The process by which search engines find a website's sitemaps, typically through robots.txt or common URL paths.
Sitemap discovery is the process of finding all sitemap files for a given domain. Search engines use several methods:
1. **robots.txt** — The `Sitemap:` directive in robots.txt is the primary discovery method 2. **Common paths** — Checking `/sitemap.xml`, `/sitemap_index.xml`, `/sitemap.xml.gz`, etc. 3. **Search Console / Webmaster Tools** — Manual submission via Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools 4. **Sitemap ping** — Submitting the sitemap URL directly to a search engine's ping endpoint (deprecated by Google)
SitemapKit's `/api/v1/sitemap/discover` endpoint automates this process, checking robots.txt and probing 8 common sitemap paths to find all sitemaps on a domain.
SitemapKit's API lets you discover, extract, and parse XML sitemaps from any domain. Get structured JSON data with all sitemap elements including Sitemap Discovery.