[Plugin: Sitemap Index] Sitemaps on higher level than links. This plugin needs some adjustments.

The main sitemap this plugin generates contains 3 submaps: One for pages and posts, one for tags and one for categories.

I have set up my blog website at Google Webmaster tools (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools). The sitemaps are being submitted without problems, but none of the URLs are being allowed into the index.

Error message from Google: This url is not allowed for a Sitemap at this location.

Explenation from Google: Google has detected some URLs that appear to be at a higher level or different domain than the Sitemap file location. Read more here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35738. Look at the problem “URL not allowed”.

My solution: (NOTE: This does not work for sites with more than 50.000 pages & posts, because then you need more than one sitemap for pages and posts, since 50.000 is the max set by google.)

1) Add rewriterules to .htaccess so that Google Webmaster tools sees the sitemaps on the root folder.
2) Edit the plugin so that the main sitemap file contains links to the rewritten urls.

Here is my new .htaccess-file:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule   ^sitemap.xml$ wp-content/plugins/sitemap-index/gen_sitemap.php
RewriteRule   ^sitemap_content.xml$ wp-content/plugins/sitemap-index/gen_sitemap.php?s=0
RewriteRule   ^sitemap_categories.xml$ wp-content/plugins/sitemap-index/gen_sitemap.php?c=ct
RewriteRule   ^sitemap_tags.xml$ wp-content/plugins/sitemap-index/gen_sitemap.php?c=tg
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

This solved the issue for me.