diff --git a/core/server/data/xml/sitemap/handler.js b/core/server/data/xml/sitemap/handler.js
index 8432e6e593..cc7d99aea9 100644
--- a/core/server/data/xml/sitemap/handler.js
+++ b/core/server/data/xml/sitemap/handler.js
@@ -16,12 +16,27 @@ module.exports = function handler(blogApp) {
             return sitemap.getSiteMapXml(type, page);
         };
 
-    blogApp.get('/sitemap.xml', function sitemapXML(req, res) {
+    blogApp.get('/sitemap.xml', function sitemapXML(req, res, next) {
+        var siteMapXml = sitemap.getIndexXml();
+
         res.set({
             'Cache-Control': 'public, max-age=' + utils.ONE_HOUR_S,
             'Content-Type': 'text/xml'
         });
-        res.send(sitemap.getIndexXml());
+
+        // CASE: returns null if sitemap is not initialized as below
+        if (!siteMapXml) {
+            sitemap.init()
+                .then(function () {
+                    siteMapXml = sitemap.getIndexXml();
+                    res.send(siteMapXml);
+                })
+                .catch(function (err) {
+                    next(err);
+                });
+        } else {
+            res.send(siteMapXml);
+        }
     });
 
     blogApp.get('/sitemap-:resource.xml', verifyResourceType, function sitemapResourceXML(req, res, next) {
diff --git a/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_spec.js b/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_spec.js
index 3fab481d14..bee3def6bd 100644
--- a/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_spec.js
+++ b/core/test/functional/routes/frontend_spec.js
@@ -683,7 +683,10 @@ describe('Frontend Routing', function () {
                 .expect(200)
                 .expect('Cache-Control', testUtils.cacheRules.hour)
                 .expect('Content-Type', 'text/xml; charset=utf-8')
-                .end(doEnd(done));
+                .end(function (err, res) {
+                    res.text.should.match(/sitemapindex/);
+                    doEnd(done)(err, res);
+                });
         });
 
         it('should serve sitemap-posts.xml', function (done) {
@@ -691,7 +694,10 @@ describe('Frontend Routing', function () {
                 .expect(200)
                 .expect('Cache-Control', testUtils.cacheRules.hour)
                 .expect('Content-Type', 'text/xml; charset=utf-8')
-                .end(doEnd(done));
+                .end(function (err, res) {
+                    res.text.should.match(/urlset/);
+                    doEnd(done)(err, res);
+                });
         });
 
         it('should serve sitemap-pages.xml', function (done) {
@@ -699,7 +705,10 @@ describe('Frontend Routing', function () {
                 .expect(200)
                 .expect('Cache-Control', testUtils.cacheRules.hour)
                 .expect('Content-Type', 'text/xml; charset=utf-8')
-                .end(doEnd(done));
+                .end(function (err, res) {
+                    res.text.should.match(/urlset/);
+                    doEnd(done)(err, res);
+                });
         });
 
         // TODO: Other pages and verify content