How do I clear out ancient sub-sitemaps?

  • I want the sitemap.xml to just show the current links in the site. Currently it includes every sitemap that ever was since 2008 as sub-sitemaps. Search and Google Webmaster Tools index all those old sub-sitemaps and then report 404 Not Found for old links that are no longer on the site but are listed in the very old sub-sitemaps.

    I need to clean those out so I can get rid of invalid 404 Not Found hits.

    I have tried deactivating the XML Sitemap plugin, creating a basic blank sitemap.xml, and uploading that. However, the plugin just reports it is there and won’t use it. I’ve tried getting Google Webmaster tools to read only the empty sitemap.xml to clear out old data but it retains the one with the sub-sitemaps.

    How do I start from today with a fresh sitemap.xml?

    https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

  • Same question here, too – anyone know the answer?

    I have the same question. We have a ton of 404’s after we reorganized the site and removed some content.

    I would also like to remove old pages from the sitemap, as they were deleted or moved to drafts, and are now returning 404 errors
    Basically I would like to generate a new sitemap reflecting the current state of my site.
    How can this be accomplished?

    Thread Starter sleeplessindc

    (@sleeplessindc)

    Exactly what I’d like to have–a sitemap.xml that reflects the current state of my WordPress site. Is there any way to get rid of old, obsolete pages listed in the sub-sitemaps that no longer exist on the site?

    I got this to work:
    I deleted the current version of Google XML Sitemaps and all the generated files with it. I had to go into Google Webmaster Tools and put in URL Requests to delete each sub-sitemap link because then they come up with 404 errors. Then I reinstalled the last working version (version 3.4.1), configured it and got a clean sitemap.xml to submit to search engines.

    Download version 3.4.1 from the plugin site at https://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/?utm_source=wp-wm&utm_medium=install&utm_content=plugin-side (in the sidebar).
    The download links says version 3.4.1 is for WordPress <3.3 but it works just fine on WordPress 4.2.1 and doesn’t list obsolete pages.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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