Sitemap Plugin Activated on Wordpress Blog, Google Webmaster says URLs not found???

[fortune68]

HI all,

I'm confused. A few weeks ago I installed Google XML Sitemaps to my WordPress blog (as a plugin) and activated it, and today I check in my Google Webmaster account, and it says

1) I have not submitted a sitemap yet (how can I do that, if that is an extra step that is required? I don't understand the instructions on the Google Webmaster site) I thought activating the Plugin on my blog would be all that's required.

2) When I look at the web crawl in Google Webmaster Tools, it says "URL not found (Error 404) 40 times! I only have 43 posts on there! But everything shows up when you go to the site.

Here is the link to the site: Petra-Weiss.com

Anybody who could help out there would be greatly appreciated.

[dgumpper]

fortune68,

your sitemap.xml doesn't look to good. Yours looks like this:
http://www.petra-weiss.com/sitemap.xml.

Mine looks like this:
http://www.goodguysreview.com/sitemap.xml.

Make sure you have the latest plugin and change the file permission rights

From the plugin installation of Google XML Sitemap on WordPress:
1 Upload the full directory into your wp-content/plugins directory
2 Use your favorite FTP program to create two files in your WordPress directory (that's where the wp-config.php is) named sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz and make them writable via CHMOD 666. More information about CHMOD and how to make files writable is available at the WordPress Codex and on stadtaus.com. Making your whole blog directory writable is NOT recommended anymore due to security reasons.
3 Activate the plugin at the plugin administration page

Sometimes deactivating/activating the plugin works as well.

Hopefully this helps.

[SisterSledge]

Well, you do have an xml sitemap on your site:
http://www.petra-weiss.com/sitemap.xml

But, it doesn't really look to be formatted as I would expect (doesn't mean it's not right though).

I would expect you need to submit the URL for the sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.

Can't help with why URLs are 404 - probably a naming convention sorta thing...could you provide one of those crawled 404 URLs?

[ron angel]

Originally Posted by SisterSledge

Well, you do have an xml sitemap on your site:
http://www.petra-weiss.com/sitemap.xml

But, it doesn't really look to be formatted as I would expect (doesn't mean it's not right though).

I would expect you need to submit the URL for the sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools.

Can't help with why URLs are 404 - probably a naming convention sorta thing...could you provide one of those crawled 404 URLs?

url 404 is the standard error page not found what it looks like depends on the site and software in question.
a good free sitemap generator that is very google friendly and many other good points is the one I use on my site
http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/sitemap.xml
click on or copy the above link into your browser
then click on the link at the top of the page " SOFTplus GSiteCrawler" to learn all about it.and create your own one free of charge!

[inertia]

The plugin is not rendering the site map in proper xml. Copy and past it into wordpad and you'll see what i mean...

So try dgumpper's suggestions...

[fortune68]

Hi all,
thanks for the good input.
dgumpper, I did everything you said (and I have learned a bit on the way!), and things worked just fine, but when I went into the settings of my wordpress blog to edit the settings for xml sitemap, it still had all the "old"content in it and I couldn't build the sitemap for the first time.
Also, it still looks terrible when you go to http://www.petra-weiss.com/sitemap.xml
Is it possible that I have to wait for Google to index my site again for any changes to appear? Or do I really have to submit the sitemap through my Google Webmaster tools?

[innominds]

Originally Posted by dgumpper

fortune68,


Make sure you have the latest plugin and change the file permission rights

From the plugin installation of Google XML Sitemap on WordPress:
1 Upload the full directory into your wp-content/plugins directory
2 Use your favorite FTP program to create two files in your WordPress directory (that's where the wp-config.php is) named sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz and make them writable via CHMOD 666. More information about CHMOD and how to make files writable is available at the WordPress Codex and on stadtaus.com. Making your whole blog directory writable is NOT recommended anymore due to security reasons.
3 Activate the plugin at the plugin administration page

I'm facing a different problem wrt the Google XML Sitemap on WordPress plugin. It is not recognizing the categories of the blog post.

Say, in your blog post Build Muscle Faster | Good Guys Review .....

the plugin is displaying it as http://www.goodguysreview.com//build-muscle-faster/

What should I do? Is there anything to fix this problem?

[Feydakin]

For the record, you don't need the sitemap.. If your site uses basic, normal, wordpress navigation it won't help you at all..

[innominds]

You mean to say, there is no need of a sitemap if the navigation is correct. Then why does even the BIG sites prepare a sitemap?

[Feydakin]

Because they've always had one and don't know how to evolve.. Just because you are big doesn't make you right..

Clean, spirderable, navigation is all you need.. Sitemaps won't help, and may actually hurt is not done properly when you already have proper navigation in place..

Sitemaps originally evolved from a need to help the bots understand complex and dynamic URLs.. With the advent of mod_rewrite and now "smarter" spiders, this isn't an issue any more..

[hamonpari]

Originally Posted by inertia

The plugin is not rendering the site map in proper xml. Copy and past it into wordpad and you'll see what i mean...

So try dgumpper's suggestions...

Agree with you

[fortune68]

Hi guys,
I have done all you suggested, I have worked it out and had no problems at all.
Now, you say I should use my favorite FTP program to create two files named sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz which is fine, the only thing is that when I upload the plugin to my wp-contents/plugins folder, these files are already created, they are already existent after upload, so what I did was just make them writeable. I DID NOT HAVE TO CREATE THESE FILES. Is that maybe where the problem lies?