Sitemap Keyword Extractor helps you quickly extract keywords from your website's sitemap. It's a simple way to discover what terms your site is targeting and optimize your content accordingly.
Why Extract Keywords From a Sitemap
URL slugs are a quiet source of keyword data: a page at /wood-pellet-vs-firewood is telling you exactly what it targets, without needing to open the page. Pulling this straight from a sitemap gives you a fast overview of what topics a site — yours or a competitor's — is actually built around.
- Content audits: see every keyword phrase your own site is targeting, at a glance, without opening each page.
- Competitor research: paste a competitor's sitemap to see how their content is structured and what topics they cover.
- Gap analysis: compare the extracted list against your own keyword research to spot topics you haven't covered yet.
How to Use the Sitemap Keyword Extractor
Step 1: Paste a sitemap URL or raw XML
Enter a sitemap link directly (e.g. https://yourblog.com/sitemap.xml), or paste the sitemap's raw XML content if you already have it copied — the tool detects which one you've entered automatically.
Step 2: Click "Extract Keywords"
The tool reads every URL in the sitemap, breaks each path into segments, replaces hyphens with spaces, and filters out purely numeric segments (like page IDs or date fragments).
Step 3: Copy the results
Click "Copy Keywords" to grab the full list, ready to paste into a spreadsheet for further keyword research.
What to Know Before You Use It
| Situation | What happens |
|---|---|
| Direct fetch is blocked by the site's CORS policy | The tool automatically retries through two backup proxies before giving up |
| The sitemap is a sitemap index (a sitemap that only lists other sitemaps) | Only the child sitemap links are extracted as "keywords" — open each linked sitemap separately for its actual page keywords |
| Fetching fails entirely (site blocks bots/proxies too) | Open the sitemap URL yourself in a new tab, copy the raw XML, and paste it directly into the input box — this always works since no fetch is needed |
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does it show "Failed to fetch" for some sitemap URLs?
Some servers block cross-origin requests entirely, even through backup proxies. When this happens, open the sitemap link in a new browser tab, copy its raw XML content, and paste that directly into the input box instead — this bypasses the fetch step completely.
Does this work on a sitemap index (a sitemap listing other sitemaps)?
It will extract keywords from whatever <loc> entries exist. If your sitemap is an index of other sitemaps, run each child sitemap through the tool separately to get actual page-level keywords.
How are numbers and dates handled?
Purely numeric URL segments (like 2026, 07, or a numeric post ID) are automatically filtered out, since they aren't meaningful keywords.
Can I use this to research a competitor's content strategy?
Yes, that's a common use — paste a competitor's public sitemap URL to see the keyword phrases embedded in their URL structure.
Is my data uploaded anywhere when I use this tool?
No. All fetching and processing happens in your browser; nothing is stored after you leave the page. Requests to backup proxies only carry the sitemap URL itself, not any personal data.
Related Free Tools
Just need the raw list of page URLs instead of keywords? Try the Sitemap URL Extractor from the same free tools collection.