Google Sitemap Problems

[paulyh]

Hi everyone, having a bit of an issue with my website. I have enabled the google sitemap under the feeds extension and have submitted the url to google but it is saying that it is an invalid url.

What could be causing this?

Cheers Paul

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

Most likely either your server is sending the wrong content type (text/html rather than application/xml), your sitemap contains errors / invalid xml, you are not entering the right URL, or your website is blocking or not otherwise allowing Google to fetch it. Hard to say without the URL, though I guess you might not be allowed to post it here :/

 

[paulyh]

I don't think I can post the URL. If I sent you a pm, could you take a look?

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

Not sure if there is a delay in the private messaging system or if it is moderated, but afraid I don't see any messages. I sent you a private message, see if you can reply to that.

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

Received.

The XML is valid and the mime-type correct... I am not seeing any specific blockage on fetching the sitemap unless it was specific to the Google...

Are you sure it is not saying the links within the sitemap are errornous, not the sitemap itself? Is no other information presented in the Google error?

 

[paulyh]

When I go into the webmaster console. It says:
Invalid URL,
This is not a valid URL. Please correct it and resubmit

I have deleted the sitemap from google and uninstalled/reinstalled the extension in opencart and tried adding the sitemap again but keep getting the same error.

 

[paulyh]

In the example column on the webmaster tools it says:

Parent tag: image
Tag: loc

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

OK, so it's not a problem with the sitemap URL, it is a problem with the sitemaps contents.

Based on "image > loc" I believe it is erroring on your emerald-5-x-4mm-and-diamond-9ct-yellow-gold-teardrop-pendant where you have defined <image:loc/> (meaning empty image) but still defining other image properties (such as <image:caption>).

Try setting an image for that product, or try removing it from the sitemap, it that fixes your problem then you know what to research further in the plugin in use.

 

[paulyh]

Thank you so much, been scratching my head for hours on this.

Removed them from the sitemap and it has removed the error warning.

Thanks again
Paul

 

[PipeTen-Carl]

Nice one, maybe raise it with the plugin developer.

 

[paulyh]

It was one of the extensions that comes with opencart, which was why I couldn't understand why it wouldn't work.

 

[antropy]

Does this help?
http://www.antropy.co.uk/blog/setting-up-your-opencart-product-feed-with-google-shopping/

 

[WebDesires]

The default Google xml generator in Opencart is not very good I'm afraid, had to 'improve' it many times for clients. It's just not up to scratch!

 

[TechnokratsSujata]

Is Opencart is SEO friendly? in general.

 

[antropy]

It is pretty good by default, but it can usually do with a few SEO extensions to make it really optimized.

 

[paulyh]

I didn't think it was too bad but ended up going back to woocommerce in the end.

 

[Jaime Ruiz]

I am Jaime from women's delights store. I want to rank my site and add XML sitemap. But I don't know How can i do this? You can see my womens fashion accessories online shopify site. But I can't give you the site link on this forum.

 

[fisicx]

Adding an XML sitemap won't help your ranking. In fact if you don't do it right a sitemap can hurt your ranking. However, this is how you do it: https://help.shopify.com/manual/using-themes/find-site-map