Title: XML Sitemap Error
Last modified: July 4, 2026

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# XML Sitemap Error

 *  [quinncooper88](https://wordpress.org/support/users/quinncooper88/)
 * (@quinncooper88)
 * [1 day, 3 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/xml-sitemap-error-21/)
 * I am trying to set up the SEO plugin and having issues with the sitemap. Under
   Settings, I enabled XML Sitemaps, but when I select “view the XML sitemap”, the
   sitemap_index.xml link just displays an error message that says:
 * _This page contains the following errors:
   error on line 2 at column 6: XML declaration
   allowed only at the start of the document Below is a rendering of the page up
   to the first error.
   
   The link is [https://helpinghandscounselling.com/sitemap\_index.xml](https://helpinghandscounselling.com/sitemap_index.xml)
   I checked the source code but couldn’t figure out what’s happening.I’m using 
   the WP Super Cache plugin and have tried disabling the caching until I figure
   this out. I previously tried deleting the cache which didn’t help.I saw a previous
   post where someone had a similar issue, so I tried increasing my PHP memory limit
   from 256 to 512, but that didn’t work either.Hosting: GreenGeeksWP version: 7.0Yoast
   version: 27.9
 * ![](https://helpinghandscounselling.com/sitemap_index.xml)
    -  This topic was modified 1 day, 3 hours ago by [quinncooper88](https://wordpress.org/support/users/quinncooper88/).
      Reason: Added version numbers and a few things I've tried
    -  This topic was modified 1 day, 3 hours ago by [quinncooper88](https://wordpress.org/support/users/quinncooper88/).

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## Tags

 * [sitemap](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/sitemap/)
 * [xml](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/xml/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [quinncooper88](https://wordpress.org/support/users/quinncooper88/)
 * Last activity: [1 day, 3 hours ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/xml-sitemap-error-21/)
 * Status: not resolved