Sitemap Generator Forum

1. I have deleted a PDF [ External links are visible to forum administrators only ] from the live site yet it still appears in the sitemap. I use Dreamweaver and Check Links Sitewide confirms there are no broken links or orphan files related to this file. Why does it still appear?

2. The home page appears twice in the sitemap – why is this?

[ External links are visible to forum administrators only ]
[ External links are visible to forum administrators only ]

3. This page [ External links are visible to forum administrators only ] does not appear in the sitemap despite being live on the site. I actually don’t want this page to appear as it is a landing page for an on-line ad – but why does it not appear in the sitemap?

I also run a .com version of the above site and errors 1 and 2 also occur in the sitemap for that site as well.

Thanks in advance,

Ian

Hello,

1. if sitemap generator is able to find that URL, then there is a link to it somewhere on your site. Where did you have link to that PDF before?

2. It means that you have links to both domain.com and domain.com/index.html on your site.

3. Do you have a link to that page somewhere on your site, so that sitemap generator can find it?

Hi,

1. The PDF file was in the /pdf directory and there were two links: one from downloads/downloads_index.html and one from /products/servicenet/architecture.html. The first ref has been removed and the second page has been deleted. The PDF file name and architecture.html are referenced in a smart 404 handler file (attached) that redirects calls to alternative files - but there are lots of other deleted PDFs referenced in the 404 handler file, so why is the White_Paper the only one to appear in the sitemap? A Dreamweaver source code check does not find any reference to White_Paper anywhere on the site, apart from the 404 file.

2. Can you please clarify what constitutes a "link" for the generator to find and reference it,  e.g. do you search for <a href> in the source? I'd like to only have one home page in the sitemap so need to know what to look for.

3. I do not have any links to that page; foodservice1.html is identical to foodservice.html except for the filename so that I can track users entering the site via the former in Google Analytics. Once someone exits that page they cannot return to it via any in-site links, only by explicitly entering the ...1.html URL.

Regards,

Ian

Hello,

1. you have a link to that PDF file in your old sitemap.html file. You can:
- remove html sitemap
- generate new sitemap
- upload new html sitemap

2. yes, it looks for <a href=""> in html code.

3. there must be a way to reach that page by "clicking links", starting from homepage so that sitemap generator can find it.

Thanks for the replies.

1. The sitemap.html and .xml files were dated 15 April and were generated a week after the PDF file was removed from the site. To illustrate, I've regenerated both sitemap files just now (17 April) and uploaded them - and the White_Paper.pdf is still appearing...

2. OK

3. A reminder that this issue is a strange one: the foodservice1.html file exists on the web site but it is NOT appearing in the sitemap - and I don't want it to either, because it's just a landing page to track hits from a banner ad. I'm flagging this because I do not understand why it is not appearing in the sitemap. Type in the URL [ External links are visible to forum administrators only ] then go to the sitemap via the footer and you will see this page is not listed.

Hello,

1. did you performs the steps I suggested above?

3. It will NOT be listed, since you have no links to that page on your site.

Hi,

1. Now fixed, after re-generating the sitemap without the old/existing sitemap on the site. I assumed the generator only looked at the files on the live site but I guess it searches files for links - and so listed a file in the new sitemap even if the file is no longer there, because it found an old reference in the old sitemap. Can I make a suggestion? It might be worth adding a note somewhere about the need to remove the old sitemap before generating a new one: as I had metioned, Dreamweaver was telling me I had no broken links so I'm not sure if this is a Dreamweaver issue but highlighting it might prevent people having a problem re-generating sitemaps in the future.

3. Again I assumed you listed all live .html pages but obviously not; unless there is a link to a page on the site it does not appear. Useful to know for future reference.

Thanks for your help.