XML Sitemap Help

That sounds like the error you get after submitting a sitemap through Google Webmaster tools, right?

I use wordpress and have encountered this error several times before.

If your domain is "yoursite.com", you can either set it as "http://www.yoursite.com" or "http://yoursite.com". Most web browsers can reconcile it though, so if you set it as one, the browser will still find your site if you type it in the other way.

Anyways, you need to make sure that your wordpress blog and its XML sitemap) are set the same as your google webmaster setup for your site.

(1) In your wordpress blog, look under Settings --> General Settings. Under the WordPress address (URL) and Blog Address (URL) make sue that it set the way you want it. I always use it with "www", but that's just me.

(2) In your google webmaster account, your site address should match. What's confusing (and google doesn't explain to you), is that if you use "www" you have to type that into Google webmaster as www.yoursite.com. If you were to just type in "yoursite.com", google webmaster registers this as "http://yoursite.com". You can tell by looking at the list of the domains registered in your domain list. If it doesn't include "www", google is not using www in your domain address.

Based upon the error below, it sounds like your site is listed as "www" with google webmaster (and you told it to find your xml file at www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml), but in the General Settings for your blog it is listed without the "www". You probably wouldn't notice it as you can still access your website by typing in the "www", but the sitemap is not putting the "www" in there, which is confusing Google.

So, here's the fix:

(a) change it to a "www" address in the General Settings
(b) in the XML Sitemap settings, click on "rebuild the sitemap"
(c) resubmit the XML Sitemap to Google.


If you want your site without the "www", all you would have to do is delete your site from google webmaster, and then add it back to google webmaster without the "www" (so just yoursite.com), and submit your XML sitemap. That should fix it as well.


This should fix it. If it doesn't, let me know.

Cheers for that, you were bang on. I had the site name with www. within webmaster toolkit and it's fixed!

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply