The sitemap can be read, but contains errors

  • Resolved medibloux

    (@medibloux)


    2 months ago

    Hello all,

    I’ve been using your excellent extension for several years on various sites, but I’m currently experiencing a problem with my medibloux2.com site. The 1st extension I installed was Yoast, which was working fine until the end of last week.

    Unfortunately, the site has been infected by a hacker, and I’ve had a lot of trouble removing the malware and backdoors. After seeing on this forum that you often work with Sucuri.net, I decided to call on them. They did an excellent job of cleaning up the site after two scans, deactivating infected extensions and quarantining everything. The extensions was successfully reset and reinstalled. On their advice, I also set up their firewall, as this was my first experience of infection, so I agreed.

    Following this attack, false addresses had been created and indexed by Google Merchant and Google Search Console. So I recreated the permalinks and regenerated the sitemap. At this stage, everything seemed to be working correctly.

    However, after deleting the old sitemap in Search Console (this was my mistake) and trying to re-upload the new one, Google did recognise the sitemap, but treated it as an HTML file. The sitemap_index.xml file (available here: https://medibloux2.com/sitemap_index.xml) seems correct to me.

    After deactivating all the extensions, except Yoast, and testing in debug mode, the problem persists. The only notable change (apart from the infection) is the addition of the firewall. Even after bypassing the firewall during many tests with the help of Sucuri, the problem remains the same.

    We’ve come to the conclusion that we’d like to see if there’s anything you can do. Could you help me solve this problem?

    I’m aware that a sitemap isn’t mandatory for SEO, but it’s still a very useful tool, especially for launching a site. (less than 1 month old)

    I would like to thank you in advance for your help and remain at your disposal for any further information.

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • Thread Starter medibloux

    (@medibloux)

    Can’t anyone help me?

    Plugin Support Maybellyne

    (@maybellyne)

    Hello @medibloux

    Thanks for the kind words and for reaching out about your sitemap. Have you turned OFF the Yoast SEO sitemap feature because /sitemap_index.xml/ returns a 404 error? Do you have another plugin for XML sitemaps?

    Since Google Search Console reprots errors, kindly on the error to reveal more details provided.

    Thread Starter medibloux

    (@medibloux)

    Hi Maybellyne,

    I deactivated it this morning because I had temporarily set up a non-dynamic sitemap, which was correctly recognised well by Google Search Console. I’m now going to reactivate the Yoast one.

    Here’s the error reported by Search Console: ‘The sitemap is an HTML file. Your sitemap seems to correspond to an HTML page. Please use a supported sitemap format.’

    Thanks for your help. Don’t hesitate if you need more information.

    Plugin Support Maybellyne

    (@maybellyne)

    /sitemap_index.xml/ is an XML file and loads correctly in the broswer without issues. It’s not uncommon for Google to report an XML as HTML. It’s a false-positive that usually resolves, though you may have to resubmit the sitemap index a couple of times.

    Thread Starter medibloux

    (@medibloux)

    So I have to submit it several times until it’s accepted. Is that right?

    Or do I have to wait a while before submitting it again?

    Thank you!

    Thread Starter medibloux

    (@medibloux)

    In the meantime, I can keep my non-dynamic sitemap at the same time as the Yaost sitemap.

    Plugin Support Maybellyne

    (@maybellyne)

    Since the data you see in Google Search Console isn’t real time, give it some time before re-submitting. I’m unsure the effects of having your other sitemap at the same time. I recommend posting a question about that in the?Google Search Central Help Community.

    Plugin Support Mushrit Shabnam

    (@611shabnam)

    This thread was marked resolved due to a lack of activity by the original poster. The original poster can change the status to Not Resolved to re-open the issue or open a new topic.

    If you are not the original poster but have a similar issue, please open a new topic.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
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