Author Sitemap enabled, Not showing

Hi @brianol

We aren’t familiar with the Ultimate Member user management plugin.

However, we do know that if you enabled the default WordPress author archives under SEO > Search Appearance > Archives tab > ‘Author archives’ and then save the changes, it should show the author sitemap in the Yoast SEO sitemap (/sitemap_index.xml).

Would it be possible for you to attach a screenshot (using snipboard.io or imgur.com) of the settings you have in place for the author archives, as well as a link to your sitemap index so we can try and check on this further?

see attached screenies:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j27w8chdFU_oU-obGuaIRSbCF0fqmFyF/view?usp=sharing
Yoast archive settings with “Show archives for authors without posts in search results?” toggled to ON

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I2YYbcqru__ZvPCIM93MuLccUhP5umxe/view?usp=sharing
UM settings showing the site is visible to everyone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zxfZ2kwcHb0OG3dE4tPps5DyroXi2gVd/view?usp=sharing
ADMIN user settings removing them from the sitemap – the other user classes are shared, but they have 0 posts attributed to them. They are also a custom role. in this case, “Sport Organization”

So in theory, My user sitemap should have just ultimate member “Sport Organization” users. But it’s not.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fkD7DKwSW35frQNAh-J-R9HAcPwOs2eD/view?usp=sharing

So I can make the user sitemap appear if I reveal the admin users in the main admin user editor, but either way, it’s not picking up the other user classes.

If I uncheck the “Do not allow search engines to show this author’s archives in search results.” from the admin accounts, they indeed will show up, but I don’t want that. What I want is the directory users to appear.

Thank you

For reference, Ultimate Member builds a User Directory by adding users directly to the main user table, and then adding content via user_meta.

It’s weird actually… you basically are running these complex member directories without any additional tables.

SO… I can’t quite figure out why Yoast wouldn’t pick up the users, because they are in the user table anyway.

The option — “Do not allow search engines to show this author’s archives in search results.” when enabled would exclude a particular author’s archive appearing in search results and also in the author sitemap.

While we are not familiar with the current Ultimate Member plugin and the setup, as much as we hate to say it, your question goes beyond the technical expertise of me and my colleagues on the Yoast support team. This means we can’t give you a solid answer to your question.

But we don’t want to leave you empty-handed either, please submit an issue report to our GitHub repository for Yoast SEO. Our technical team will further investigate it. Please include as much information as you’ve about the issue.

You will need an account to create a new issue. Please provide as much information about the issue and don’t forget to include the URL to this conversation in your report.

Thank you.

I agree – what at play here is only part Yoast. Ultimate Member uses the main site user table to create users. Looking back, I may have not selected them for this, as it muddies the main site admin, but what appears to happen is you create a custom user role and the directory uses that.

Indexing the site is the main issue, but I am sorting that with Ultimate Member Support. What I can’t figure out is why Yoast doesn’t pick up the custom user roles.

Hi @brianol

According to the functional specification for the XML sitemaps, it should create the individual sitemaps for the various content types such as posts, pages, custom post types, if the content type is ‘public’. We’re not sure as to why the sitemap for the ‘ultimate members’ isn’t created, but it may have to do with settings if it’s not a content type that is public.

If you want to customize the output and perhaps add an external sitemap, you can do so by checking it out here – https://yoast.com/help/how-to-customize-the-sitemap-index/

Sorry if we couldn’t be of more help here.

Hi @mikes41720
I think I have it working.

In the user menu, on the admin users, I had disabled the inclusion of the admin users in the sitemap. Once I include them, it all pops to life.

For the record, I think the admin users should be removed from this, but that’s another debate.

Thanks

Hi @brianol

We’re glad to hear you have it working now.

We’re not sure exactly which option you are referring to in the admin users, but we do have an option on each individual user profile of ‘Do not allow search engines to show this author’s archives in search results’ under the Users > Profile > Yoast SEO settings that should also influence as to whether a particular author would output in the sitemap or not.

Otherwise, please do feel free to create a report on GitHub for your concern. Thank you!

Hi @mikes41720
The option I’m talking about is at the bottom of each individual user in the user editor.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zxfZ2kwcHb0OG3dE4tPps5DyroXi2gVd/view?usp=sharing

It would appear, no one knows about this option!

Hi @brianol

Yes, that’s a Yoast SEO setting under each user profile if you would like to set an individual author archive to ‘noindex’ and to exclude it from the author sitemap.

We aren’t sure with how it affects the functionality of the ‘Ultimate Member’ plugin, but it should be be fairly straightforward with the default WordPress author archives.

Hi,

This thread has been marked as resolved due to a lack of activity.

You’re always welcome to re-open this topic. Please read this post before opening a new request.

Thanks for understanding!