Sub-sitemaps directories structure problem after update
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I use the version 4.1.5 but this version uses the old ping method.
I want to update to 4.1.19 but the latest version has a different sub-directories structure and this ruins my site because Google starts losing all my old sub-sitemaps.
But the actual version doesn’t ping to search engines, so I also lose traffic.
I can¡t use another plugin because I need to keep the same sitemap structure I used for the last 6 years.
So, I need to replace the old ping method code in v.4.1.1 or change the sub-sitemaps structure in the latest version.
Could somebody help?
This is how I have my sitemap now:
My main sitemap is here:
https://mywebsite.com/sitemap.xml
And this is what I see – all URLs are ordered by years and months:
https://mywebsite.com/sitemap-pt-post-2024-03.xml
https://mywebsite.com/sitemap-pt-post-2024-02.xml
https://mywebsite.com/sitemap-pt-post-2024-01.xml
https://mywebsite.com/sitemap-pt-post-2023-11.xml
https://mywebsite.com/sitemap-pt-post-2023-10.xml
When I install the latest version, the sitemap is shown this way:
https://mywebsite.com/post-sitemap.xml
https://mywebsite.com/post-sitemap2.xml
https://mywebsite.com/post-sitemap3.xml
https://mywebsite.com/post-sitemap4.xml
https://mywebsite.com/post-sitemap5.xml
I want it this way:
https://mywebsite.com/sitemap-pt-post-2024-03.xml-
This topic was modified 11 months ago by
mayazir.
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This topic was modified 11 months ago by
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Sorry for the trouble @mayazir. The Ping Protocol was deprecated this year and search engines do not use that signal anymore. Instead proper sitemap syntax and best practices are what google is looking for and other search engines like Bing are using the IndexNow protocol.
As for the change in the sitemap structure, the most important question is: Do you see any posts missing from the sitemaps? If not, please know that we updated the format to respect the search engine guidance. How have you determined that you’re losing traffic due to indexation?
Ok, but anyway, I need the latest version with the old sub-sitemap structure. I lose traffic on my old sites when I use the latest version.
Help me to keep the old sitemap URLs with the latest version.I also want to mention another weird issue – I tried to get AdSense approval for a few of my sites but after almost 30 requests I used to get rejected. The site had indexed posts, although some posts sometimes used to get deindexed. It was weird because I could easily re-index them again via GSC.
2 days ago, I updated the sitemap plugin on 1 of such sites and it was immediately approved by AdSense.There is something wrong with the old version I use, and I would like to update it, but I need my old sub-sitemap structure. Maybe on a small site, there is no problem with a new URL structure, but on a big site, it is the problem.
We have planned features related to de-indexation of posts, but they are not related to sitemaps. If a page has been crawled by search engines and no longer appears in the sitemap for any reason, it does not become de-indexed.
The changes to the sitemap structure were made to follow best practices. If you see published pages/posts that should appear missing, we need to investigate a bug. Otherwise, we’re following best practices, and you can reduce the number of items per sitemap by setting a minimum. Again, this minimum comes from search engine guidance. Also, I’m curious, how do you know that the change in traffic is related to sitemaps?
I already explained it here: https://wordpress.org/support/topic/this-plugin-ruined-my-site-2/ After I restored the old version of your plugin the traffic improved.
This is not the only problem. I have another website that was getting 150 organic traffic per day. I had another sitemap plugin in wp (but it was inactive) and accidentally activated it. This activation immediately disabled your plugin. The new plugin had a different sitemap structure and within the next 48 hours my site lost 50% of its traffic. I paid attention on it only after 1 month and activated your plugin again and the traffic improved significantly.
Another weird thing: I have a few small travel blogs. They have a small traffic and around 80 posts each site. I requested AdSense but got rejected. I tried it again and again but got rejected. It was strange because I used to get quick approval for AdSense. I tried to get AdSense for almost 10 months and always the answer was NO. A few days ago, I updated your plugin on 1 of the rejected sites and it got approved within 2-4 hours.
I have more strange issues related to losing indexed posts, then finding them, and then losing again… Read more here: https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/my-posts-get-de-indexed.2879190/
And sometimes GSC shows “undetected” some of my sub-sitemaps.
I used your plugin for more than 7 years, and I only ask to let my sites update your plugin keeping the same sub-sitemap structure they used to have for years.
You even don’t need to code it again, you can use the already written code from the old version to add it to the updated one as option.
I’m trying to apply logic and see that the problem may be related to the sitemap.
Not due to the sitemap plugin bug, the plugin itself is ok, but due to a different directory structure, deprecated ping method, etc.I know since January, Google doesn’t use ping, but maybe Google considers the deprecated ping method code as a potential attack?
How could you explain why my site that couldn’t get the AdSense approval, suddenly gets it after I update your plugin?Ok, I could update this plugin for all my sites, but I remember last year I lost a lot of URLs after the sub-sitemap structure was changed due to an update.
I only ask you to collaborate and add optionally the old sub-sitemap structure to the latest version to let me keep all my old sub-sitemaps directories in 2 of my big sites with thousands of posts.
We appreciate more than you can imagine your loyalty to our indexation plugin. However, maintaining multiple implementations is not possible. The project is already more work than we can handle.
Sitemap file names are literally irrelevant to search engines. Search engines care about the contents of the sitemap and that the sitemap’s context follows the correct syntax. Nothing else matters unless you’ve been changing your permalink structure without 301 redirects.
I agree that the timing of your AdSense approvals is suspect, but if this correlation was valid, there would have been thousands of similar reports over the past year, and there have been none other than yours out of millions of active installations.
Answering your comment about AdSense: Yes, it is strange, but maybe other ones always update the plugin or don’t have a dozen of sites? Besides, no one could ever think the AdSense rejection was related to the plugin. So, they never reported about it. I asked a dozen SEO specialists about AdSense and they all started with the same – “add alts, change SEO titles, etc”…
Last year I had a problem with indexation because of changing the sub-sitemap directories. The traffic improved when I installed the same plugin version I used before. But in a few months, the traffic started slowly to go down again. It happened when Google changed the ping method. I think because of using the outdated plugin, I started to lose traffic.
Exactly from that time, my new sites started to get rejected by AdSense. I updated the plugin on all my small sites, but 2 big sites already had problems after the update. If I update them, I will start losing traffic again.
I use the same plugin version on all my sites – v.4.1.1
I have no idea how and why Google reacts to the directory change. Google has many strange reactions, for example, the AdSense problem when I use v.4.1.1. Ok, I can’t explain it, but I see the consequences.
Ok, then just help me detect where is the part of the code with the sub-sitemap directories.
PS: I know “the content is the king”, but some of my sites are losing well structured good posts, then get indexed again, then other posts get deindexed… It seems the old version cause problems and I should to update the plugin, it is obvious, but I dont want the directory problem I had last year..
People do not always report bugs. Did somebody report this issue in 2022/2023? No, only me. Do you want to tell me I invented it?
https://wordpress.org/support/topic/this-plugin-ruined-my-site-2/To be clear, I’m not attempting to debate with you or trying to change your mind. We just have to deal with facts and evidence:
Someone would report a bug causing traffic loss out of millions of users; otherwise, there wouldn’t be millions of users.
Search engines do not care about sitemaps’ file names or directory structures; they only care about their contents, syntax guidelines, etc.
If you’re saying that the *only* thing changing on your website is the version of the plugin used, then we should do some experiments with your low traffic sites in a scientific way.
Wait, I don’t say I have low traffic because of your plugin. The problem is not the wrong code, but Google always changing rules, etc.
In November or December 2022, I updated your plugin and since then it started to archive URLs not by months as it was previously, but by day. Each day it created dozens of new sub-sitemaps with URLs.
As you know the limit is 50,000 files and 50 MB.
The updated plugin continued creating directories and in April/May 2023 they reached the limit and my main sitemap stopped showing sub-directories and shows all URLs in one list.
I paid attention to the disappeared traffic checked the GSC and found there the sitemap.xml in red color, marked as corrupt.
Then I entered mysite.com/sitemap,XML and found the long list with URLs… no sub-sitemaps, only 156,000 URLs…
Then I installed another plugin but the traffic kept going down and GSC every week showed fewer and fewer indexed URLs, I think I lost more than 200,000 indexed URLs…
After 1 month, I installed the old version of your plugin, the version I used until November 2022, and suddenly the traffic started to improve… Slowly, GSC started to show more and more indexed URLs… and every day the site started to get more traffic…
But from September the traffic started to go down again… until it stabilized but was still low.
A few days ago I found out the Google ping method was deprecated in July, but I kept using the version with the deprecated ping method, and in theory, it could be the reason why the traffic stopped increasing.
I don’t tell you to help me get the traffic, I just say the best solution is to update the plugin and use the latest version. AdSense behavior confirms that there is something in version v4.1.1 that Google doesn’t like, and this “something” can be the reason for the AdSense rejection and for the low traffic too.
The problem is if I update the plugin, I will get the same problem with indexation as last year.
Last year I also lost 50% of traffic on my other site and it happened 2 days after I changed the sub-sitemap structure. Accidentally I activated another plugin (not yours) and the traffic went down. A few weeks later, I activated your plugin and the traffic increased.
Last year, twice after I changed the sub-sitemap structure I had problems. Maybe all this is just a coincidence, but there are too many coincidences.
I have no idea why no one reported this issue, maybe they didn’t think it was the plugin. I just described to you all the strange issues my sites have last 1,5 years.
I don’t say, you are guilty, but Google never explains what is wrong, so the only thing I can do is use the deduction method.
I only asked you to show where is the part of the code responsible for the sub-sitemap structure. If you can’t add that structure, I will ask somebody to help, I just thought it would be easier for you to add the old part of the code to the latest version.
Ok, if my conclusions are wrong, then explain all the strange things and glitches I described earlier.
I even gave you all the new confusing directories the plugin started to create after I updated it in Nov or Dic 2022. I couldn’t invent it.
This is what I posted here 1 year ago:
My site gets around 7500 posts monthly, and previously it was only 1 sitemap per month, for example, for Abril 2022:
/sitemap-pt-post-2022-04.xml
And this is how it generates now:
/sitemap-pt-post-p1-2023-04.xml
/sitemap-pt-post-p2-2023-04.xml
/sitemap-pt-post-p3-2023-04.xml
/sitemap-pt-post-p4-2023-04.xml
/sitemap-pt-post-p5-2023-04.xml
….
/sitemap-pt-post-p846-2023-04.xml
/sitemap-pt-post-p847-2023-04.xml
/sitemap-pt-post-p848-2023-04.xml
848 sitemaps only for 1 month, for 7500 posts.
One sitemap for each 8-10 posts?I am not very good with explanations, I just want to say all glitches I see last 1,5 years on my sites could be the consequence of the outdated plugin version.
The best what I can do is just update it.
Your plugin works ok.
I mean the latest version.
Your old versions also were ok, but Google always changes the rules and it seems they don’t like outdated plugins using old methods.So, I just need to update your plugin.
However, I had a lot of problems with changing the plugin, and my traffic positively reacted only after I restored the v.4.1.1.
That’s why I asked you to help me keep the old structure.
Only to keep the structure and not increase the traffic.
The rest of the glitches I described you just because you could need to know about them.Google can say a lot of things, but I already had problems each time I changed the sitemap structure.
I don’t mean the order by months and year is the best, I mean for my site which used that structure for 6 years, it is better to keep it as it was. GSC has a limit for scans, I think it is called budget or something like that, and re-checking more than 500,000 posts will take a lot of time, this could be the reason for my problem last year after I changed the plugin structure.I think there’s a couple things to be done here that we cannot do on the forums:
- Compare the behavior of the latest release to v4.1.1 to ensure that all posts are being captured and following search engine guidelines
- Talk about our new premium features which are designed to help keep content in the search engine index.
What do you mean by “I changed the sub-sitemap structure”?
I didn’t change anything manually, I just used another plugin or your plugin with a different sitemap structure. I repeat, the problem is not your code or plugin itself, your old version was OK until Google changed something and you updated your plugin.
The version 4.1.1 is the last version with the same sitemap structure which I used for 6 years. I don’t mean it is better or worse than other versions.
I just need to update your plugin because I think the outdated plugin causes me a lot of problems now. In 2021 and 2022 it was ok, now it is not ok.
The problem is that the latest version has another structure that can cause indexation problems on my big sites as it occurred in 2023.
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Why do I need to update the plugin? Because last 1,5 years I have had a lot of strange glitches on all my sites: some of the sub-sitemaps appear as unprocessed or I get this:
Sitemap could not be read
General HTTP error
1 instance
We encountered an error while trying to access your sitemap. Please ensure that your sitemap is present at the specified address and is not blocked to Google. See our help center for more debugging help.My well-written posts get deindexed, then suddenly get indexed again, AdSense doesn’t approve my sites… I never had all these issues before. A few days ago, I have no idea why, but I decided to update your plugin on one of my sites and request the AdSense again. And it worked. So, maybe the rest of the glitches my sites have last 1,5 years, also are due to the outdated plugin?
Not bad, but outdated. Outdated plugin. I never told the plugin was bad.
By the way, I would prefer to talk by email, but you started asnwering here.
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