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I m using Joomla Xmap component for creating sitemap. Here is the URL of my Xmap generated Sitemap:
http://www.acethehimalaya.com/index.php?option=com_xmap&sitemap=1&view=xml
I tried to submit my sitemap to Google but the problem I'm facing is that the URL doesn't get submitted and I'm having the issue that it says the sitemap is empty.
Can Xmap generated sitemaps not be submitted, or am I doing anything wrong?
If I were you I'd forget the whole Xmap sitemap concept alltogether. And do it manually. A weekly submit is ideal, but submits are tantamount the updates you make in the site. So, if you didn't update anything that week, no point on resubmitting.
Go here http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ and build one there easy. Download the .xml file and upload it to your server root directory so that it lives in the internet. Make sure you have it in the main root. The more you nest it, the harder for Google spider to find it in a crawl.
Make sure it work by simply going to your browser and plugging www.domain.com/sitemap.xml.
Then you'll know you did it right. Then go to Google Webmasters and submit it and index it.
Before you do all that. My advise is to run your site through http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/broken-links.php#status and check for broken links. fix them and then build your sitemap.
This sounds complicated but its not. Of course there are agencies that do this for you for a small cost, but if you do it yourself you'll save the money
I've had a similar issue with the xmap component for generating a sitemap.
If your site isn't too big, just do a manual sitemap and submit it.
Otherwise the issue is with xmap and/or it may be conflicting with another component.
I'm using K2 for content and I believe that is why the sitemap generator isn't working for me.
A similar issue could be happening to you and 1 of your components. Specifically, it could be due to multiple URLs pointing to the same content (an example of the problem).
We use K2 and XMap on all our sites, and we don't have failed sitemaps.
Be sure to enable K2 plugin for XMap.
Be sure to get the correct URL of the sitemap to submit (if you use some SEF component, it may change your sitemap URL, and that may cause a problem). Copy and paste the URL from the sitemap window, and use it directly on GWT.
If your site is huge (I have one with about 20k pages, K2, and it take a while to generate, but it doesn't fail), increase the timeout, compress the sitemap, don't use intro text, menu title, class, #cols, don't beautify, and don't link to author. Keep it as simple and plain XML as you can.
"Use a good host" helps in every scenario. Host-on-a-budget never, ever, works. I like to use the "meal parameter" to hosts. If it cost less than a full (even if cheap), good (not fast-food), seated-in-a-nice-table, diner, then it will suck. Anything less than $30/month isn't worth your attention (and for $30 you get a nice small VPS on US or UK). Or, you know, there is always "Blogger" for free...
this really helped me. i used the xmap and created the sitemap.xml renamed it to whatever i wanted. then clicked the [XML sitemap] option by it in joomla and that generated the URL for me. i just copied the url from the browser and used dumped it at Google Webmaster tools as my sitemap... and booom! it worked.. try it.
