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    4. Exclude Child URLs from XML Sitemap Generator (Wordpress)

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    Exclude Child URLs from XML Sitemap Generator (Wordpress)

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    • markadoi84
      markadoi84 last edited by

      Hi all,

      I was recommended the XML Sitemap Generator for Wordpress by the very helpful Keith Bloemendaal and John Pring - however I can't seem to exclude child URLs.

      There is a section Exclude items  and a subsection Exclude posts.  I have tried inputting the URLs for the pages I don't want in the sitemap, however that didn't work.  So I read that you have to include a list of "IDs" - not sure where on earth to find that info, tried the page name and the post= number from the URL, however neither worked.

      I hope somebody can point me in the right direction - and apologies, I am a Wordpress novice, and I got no answers from the Wordpress forums so turned right back to SEOmoz!

      Cheers.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • markadoi84
        markadoi84 @markadoi84 last edited by

        AH!  You did it Keith - I thought clicking 'update' at the bottom would do it, but there's a little link hidden in some text at the top saying "rebuild the sitemap manually".

        Finally it's done, thanks so much for your help!

        Mark

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • kbloemendaal
          kbloemendaal @markadoi84 last edited by

          Did you try to generate a new sitemap after clicking update options and then submitting it to webmaster tools?

          Generally it will only update when you add/delete pages on it's own.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • markadoi84
            markadoi84 @markadoi84 last edited by

            I'm just trying to exclude these child URLs from the sitemap - in future I may block them entirely, but I certainly don't want to submit a sitemap with these URLs and then contradict that in robots.txt.

            I have used the Post ID numbers to exclude the pages from the sitemap, however they remain in place.

            Thanks once again for your assistance and quick responses!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • kbloemendaal
              kbloemendaal @markadoi84 last edited by

              It may take some time for it to propagate to Google if that is what you are asking. Are you trying to block the pages/posts completely from search engines?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • markadoi84
                markadoi84 @kbloemendaal last edited by

                Hi Keith,

                Thanks once again for a quick response.  I have actually tried that method, however when I check the live sitemap I can still see the pages in my sitemap.  Very frustrating!  Is it that the sitemap doesn't update live straight away?  And just to confirm, I am clicking "Update Options" at the bottom - quite often it'll be something stupid like that! 😉

                Thanks,

                Mark

                kbloemendaal markadoi84 4 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • kbloemendaal
                  kbloemendaal last edited by

                  Great question, and WP really should make this easier!

                  http://businessaccent.com/2009/06/08/what-is-my-wordpress-post-id-number-and-how-can-i-find-it/  This article explains one way to see it, also if you open up the post/page in the admin panel to edit it you can just look in your browser to see the url which will have the post ID in it... IE: www.yoursite.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=615&action=edit (615 is the post ID)

                  Hope that helped 🙂

                  markadoi84 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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