Fix SEO errors with Sitemap Generator

Example: The sitemap has a different publishing status than the CMS

A post is set to noindex or removed, but remains in an automatically generated sitemap. Often, the sitemap generator uses its own URL list or does not take into account the same sharing rules as the frontend. The XML file is then technically valid and still contradictory in content.

Finding the triggering point

Compare the sitemap URL to the actual status code, canonical, and indexing status of the page. Check the generation time and the next scheduled update run. If only individual page types are affected, look for different data sources for products, posts, or categories.

Checking a limited fix

Return the selection rules to a unified publication status. Remove redirects and deliberately excluded URLs from the intended list of indexable pages. For several sitemap files, index file, language variants and refurbished partial lists must also be taken into account.

Change the status of an uncritical page in a test environment and track the sitemap output. After that, check the publicly delivered XML file. A retrieval from the cache can otherwise still show the old URL list.