Multiple Sitemap Issue

#871519
  • Resolved Matthew

    1 year ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi there,

    I recently found out that rankmath has generated 3 sitemaps for me based on my language setups by wpml (english, zh-hant, zh-hans). In other words, i’ve only submitted the english sitemap to google search console before.

    I went through all the sitemaps in detail and found that the english sitemap did included all my URLS from ENG, BUT only 95% the urls from zh-hant & 95% of urls from zh-hans.

    My SEO agency advise me to only submit one sitemap, which is going to be the english one as it indexed almost all of my website URLS. May i ask how can i add the remaining 5% urls from both zh-hant and zh-hans to the english one?

    Is there a way to merge all the sitemaps without duplicating the urls? or is there a way to manually add the leftout urls? How do i prevent this to happen again as i do not want to manually update the sitemaps.

    Thanks!

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • RankBot

    1 year ago

    Hello,

    We apologize for the issue you are facing with the multiple sitemaps generated by Rank Math and the missing URLs in your zh-hant and zh-hans sitemaps. Thank you for raising this concern.

    Rank Math automatically creates a sitemap for each language when using WPML, and it includes all translated posts/pages. However, if some URLs are missing from the sitemaps, it could be due to various reasons such as custom canonical tags or settings in WPML.

    Here are some steps you can take:

    1. Check for Custom Canonicals: If you have set custom canonical URLs for your posts, those posts may not appear in the sitemap. Ensure that you are using the default canonical settings for all posts to allow Rank Math to include them in the sitemap.

    2. Review WPML Settings: Make sure that all your translated posts/pages are published and not set to draft or private. Only published content will be included in the sitemap.

    3. Sitemap Configuration: You can check your sitemap settings in Rank Math by going to Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings. Ensure that all post types and taxonomies you want indexed are enabled.

    4. Manual Addition of URLs: Unfortunately, there is no direct way to merge sitemaps or manually add URLs to the English sitemap without duplicating them. The best practice is to ensure that all translations are correctly set up and published.

    5. Preventing Future Issues: To prevent this from happening again, regularly check your sitemaps after making changes to your content or translations. Rank Math automatically updates the sitemaps when new content is added, but ensuring everything is published and correctly configured will help maintain completeness.

    If you continue to experience issues with missing URLs, we recommend replying to this ticket so a human agent from the Rank Math Support team can assist you further.

    Thank you for your understanding, and we hope this helps resolve your sitemap concerns!

    Sources:
    Multilingual SEO with Rank Math SEO & WPML » Rank Math
    Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
    Why Did My Website Disappear From Google Search? » Rank Math

    Adetayo

    1 year ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting us and sorry for any inconvenience that this issue might have caused.

    To attempt to resolve this issue, consider installing the WPML SEO glue extension:
    https://wpml.org/compatibility/2021/04/wpml-seo-plugin-better-integration-with-seo-plugins/

    This extension is designed to enhance compatibility and may assist in resolving the issue with the sitemap.

    Once installed and activated, please flush the sitemap cache by following the steps below:

    #1. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
    https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp

    #2. After this, exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. This would prevent caching of the sitemap.

    For plugins, please follow this article ( if you use caching plugins ) :
    https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/

    For Cloudflare, please follow this article ( if you use cloudflare ) :
    https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/#cloudflare

    #3. If the above steps doesn’t seem to work, kindly apply the following filter code to your site.

    add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

    Here’s how you can add filter/hook to your WordPress site:
    https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

    If installing the WPML SEO glue extension and flushing the sitemap cache doesn’t resolve the issue do let us know.

    We hope that helps, and please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.

    Thank you.

    Matthew

    1 year ago

    Rank Math free

    Hello, May i confirm what is the expected outcome after doing the above steps?

    Will i be able to see the non-indexed urls from zh-hant and zh-hans in my English sitemap eventually? and I do no need to submit my sitemap to google search console again?

    Thank you!

    Ike

    1 year ago

    Hello,

    If you follow those steps the posts/pages/CPTs set to index, and having self-referencing canonical URLs will be reflected on the sitemap.

    You should only submit the main sitemap (/sitemap_index.xml) to the Google Search console.

    You can refer to this guide: https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

    Hope that helps, and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.

    Matthew

    12 months ago

    Rank Math free

    Hello there,

    My developer tried the method you mentioned above and we got successfully got one url indexed. However, there’s still one page being left out. May I ask if there’s any other method to add that url?

    We’ve also tried duplicating the page, but it doesn’t work.

    The missing url is http://www.nova.com.hk/zh-hant

    Thank you!

    Matthew

    12 months ago

    Rank Math free

    sorry, i would also like to ask, if i can manually delete those extra sitemaps in different languages? thanks

    Jeremy

    12 months ago

    Hello,

    The pages you mentioned already have the hreflang tag defined so there’s no if this will not be mentioned in the sitemap as Google will simply discover them via the hreflang tag manged by your translation plugin.

    Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any other questions.

    RankBot

    10 months, 4 weeks ago

    Hello,

    Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.

    If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.

    Thank you.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

The ticket ‘Multiple Sitemap Issue’ is closed to new replies.