No sitemap

Hello @uihlein!

We may need to ask you to perform a conflict check but before you do that, can you please provide us your site URL so we can investigate?

Saunders4senate.com

The sitemap generated by Yoast looks perfect. You can find it here: https://saunders4senate.com/sitemap_index.xml

Rumejan: Thank you for responding. However, i cannot see the sitemap when I go into file manager. Where does the file physically live and why can i not see it in the directory in which all of the related files for the site reside? When I have submitted the site map to goole it has been rejected and errors out.

Rumejan: I am in the admin panel of the site. I follow the Yoast instructions to go to function, select sitemaps, show site maps and all I get is a white screen with the text Transferring data from sitename.com…

This will hang for as long as I let it go. I am in a Firefox browser session with 300gb connection. Been hanging for ten minutes now.

Operating system Mac Mojave. Everything else as described.

Rumejan: I have tried the same in Chrome and the sitemaps show. Evidently Firefox blocks/contains the Yoast or siteground display of the sitemaps via the admin panel of wordpress. I have disabled popups and am wondering what other setting might have disabled the display of the sitemaps in FireFox. Can you tell me how Yoast presents the site map to the admin panel?

@uihlein

We can see you have several concerns with the sitemap. We understand how this can give you pause for concern. Let’s go through each one below:

A. I cannot see the sitemap when I go into file manager
This is expected. We do not create a physical file on your site. The sitemap file is created virtually on the fly. Google is still expected to index the sitemap correctly.

B.I am in the admin panel of the site. I follow the Yoast instructions to go to function, select sitemaps, show site maps and all I get is a white screen with the text Transferring data from sitename.com
We are not sure exactly where you are at but when we go to: https://saunders4senate.com/sitemap_index.xml the sitemap loads. See image: https://pasteboard.co/JufPl9e.png. It loads the same in Chrome and FireFox.

Can you confirm if you click on that link in FireFox or Chrome that it loads?

C. When I have submitted the site map to goole it has been rejected and errors out.
Are you able to take a screenshot of those errors or describe them? If Google flags any specific URL please also link to it. You can use a tool like: https://pasteboard.co/ to share the image.

Hello @pcosta88: It was not clear to me that the file was virtual. So, not related but how does google find the “virtual” sitemap. Please point me to any documentation you have. I do not want to take up your time to explain. So I test the url you provided and it does indeed show the sitemap in both chrome and in Firefox. It does not however, display the sitemap via the admin panel (following the instructions yoast provides – i.e. functions, sitemap, display sitemap it merely hangs while using Firefox. So is the display using a popup?. How is it designed to work from within WP admin panel? I have opened the search console and discovered that despite my error in submission on the first of october the sitemap has been processed on Oct 4. So it all appears to be working but I still do not understand the behavior. I have other sites and have not seen this behavior in the past. Aside form elementor the sites use many of the same plugins and the big difference is cpanel versus fake cpanel in the new installation of siteground. I would really like to understand how when google crawls the site a “virtual” site map is discovered and processed.

Hi,

We can see in the reply you identified several areas of concern. We have responded to them below. If we missed any, please let us know!

A. So, not related but how does google find the “virtual” sitemap. Please point me to any documentation you have. I do not want to take up your time to explain
You need to submit the sitemap to Google. This guide explains more: https://yoast.com/help/submit-sitemap-search-engines/#google.

B. It does not however, display the sitemap via the admin panel (following the instructions yoast provides – i.e. functions, sitemap, display sitemap it merely hangs while using Firefox.
We are not sure what this is exactly referring to it. Are you going to SEO-General-Features and clicking on the question mark for the XML sitemaps? There should then be a link to the sitemap. If you click on that link does the sitemap load or does it hang?

If you are accessing the sitemap differently, are you able to take a screenshot? You can use a tool like: https://pasteboard.co/ to share the image.

C. So is the display using a popup?
No, we do not use a pop-up to display the Yoast settings.

D. How is it designed to work from within WP admin panel?
We may need a screenshot to better understand what exactly you are clicking on.

E. I have opened the search console and discovered that despite my error in submission on the first of october the sitemap has been processed on Oct 4.
If the sitemap shows it has been successfully submitted that is good. If you are getting any errors for it we’d be happy to take a look at them and let you know if they are related to Yoast. Describing them or taking a screenshot would be helpful. Please also provide any URLs that Google flags too.

F. I would really like to understand how when google crawls the site a “virtual” site map is discovered and processed.
As described in A, above you submit the sitemap to Google. Google then begins to crawl it. Though, it will do so on an algorithm. With Yoast each time you publish or change content on your site we ping Google to come crawl the sitemap. It is then up to Google to come crawl it.

OK.. Thanks for the documentation pointer.

Using Firefox browser —-
I enter siteground (new cpanel), select the website, log into WP admin, Click on SEO, goes to Yoast, I select features, I scroll to XML sitemaps, i select ?, i select see the xml sitemap. I get a white screen with “Read mysitename.com” and it just hangs indefinitely. That is the current behavior. I can use a different browser so I have a workaround but would still like to understand why this is happening. I have had some other quirky things happen with my configuration but for the most part everything else seems to be working as expected.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by uihlein.

Hi,

The most important part of this conversation is that your sitemaps are loading as expected here: https://saunders4senate.com/sitemap_index.xml.

However, let’s see if we can’t figure out why the sitemaps are not loading as expected from within the plugin. To clarify, if you click on See The XML Sitemap in the blue link, does it open up the sitemap in a new tab. See image: https://pasteboard.co/JuhpsBg.jpg.

If not and it still hangs We would like some more information.

1. Does it still do that in Incognito or Private mode?

2. Are the browsers all updated?

3. Do you have any browser settings that disables “open up in new tab”?

4. Are you able to take a screenshot of the issue? You can use a tool like: https://pasteboard.co/ to share the image.

Hi:
I have captured the screen it is at https://pasteboard.co/JuhC3g3.png
It still hangs. The browser is running at 8.1.01 (current release). I looked for the setting you referenced in the browser and did not find it.

I am operating as I had expected as I know that the FireFox browser is probably not reliable in it’s current state. I will move to chrome for future adjustments to the yoast product. I really appreciate the help that Yoast has provided and I thank you. I also understand that you have so many environmental issues that you have no control over that might impact the use of the product.

Hi,

We understand that the sitemap is working when you open a new tab and manually enter the URL https://saunders4senate.com/sitemap_index.xml.

It also works when you click on the ‘See the XML sitemap’ link under your WP dashboard > SEO (sidebar) > General > Features Tab > XML Sitemaps > ? when using Google Chrome, but not when using Mozilla Firefox.

It may definitely be an issue with the browser which would require further testing, but the important thing to know is that the sitemap is accessible and that the search engines are able to crawl it. We recommend that you also submit your sitemap to the search engines if you haven’t already.

Yes I have written it off to a browser issue with the Yoast product or conversely a Firefox issue with the yoast product. I appreciate Yoasts attention to this issue and taking the time to look into it for me.It would be nice to understand why it is happening but really who has time with so many things to do.

Hi @uihlein,

Thanks for getting back to us. The sitemaps are intended to be accessed by search engines, not by browsers, so one of the best ways to check for errors is to view the Sitemap report in Google Search Console or to view the page source.