Content

Check for media sitemaps:

Open their sitemap XML in a browser and search for: - <image:image> - indicates image sitemap integration - <video:video> - indicates video sitemap integration

What it reveals: - Heavy use of images/videos in their content strategy - Whether they're optimizing visual content for search - Types of media they prioritize (product photos, tutorial videos, etc.)

Competitive Analysis Workflow

Step 1: Identify Top Competitors

Use SEO tools:

• Ahrefs: "Competing Domains"
• SEMrush: "Organic Competitors"
• Moz: "True Competitor" report
• Google: Search for your target keywords and see who ranks

Pick 3-5 competitors in your niche.

Step 2: Analyze Their Sitemaps

Using Sitemap Explorer:

1. Find each competitor's sitemap (check /robots.txt or /sitemap.xml)
2. Load each sitemap in Sitemap Explorer
3. Note total page counts, categories, and structure
4. Take screenshots or notes for comparison

Step 3: Find Content Gaps

Compare what they have vs. what you have:

Create a simple spreadsheet comparing competitor site structures:

Look for patterns in what all competitors have that you're missing.

Step 4: Identify Opportunities

What to look for:

• Content gaps: Topics they cover extensively that you barely touch
• Format gaps: They have tools/calculators, you only have blog posts
• Depth gaps: They have 100+ pages on a topic, you have 5
• Freshness gaps: Their content is recent, yours is outdated

Create an action plan:

1. List top 10 content gaps
2. Prioritize by search volume and relevance
3. Create better content than theirs
4. Build tools/resources they don't have

Ethical Considerations

What's Ethical

✅ Viewing public sitemaps - They're meant to be public
✅ Analyzing URL patterns - Public information
✅ Identifying content gaps - Standard competitive research
✅ Learning from structure - Best practices
✅ Finding inspiration - Ideas for your own content

What's NOT Ethical

❌ Scraping their entire site - Respect robots.txt
❌ Copying content verbatim - Plagiarism
❌ Overwhelming their server - Don't hammer their site with requests
❌ Using data beyond research - Don't republish their content
❌ Violating their terms of service - Read and follow them

Best Practices

Be respectful: - Don't repeatedly download their sitemaps (once is enough) - Don't share findings publicly to embarrass competitors
- Use insights to improve your own content, not to attack theirs - If building automation, add delays and proper user agent identification

Tools for Sitemap Analysis

1. Our Sitemap Explorer (Try it):

• Visual sitemap tree
• URL pattern analysis
• Quick insights

2. XML Sitemap Validator:

• Validates sitemap structure
• Shows URL count
• Checks for errors

3. Screaming Frog (Free up to 500 URLs):

• Comprehensive crawling
• Sitemap analysis
• URL pattern extraction

Paid Tools

1. Ahrefs ($99+/month):

• Site Explorer
• Content Gap analysis
• Competitor research

2. SEMrush ($119+/month):

• Site Audit
• Competitive Analysis
• Content ideas

3. Moz ($99+/month):

• Link Explorer
• Keyword Explorer
• Competitive analysis

3. Sitebulb ($35+/month):

• Visual sitemap analysis
• Technical SEO insights
• Competitor comparison

Example: Content Gap Analysis

Hypothetical scenario: SaaS company analyzing three competitors

Process:

1. Downloaded all competitor sitemaps
2. Extracted URL patterns
3. Identified content categories
4. Found gaps in own content

Findings:

• Competitor A: 45 integration guides (we had 5)
• Competitor B: 30 video tutorials (we had 0)
• Competitor C: 20 case studies (we had 3)

Actions taken:

1. Created 40 integration guides over 6 months
2. Started video tutorial series
3. Published 15 new case studies

Potential outcomes (results vary based on execution and competition):

• Improved organic traffic from better topic coverage
• More qualified leads from comprehensive content
• Better keyword coverage across target topics

Note: Content creation alone doesn't guarantee results. Quality, promotion, and ongoing optimization are equally important.

Common Patterns to Look For

1. Hub and Spoke Model

Pattern:

/topic/
/topic/subtopic-1/
/topic/subtopic-2/
/topic/subtopic-3/

What it means: Topic cluster strategy, good for SEO.

2. Date-Based URLs

Pattern:

/blog/2025/11/article-title/

What it means: Blog-focused, chronological organization.

3. Flat Structure

Pattern:

/article-title-1/
/article-title-2/
/article-title-3/

What it means: Simple structure, good for small sites.

4. Deep Categorization

Pattern:

/category/subcategory/sub-subcategory/product/

What it means: E-commerce or large content site.

Next Steps

Now that you know how to analyze competitor sitemaps:

1. Identify your top 3-5 competitors
2. Download and analyze their sitemaps
3. Find content gaps in your own strategy
4. Create a content plan to fill those gaps
5. Monitor competitors regularly (quarterly reviews)
6. Learn from their structure - Read our sitemap organization guide

Key Takeaways

• Competitor sitemaps reveal content strategy - Topics, structure, publishing frequency
• Find content gaps - What they cover that you don't
• Analyze URL patterns - Learn from their site structure
• Track publishing frequency - Understand their content cadence
• Be ethical - Respect robots.txt, rate limit requests, don't copy content
• Use tools - Automate analysis for efficiency
• Act on insights - Create content to fill gaps

Bottom line: Competitor sitemap analysis is a goldmine of strategic insights. Use it to inform your content strategy and find opportunities your competitors are exploiting.

Ready to analyze competitor sitemaps? Use our visualization tool to quickly understand any sitemap's structure and find opportunities.