Redirected (3xx) URL Listed in XML Sitemap

What’s actually happening

A crawl of your sitemap finds URLs that don't return 200 — they redirect. You're effectively telling Google 'please index this URL' while also telling it 'this URL redirects somewhere else.' Search Console may report these under 'Page with redirect' in the indexing report, and the sitemap looks stale or auto-generated without status checking.

Common causes

• The sitemap is hand-maintained or cached and wasn't updated after pages were redirected
• A plugin generates the sitemap from a stored URL list that includes pre-redirect paths
• HTTP→HTTPS or non-www→www redirects where the sitemap still lists the old-scheme/host URLs
• Trailing-slash normalization redirects (/page → /page/) where the sitemap uses the non-canonical form
• Pagination or category URLs that now 301 to a consolidated page but remain in the generated sitemap

How to fix it

1. Identify every 3xx URL in the sitemapIn Screaming Frog use Mode → List, paste the sitemap URL (or upload the XML), crawl, and filter by 3xx status. This gives you each redirecting entry and its final destination.
2. Replace each redirecting URL with its final 200 destinationEdit the sitemap so it lists only the live canonical target. If the sitemap is plugin-generated (Yoast, RankMath, etc.), the fix is usually to clear the cache/regenerate it — the plugin should emit only published, non-redirected URLs.
3. Confirm the listed URLs are also self-canonicalEach final URL should return 200 and have a self-referencing canonical tag. Listing a URL that 200s but canonicalizes elsewhere is the same mixed-signal problem in a different form.
4. Resubmit the sitemap in Search ConsoleAfter regenerating, re-fetch the sitemap and resubmit it in Google Search Console so the corrected URL set is picked up on the next crawl.