sitemap problems – not being updated, and other issues

I seem to have lost my reply when adding extra sensitive data… I’ll update again..

Hi

1. Pro vs Free
I bought Rankmath pro via this email
s****@w************************

2. Excluding the sitemap from cache

I use Litespeed. I notice the screenshot in your document and your document are different. I intend following your document which says I need to add this to Litespeed
/(.*)sitemap(.*).xml
/(.*)sitemap.xsl
/sitemap_index.xsl
/sitemap_index.xml

3. My .htaccess

Mine is very complex. I’ve added it to sensitive data….

Do I just add the code you suggest to the top of my .htaccess..??? I will update the htaccess directly from my host file system.

cheers, Bruce

Hi Migual

Point 1.
S****@w************************** is the owner who pays the bills.
b**********@g******** is my email (personal) address. I’m the developer. You can merge, but please keep my account as the main email… We can always change that if I get someone else to support him.

Point 2 & 3.The sitemap seems to be updated now and it’s no longer returning those URLs with the query parameter.

Yes, I’ve just checked them and I also don’t see the funny “parameter URL’s”… BUT…. I’ve done nothing yet..? Should I still put those entries into .htacess and into Litespeed settings????

I’m guessing I should. Please have a look at my 2 queries and advise me though.

My Previous question…
“2. Excluding the sitemap from cache

I use Litespeed. I notice the screenshot in your document and your document are different. I intend following your document which says I need to add this to Litespeed
/(.*)sitemap(.*).xml
/(.*)sitemap.xsl
/sitemap_index.xsl
/sitemap_index.xml

3. My .htaccess

Mine is very complex. I’ve added it to sensitive data….

Do I just add the code you suggest to the top of my .htaccess..??? I will update the htaccess directly from my host file system.”

Lastly. I checked all my sitemaps.

1. product_sitemap.
All looks good. as you say, no funny parameters.
All new products seem to be in the sitemap.
However, I’m not sure the funny parameters were in my sitemap. They are however in my Google Coverage tab under Google search console

2. post & page sitemap
seem ok

3. Category (wordpress post category)
looks ok
4. PWB brand sitemap.
Looks good. All Brands present, even new onbes.
5. Local sitemap.
All good. Where would I update my phone # ???

6. Product-Category Sitemap.
Probably my most important sitemap, and the one with issues…
Some missing URL’s
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/surf-gear/rash-vests/
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/hydrofoil/wake-foiling/
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/easter-special/

Then All my top level product categories are not in the sitemap. These all have no products attached to them, BUT they rather have subcategories..
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/kitesurfing/
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/waterski/
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/wake/
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/inflatable-boat-tube/
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/hydrofoil/
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/surf-gear/
But these are the main pages of my site….?????

If I go into search console and do an inspect URL on these top level URL’s I find them on Google. However it does say that these entries were not found in a sitemap… Surely they should be in the sitemap…

regards, Bruce

Hi Miguel

I’ve done most of your changes, just not the .htaccess ones. I still have queries on this…
I’ve just looked at the Google Coverage Tab on Google search console, to try and see what entries from Google I’d like to remove…
My simple logic is that I should exclude
1. All Order by URL’s…
2. All Filter by Attributes
3. Various other entries I seem to find. Mostly these entries seem to be coming from Google Ads
I’ll go through each scenario now.

1. Sort orders on all URL’s
Surely I would like to exclude all “sort orders” from my site map. So no order by Price, by Rating, by menu_order
So can I rather insert the below code to exclude all of these.
/?orderby=*

2. Different product attributes that I use to filter
Examples are
Gender= male, gender=female
Size =…..
Ride Capacity=
These all end up with URL’s that I see on Google search console like
/?filter_ride-capacity=*
Or
/?filter_pwb_list=*

Can I exclude all of these with this

/?filter*

3. Other attribute filters
They all look like
/?attribute_pa_size=xxxl
/?attribute_pa_colour=green

I can presumably use this to exclude
/?attribute_pa*

4. How about the various different page #? Presumably we don’t exclude these are there are products on each page.

5. Various other

https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/?stock_cd=656 and others

This to exclude these
/?stock_cd=*

6. Other parameters
I see URL’s like
https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/product-category/hydrofoil/wing-foiling/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI8LSQ44Cy6wIVNMW7CB2a-AS6EAEYASAAEgJSZPD_BwE

This to exclude these
/?gclid=*

So, Is this a better .htaccess file…

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Disallow: */?dTribesID*
Disallow: */?orderby=*
Disallow: */?filter*
Disallow: */?attribute_pa*
Disallow: */?stock_cd=*
Disallow: */?gclid=*
Disallow: */?front_page*
Disallow: */feed/

Sitemap: https://www.watersportswarehouse.co.za/sitemap_index.xml

Thanks for pointing out my error re robot.txt and .htaccess… I got that wrong.

My sitemaps look 100%.
My inclination is to leaves things now.. i.e. not put those rules in tobot.txt, and not tell google to remove these entries…

Should I resubmit my new site (well updated) sitemap, or wait until google reads it again???

cheers, Bruce