Google Sitemaps (Pt5) Understand Errors within Your Sitemaps

Google Webmaster Tools Account:

The easiest method of finding out whether there are any errors is by logging into your Google Webmasters Tools Account. From there look to the "RIGHT" of your web site address under the "Sitemap" column. If you have an "ERRORS" link beside the number of sitemaps for that address, then well you have errors! Click on the ERRORS link to view any problems you may have.



Depending on whether you previously submitted a regular versus an index sitemap, you may need to click on the "Details" link to view the errors for your internal files.



Scroll through your list of internal sitemaps to find the one(s) that don't have "OK" within the Status column. You may have to click through a few pages to find the right one. Once you've located the file(s) with ERRORS, click on "Details" for the appropriate one.



At the bottom of your errors page, there should be a reason listed by Google to indicate what type of error the system encountered when accessing your file. Most errors are pretty straight forward; however some are more complicated and need further investigation.

Unsupported File Format:

This is a common error and can be vague at times. This error can be caused due to a number of factors including:

• Whitespacing issues
• PHP parsing issues
• XML formatting issues

I like to click on the active link within the errors page that point to the specific sitemap in question. From there, you can see if your browser tells you there is a parsing error, database error, or anything else that may occur.

No Content yet Within the File?

It is not uncommon to have a sitemap that doesn't have any links posted within it yet. Some larger web sites may create a sitemap specifically for a section that hasn't been launched or populated. If this is the case, pay no attention to the error and just wait until you have content for that file. The error will go away on it's own.

Double Check Your Parsing Scripts!

Another common mistake is bad coding techniques which do not get tested before publishing online. I would double check your server error logs for any php/mysql parsing errors that may have occurred while accessing the file.

When in Doubt, Try to Validate!

You can always try to validate your sitemap through a validator form online to find any XML formatting issues that may have occurred while creating your file.

Validome:
http://www.validome.org/google/

XML-Sitemaps.com:
http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/validate-xml-sitemap.html

Each will have different methods of outputting the results to you, which can be very valuable for debugging errors that may arise.

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Other Related Issues:

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Compression Error
- Google couldn not unzip your file

Empty Sitemap:
- No urls detected

Invalid Attribute Value:
- Coding like "href" is an attribute

Invalid Date:
- Your date is improperly formatted

Invalid Tag Value:
- Your <loc> tags are not correct somehow

Invalid URL:
- The link is not proper and should be corrected

Invalid Full URL:
- One of your links is not full

Invalid XML:
- There are unsupported tags within your sitemap or too many tags

Nested Indexing:
- Do not include other Index files or the same one within an Index Sitemap

Parsing Error:
- Check your scripting or xml formatting for help

Temporary Error:
- This may mean that your server was not responsive at that time

Too Many Sitemaps:
- Within any Index Sitemap, you can only have a maximum of 1000 smaller ones listed

Too Many URLs:
- Keeps the number under 50,000 links per sitemap

Unsupported File Format:
- Revert to this guide: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=34654

URL Not Allowed:
- Make sure the link within a sitemap is either located a higher folder, or the same as your sitemap location. No link should be within a lower folder than the sitemap, nor should you add sub-domain links in the wrong sitemap either.

Paths Don't Match:
- This may be caused from forgetting the www. before the http:// or it can be caused by using sub-domains where they should not be placed. Place all sub-domain links within a sub-domain sitemap only.

Incorrect Namespace:
- The 1st two lines aren not formatted properly. Check the protocol guides.

Leading Whitespace:
- There should be NO spaces before you start the XML namespace up top. Make sure if you use PHP, that you delete any unwanted spaces between each line.

A Specific HTTP Error:
- This may be a 404 page not found or any other HTTP specific error, Google will let you know which one they encountered.

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For all answers to these problems, please revert back to this post from Google:
https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35738&ctx=tltp&hl=en

Resubmit Your Sitemap After!

It's important to resubmit the sitemap in question after fixing any issues Google found. This will help to double check your sitemap for errors and rank any missing urls accordingly.

How Do I Resubmit?

1. Login to your Google Webmaster Tools Account
2. Click on the website in question
3. Click on "Sitemaps" from the top-left menu
4. Highlight the sitemap you want resubmitted
5. Click on "Resubmit Selected"
6. Wait for your results

In Conclusion:

Congrats! You've made it through my 5 part series on creating sitemaps. There's a lot more you can learn, but these tips will help you get started on the right track. Remember, that when you encounter problems, search online for the answer. I am very confident that if you follow the guidelines laid out within this 5 part series, Google may find thousands of pages you never had within their search results!

About The Author:

Martin Lemieux, president of the Adcidia network, has over 16 years of experience online while maintaining a network of over 35 web sites. For more tips like these, please visit:

Martin's Blog:
http://www.MartinLemieux.ca/

Internet Marketing Blog:
http://www.MartinLemieux.ca/internet-marketing/

Martin's RSS Feed:
http://www.MartinLemieux.ca/xml/

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