# help with sitemap



## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

Im struggling to get google to work with a sitemap I had generated online - it detected errors about prioirity so i removed the prioritys now it says its wrong format and prioritys are wrong - these online generators arent very good at all are they? I used one to generate a robots.txt file and it even got the wrong....

heres the code:

<urlset xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd">
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-29T19:27:24+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/index.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-29T19:27:24+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/cards.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-27T13:48:08+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/services.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-27T13:48:21+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/favours.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-27T14:02:26+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/floraldeco.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-27T13:30:36+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/contact.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-27T13:30:17+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/tabledeco.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-27T13:47:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/terms.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-09-27T13:31:43+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.co...:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>

</urlset>

google reports
*Unsupported file format*
Your Sitemap does not appear to be in a supported format. Please ensure it meets our Sitemap guidelines and resubmit.
*All the URLs in your Sitemap have the same priority.*
All the URLs in your Sitemap are set to the same priority (not the default priority). Priority indicates the importance of a particular URL relative to other URLs on your site, and doesn't impact your site's performance in search results. If all URLs have the same priority, Google can't tell which are more important


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## c0rrup (Aug 2, 2006)

Try using a different sitemap gen that will make your file "sitemap.xml".

That's the type I used, and it seemed to work flawlessly with google, although I don't remember what gen I used! Good luck.


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

the file was XML format - I think it means the coding is wrong


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

ive since used another and here is code below...

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84 http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84/sitemap.xsd">
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/cards.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/contact.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/favours.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/floraldeco.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/index.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/links.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/services.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/tabledeco.html</loc>
<lastmod>2008-10-03</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>
</url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.c...ekly</changefreq>
<priority>0.9</priority>

</urlset>


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## MicGoogle (Aug 3, 2008)

Your sitemap was generated wrongly
here use this site: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

thats the one i used originally and google said theres errors on it


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

I cheat and just use coffee cup google sitemapper.

It actually works.

Here is an example of the html page it produces.

And here is an example of the xml file.

Google accepts this xml file without errors.


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

well for mine set up same as yours (same as other I tried) it says
*
Unsupported file format*
Your Sitemap does not appear to be in a supported format. Please ensure it meets our Sitemap guidelines and resubmit. Help Help
Problem detected on: Oct 4, 2008
* All the URLs in your Sitemap have the same priority.*
All the URLs in your Sitemap are set to the same priority (not the default priority). Priority indicates the importance of a particular URL relative to other URLs on your site, and doesn't impact your site's performance in search results. If all URLs have the same priority, Google can't tell which are more important. Help Help
Problem detected on: Oct 4, 2008

http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/sitemap.xml

here is code:
*<urlset xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd">*

*<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/</loc>
<priority>1.00</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/index.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/cards.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/services.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/favours.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/floraldeco.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/contact.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/tabledeco.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/terms.html</loc>
<priority>0.80</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04T17:39:01+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.co...00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>

</urlset>
*


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

....continued

Ive now submitted: (see if this works)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<urlset xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/index.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/cards.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/services.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/favours.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/floraldeco.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/contact.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/tabledeco.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.com/terms.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2008-10-04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<loc>http://www.wed-dinetouches.co...04</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>

</urlset>


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

Due to the fact that I cheat, I actually have not taken the time to learn how site maps actually work.
What I have done, is run your site through the coffee cup software and attached the files.
Maybe you could try submitting it and see if it works.
Like I say, mine does, no errors reported from google webmaster dashboard.
What I have notice though, is that my site has a different folder structure, which by default may determine importance. In the root folder I have my index file, and then other files are in subfolders.


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

yeah will give it a go - its saying the one above generated from the sitemap generator supplied earlier in thread is wrong AGAIN - even after editing it to correct.... ive submitted about 6 diff sitemaps now and all same errors or warnings...

I like your website  - may be worth mentioning AVIRA in your anti-virus programs as it is free and has the best detection rate out of all programs with 99.6% of 2million infections found on av-comparitives testing (theyve been testing the top 12 programs with millions of infections for the past 5 years) - Avira Free has a nag screen which is a pain but you can get rid of it here -> http://www.elitekiller.com/files/disable_antivir_nag.htm
*
EDIT:* Well ive submitted it and when I open it in browser firefox says : This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.

which is what it has said before when google has said "WARNING"... so we will see...


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

Oh dear. But I wonder if your file structure does not have something to do with the problems you are experiencing.


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

the html files are exactly where the links say they are so It cant be that? lets wait until google check it out and take it from there

thanks for your help...

what did you use to build your site?

Im trying to find out which is best web programming to learn - primarily for databases and active content - Im busy having a bash at Web Developer (ASP.NET) with beginners lessons - Ive downloaded Dreamweaver lesson/videos that teach coldfusion/spry etc


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

I have been doing a little "googling" on the matter, and as far as I can see, provided you have a good navigation system (which your site does seem to have) how you file your pages should make no difference. Further, according to google help on the matter priority is optional and does not have a bearing on things other than to indicate to the search engine which page should be placed first.

Not much help, I am afraid

Regarding my site. I used expression web. I tried to keep everything css and html. Currently in the process of converting the pages to xhtml. Expression web is great when it comes to coding, however it's wysiwyg editor sucks.

As far as asp goes. The only down side it this is that your server must offer microsoft hosting. PHP works on microsoft and linux servers. My hosting company charges double for microsoft servers. Not sure if this is the general trend.


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

Originally my buttons couldnt be read as they are flash objects - so i simply added normal html links at the bottom of each page so google could read the links in the pages...

Im learning coldfusion - but like you say the host has to offer coldfusion aswell... maybe PHP is the best one to learn cos most hosts seem to offer this - does MySQL work with PHP? - as far as IM aware mySQL is the DATABASES (that I would create) and ASP/CF/PHP are the languages that can fetch the data from MySQL DB's yes?

I plan to use 110Mb and x10hosting free hosts - x10 offer PHP on free so maybe im best using that


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## caraewilton (Nov 7, 2007)

paulb100 said:


> Originally my buttons couldnt be read as they are flash objects - so i simply added normal html links at the bottom of each page so google could read the links in the pages...
> 
> Im learning coldfusion - but like you say the host has to offer coldfusion aswell... maybe PHP is the best one to learn cos most hosts seem to offer this - does MySQL work with PHP? - as far as IM aware mySQL is the DATABASES (that I would create) and ASP/CF/PHP are the languages that can fetch the data from MySQL DB's yes?
> 
> I plan to use 110Mb and x10hosting free hosts - x10 offer PHP on free so maybe im best using that


Bit off topic here, but it is your thread so... I think you are right, but this is an area of web site design I have yet to explore. It may be worth starting a new thread...


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## Saikuron (Sep 17, 2008)

Yes, PHP works with MySQL. Yes you would create the database (needs a name/username/password), put this information in PHP and it does the rest. PHP can read/write information to the MySQL database.

About the sitemap. You posted a few. Sometimes the top line was missing. Also the urlset looked either weird, or the generator was using an older version (should be 0.9). Top portion should be:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9
http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd">

And then the <url> would start. Everything else looks fine.


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## paulb100 (Mar 17, 2005)

thanks - it must be the generator cos someone supplied me with one from coffeecup and its worked perfectly (though google havent indexed any pages FROM the sitemap - they have from spiders)

thanks anyway


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