post_tag sitemap xml full of 404 errors

Hello,

Thanks for reaching out, though the issue is not clear.

Do you mean that there are URLs like https://www.rbtec.com/ru/%d1%82%d0%b5%d0%b3-2/%d0%ba%d0%be%d0%bd%d0%be%d0%bf%d0%bb%d1%8f/ and https://rbtec.com/el/%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%AD%CF%84%CE%B1-2/%CE%BA%CE%AC%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%B7%CF%82/ in your /post-tag/ sitemap throwing 404 errors?

If yes, can you confirm if your site was recently hacked, as those URLs are in foreign languages such as German, Russian, Hebrew, Greek etc?

Furthermore, we want to assure you that since the URLs throw a 404 – not found error, with time, Google will drop them and no longer index them. They will also get removed from the post-tag sitemap.

Thanks

It was not hacked, I use the translatepress plugin to have the website in multiple languages.

Where does the site map take those URLs from? I don’t understand.
I’m not sure if Google will drop them but it messes up my site audit and I’m sure hurts my SEO.

@doribak Thanks for your reply.

Regarding your issue, are the URLs that are included in the post_tag-sitemap.xml file that are returning 404 statuses previously legitimate tag URLs? Or are there URLs included that are not tags at all?

Also, whereas the XML Sitemap should dynamically update after any modification to it, if the site or server is caching the sitemap this can cause it to not update right away. We also have additional information on this at the following link: https://yoast.com/help/sitemap-does-not-update/.

If you are not seeing the sitemap as updated, we would recommend checking your caching settings and to ensure that the sitemap is being excluded from the cache.

If the sitemap is being cached by a plugin we have directions on how to add an exclusion for the sitemap files to your cache plugin at the following link: https://yoast.com/help/exclude-sitemaps-from-cache/

If you are still experiencing an issue with the sitemap not updating after checking your site’s caching settings, you can also force a cache reset by temporarily disabling the sitemap feature, and then re-enabling it. To do so please perform the following steps:

In order to disable and then re-enable sitemaps in the Yoast SEO plugin, you would need to perform the following actions:

? In WordPress go to SEO>General>Features
? Toggle the ‘XML Sitemaps’ option to ‘Off’
? Click ‘Save Changes’
? Toggle the ‘XML Sitemaps’ option to ‘On’
? Click ‘Save Changes’

We also have a guide on how to enable and disable XML Sitemaps here: https://yoast.com/help/xml-sitemaps-in-the-wordpress-seo-plugin/

Can you please try the aforementioned suggestions and letting us know whether it resolves your issue and you are able to successfully update the sitemap?`

I was able to get it updated by adding tags in one of the posts BUT still most if not all the URLs in the tag sitemap are going to 404 pages.

previously legitimate tag URLs? It’s a tricky question, those are tags translated that should have gone to a proper URL but the site map created a mess, those URLS obviously don’t exist.

@doribak So are the URLs that are included in the post_tag-sitemap.xml ones that should be redirecting to another URL?

We are going ahead and marking this issue as resolved due to inactivity. If you require any further assistance please create a new issue.