Error with Sitemap and Google Search Console

Hello @marketingsmg

Thanks for reaching out. I confirmed https://www.smglanguages.com/home/?lang=en 301: Permanent redirect to https://www.smglanguages.com/?lang=en with redirection plugin.

However, the Yoast SEO-generated XML sitemap isn’t able to exclude URLs not redirected by the Yoast SEO Premium.

That’s odd… I mean, we would have this issue with every page that has been redirected, but that’s not the case
There are just 19 of them (19 on more than 1000 pages…)
What does these pages have that the other 1000 don’t?

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Hi @marketingsmg

You are asking why the number of pages with redirect is showing 19 in Google Search Console.

Google Search Console is not real time. So it may take some time to show all the redirected URLs in Google Search Console.

Feel free to let us know if I am not picking up the question correctly.

I’m sorry miz, but you missed the point

Of course we are aware that Google Search Console requires time… but I’m contacting you because this problem has been going on in the last 6 months at least (even more, since those pages have been redirected long long time ago).

Actually the point is that your colleague answered that “YoastSEO’s sitemap can’t detect the proper URLs unless they are not redirected through the YoastSEO Premium tool”.

But this seems not right because, as you can see in the screen attached in the previous email, we have redirected more than 600 pages and Google Search Console apparently has a problem just with 19 links, which correspond to the ones I pointed out in the first question (https://www.smglanguages.com/home/?lang=en -> https://www.smglanguages.com/?lang=en and the same homepage in other 19 languages as well).

This means that YoastSEO sitemap absolutely CAN detect the pages that have been redirected or not (otherwise Google would detect more than 600 pages with redirection, but that’s not the case as the screen n.2 shows) and it arrange the sitemap with the proper URLs, removing the redirected ones that do not correspond to a real page with the proper URLs.

BUT with those 19 pages there are some issues apparently…

Does it make sense now?

My response addresses the Yoast SEO-generated XML sitemap, not what Google Search Console reports.?Is there a URL you have redirected with the Redirection plugin that’s excluded from the sitemap?

What you see in Google Search Console is entirely a different issue. Your sitemap isn’t the only way URLs are detected. If a URL has a 301 redirect, Google Search Console may detect it, that doesn’t mean it will be indexed. Is there a URL with a 301 redirect that Google Search Console reports as indexed?

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by Maybellyne.

Well, yes. As I said, the point is that on the sitemap I can’t find the proper URL I’ve redirected the page to:
the sitemap shows https://www.smglanguages.com/home/?lang=en?but not?https://www.smglanguages.com/?lang=en. This second URL is not listed anywhere. As you said, Google must have taken it from other links it has found on the website.

In fact this URL “https://www.smglanguages.com/?lang=en” appears as indexed by Google but problem is that this is marked as “not on the sitemap” whether simultaneously the wrong one is seen on the sitemap but marked as “redirected”…

I’m just asking if there’s a way to remove the wrong URLs from the sitemap and replace them with the proper one, so that the sitemap is correct and Google doesn’t keep reminding me there are alternative URLs.

the point is that on the sitemap I can’t find the proper URL I’ve redirected the page to

I assume the destination URL is a real page that’s editable on your site. Kindly edit it and share a full screenshot of what it looks like in the backend

I’m just asking if there’s a way to remove the wrong URLs from the sitemap and replace them with the proper one

We don’t have a feature that removes a URL that’s redirected by another plugin from the sitemap.

I assume the destination URL is a real page that’s editable on your site. Kindly edit it and share a full screenshot of what it looks like in the backend

Yes, here you have the screen you asked for: https://prnt.sc/F1rQIdekAlNe
As you can see the page URL is “https://www.smglanguages.com/?lang=en“

I’ve no idea why the sitemap keeps mantining URLs that no longer exist…

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by marketingsmg.

Can anybody help? Thank you

Hello?!

@maybellyne

@marketingsmg, please share a fuller screenshot capturing the Yoast SEO meta box and its advanced tab

Here it is: full size screenshot

@maybellyne did you have the opportunity to take a deeper look at it?

I’m sorry it took a while to respond. Looking at the hreflang attribute, I saw the IT version is the main homepage while the EN is one of the translations. It’s unclear why the slug field for the /?lang=en is blank as that’s usually the case for the main homepage, which is in the page sitemap already.

We’d have to investigate further on this as it could be something specific to your setup, but we are unable to do so over these public forums. You might want to consider Yoast SEO Premium for personal premium.