Your sitemap gap is two different numbers.
"142 pages missing from the sitemap" sounds like one problem. It's two, and they need opposite fixes.
A crawl finds URLs that aren't in your sitemap. Most audit tools stop there and give you one number. Split it by status code:
- 301 redirects: old URLs still listed or linked. Hygiene. Remove them from the sitemap and update the links. Low stakes.
- Live 200 pages: real pages that exist, work, and aren't in the sitemap. These are true orphans. Google may never find them. That's the problem worth money.
Report one blended number and a client either panics over 97 harmless redirects or ignores 45 invisible pages. Report two and they know exactly what to do.
Same rule for any audit tool that hands you a single scary total: split it before you believe it.
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Cannibalization isn't similar URLs.Two pages with similar slugs aren't cannibalizing each other unless they rank for the same querWe got five clicks. Thank you, all five of you.Google sent a badge for reaching five clicks in 28 days. A 512-page site, five clicks, and an hI don't know why they call them answer engines.They're called answer engines. I'm getting more questions than ever, and they're all coming fro
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