More Than 1 in 4 Web Design Websites Have No Sitemap Diib Could Find
In Diib's September 2026 sitemap scan, 27% of web design and development websites had no sitemap Diib could detect, compared with 18% of websites in other industries.
Web design and development websites were about 1.5 times as likely as other websites to have no sitemap Diib could detect. For a business whose own site doubles as its portfolio, that's an easy-to-miss gap that can leave pages harder for search engines to find.
A sitemap is a file that lists the pages on your website so search engines like Google can find and crawl them. It won’t make a site rank on its own, but it’s one of the simplest ways to make sure new and deep pages don’t get missed. Diib’s data shows the businesses that build websites for a living skip it more often than most.
What the data shows
Diib looked at the most recent sitemap check for websites scanned in September 2026, counting only sites where the scan returned a clear result (sitemap found or not found).
- 27% of web design and development websites (about 5,400 sites) had no sitemap Diib could detect.
- That compares with 18% of about 252,000 websites in other industries, roughly 1.5 times the rate.
What this does and doesn’t tell you
This is aggregated Diib data from a single month’s scan, so treat it as a snapshot rather than a trend. “Not detected” means Diib’s scan didn’t find a sitemap where search engines usually look for one. Some of these sites may have a sitemap in an unusual location, and a missing sitemap doesn’t by itself mean a site is struggling in search. The group also likely includes many freelancers and new studios whose own sites are still a work in progress.
Still, a web designer’s own site is often the first sample of their work a prospect sees, and the gap is easy to close. Most website builders and content management systems can generate a sitemap automatically once the setting is turned on.