Title: sitemap bug Last modified: August 19, 2024 --- # sitemap bug * Resolved [SIDATA](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sidata/) * (@sidata) * [1 year, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sitemap-bug-4/) * The sitemap is generating this kind of link as well; how can I get rid of it? * [https://sidata.com.ua/sitemap.xsl](https://sidata.com.ua/sitemap.xsl) * An XML file is sufficient – [https://sidata.com.ua/sitemap.xml](https://sidata.com.ua/sitemap.xml) * The page I need help with: _[[log in](https://login.wordpress.org/?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Fwordpress.org%2Fsupport%2Ftopic%2Fsitemap-bug-4%2F%3Foutput_format%3Dmd&locale=en_US) to see the link]_ Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total) * Plugin Author [Sybre Waaijer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cybr/) * (@cybr) * [1 year, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sitemap-bug-4/#post-17963207) * Howdy! * That’s not a bug; it’s a feature. * XSLT stands for “eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations” and is embedded by linking the `.xsl` file. This XSLT file makes the sitemap look like a styled webpage by applying transformations to the XML document. * You can find it in the `/sitemap.xml` document source header: * ``` ``` * Search engines ignore this file, but if they stumble upon it, they are told not to index it. * You can safely disable it at “SEO Settings > Sitemap Settings > Style” by unchecking“ Style sitemap.” - This reply was modified 1 year, 9 months ago by [Sybre Waaijer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cybr/). * Thread Starter [SIDATA](https://wordpress.org/support/users/sidata/) * (@sidata) * [1 year, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sitemap-bug-4/#post-17964280) * It looks like this feature isn’t working. It’s causing an error in Google Console. * ![](https://i0.wp.com/imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1408x858q90/r/922/283tbZ.png? ssl=1) * ![](https://i0.wp.com/imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/1228x894q70/r/923/EcAS1w.png? ssl=1) * If I disable the Style Sitemap, I’ll lose both sitemaps, and then I’ll have to install an additional plugin just for the sitemap. * Plugin Author [Sybre Waaijer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cybr/) * (@cybr) * [1 year, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sitemap-bug-4/#post-17971058) * Hi again! * The XSLT stylesheet is a programming script and cannot be used independently; an XML document is required to process the script. * When accessing the stylesheet directly, you’ll only see pointers instead of actual data. `{$itemURL}` is such a pointer that refers to the sitemap URL location (` `) field. When the XSLT stylesheet is loaded via an XML document, `{ $itemURL}` transforms into the URL location data. * Here’s what our stylesheet looks like when accessed directly: [https://theseoframework.com/sitemap.xsl](https://theseoframework.com/sitemap.xsl). Because it cannot find any references in an XML document, everything looks broken. But here’s what it looks like when attached to the XML document: [https://theseoframework.com/sitemap.xml](https://theseoframework.com/sitemap.xml). * Google says they attempt to parse anything that looks like a URL: [https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/links-crawlable). * This includes the `{$itemURL}` because it’s written like this a URL in the XSL document: ``. Since the URL leads to nothing but a 404 page, they’ll give a soft error message stating that it’s not indexable. * You can safely ignore these errors. Moreover, when read via the XML document, this “broken” URL transforms into an actual URL. * I must stress that because of WordPress’s dynamic nature, you’ll get many of these kinds of errors in Google Search Console. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s also an entry for `/search/{search_term_string}`, stemming from the Schema.org structured data, which is [generated according to Google’s recommendations](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sitelinks-searchbox#example). You can safely ignore this soft error, as well. * If you disable the sitemap stylesheet, the sitemap will still work. I’m not sure what you’re seeing when you disable the sitemap, but it will look something like this — an XML tree that search engines can easily process: * ``` https://sidata.com.ua/ 2024-06-26T06:15:03+00:00 ...etc ``` * As for why the logo on the styled sitemap shows an error (next to the sitemap title): The Site Icon you uploaded to your site at “WP Admin > Settings > General” doesn’t exist anymore. See if that needs to be addressed. You can also upload one to “WP Admin > SEO Settings > Sitemap Settings > Style,” which may instead be the one that has disappeared. You can also opt to remove the logo from the stylesheet entirely. * Either way, it can take 30 minutes for changes to show because TSF caches the stylesheet in your browser for that long. If you wish to inspect changes immediately, [you could refresh your cache](https://www.refreshyourcache.com/en/cache/), or inspect the sitemap via another browser (but that one, too, will cache the version they get for another 30 minutes). * I hope this clears up everything. Have a lovely weekend! Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total) The topic ‘sitemap bug’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/autodescription/assets/icon.svg?rev=3000376) * [The SEO Framework – Fast, Automated, Effortless.](https://wordpress.org/plugins/autodescription/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/autodescription/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/autodescription/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/autodescription/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/autodescription/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/autodescription/reviews/) ## Tags * [sitemap](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/sitemap/) * 4 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [Sybre Waaijer](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cybr/) * Last activity: [1 year, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/sitemap-bug-4/#post-17971058) * Status: resolved