Had to downgrade due to format of new sitemap

What do you mean by “Google does not prefer the new sitemap format”? It is an official standard defined by Google. Please provide a source if you make a statement like this. Thanks!

By the way, Google is using exactly this format for their own blogs.

Well, google gave me a bunch of errors using the new sitemap layout. It has never given me an error before until this new version. You should at least give us an option to go back to using the old format.

Hi,

I also want to go back to the old format, is there a way to do it?
I don’t know what google thinks about the new format. But I don’t want to use it.

I want to hide the last modification time and the plugin has an option to choose if we want to include that info or not.
Now, the plugin creates a file by month/year revealing that information without any option to go back to the old format or to hide it.

I’m using your plugin for a few years and it always worked great for me, I really appreciate your work and thank you for sharing…
but please, give me an option to go back to the old format or some way to hide the date my posts were published.

cheers,
Miguel

Arnee:

It is May 1st and Google Webmaster Tools STILL shows errors using the new format. I too don’t like it and most importantly Google reflects that they see errors with it and that my sitemap submission is still PENDING…after weeks.

PLEASE provide a way to delete this format and allow us to download version 4.0.0 or 4.0.1

See appnet.com/sitemap.xml and it LOOKS fine…although I still don’t like the format. However on google webmaster tools it shows multiple warnings.

Also the OLD versions allowed us to MANUALLY resend the sitemap to Google.

After reading so many talking about how google handles this format, I ended up going to Google Webmaster and see how it handled mine.
Actually, I don’t have warnings or errors…

However, Google provides a way to show, side by side, the number of links submitted in the sitemap vs the links they’ve indexed.
They also show this information as a graph, showing variations over time.
Since 14/Apr (when I’ve updated to the new version of the plugin) the “indexed” pages go down to zero, and it just shows the number of pages submitted in the sitemap.

Definitely Google as issues handling this format.

Meantime, I just reverted all websites to version 3.4.1 of the plugin and will hope the author reconsiders the format or at least provides an option to keep the old format.

cheers,
Miguel

Migueleste – how did you revert to the older version?

Hi,

1) Uninstalled version 4,
2) Went here: https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/developers/
3) Downloaded version 3.4.1
4)Installed it.

I had to do it in… 18 sites ??
I worked fine.

and by the way, the google webmasters report of sitemaps (submitted vs indexed) went normal one day after I’ve downgraded.

cheers,
miguel

I cannot hide my join when faced with the words again ‘submit your sitemap for the first time’ the update from a web owners perspective has been horrible. Thanks for the help on here ??

Has this issue been fixed in any of the recent updates?

Anybody know????

I uninstalled completely, I downgraded, for me it doesn’t work anymore. I even tried the xml generator in the SEO plugin, and that one doesn’t work either now. Seems after the upgrade to the 4.x version something “broke” in the wordpress configuration and sitemaps don’t work regardless… I am waiting for the developer to give us some guidance on this.

Hi,

whats exactly not working? The plugin is being used by a million of blogs, there is no “general” problem with it. ??

Best regards,

Arne

My question is, in the new update, is the plugin still making the sitemap different and all weird?

My question is, how come Bing and Google don’t find the perfectly working sitemaps?

When i run a plugin and follow the instructions and it generates files and says everything is working and then two days later check Google and Bing webmaster tools and they tell me no sitemaps then either I missed a step or the plugin isn’t working.

That’s my issue.

Google Webmaster tools does not like the new sitemap, Invalid XML tag warning This tag was not recognized. Please fix it and resubmit. > image

This started with the new sitemap!