Sitemap.xml problem in Google webmaster

[Socialdude]

Hi,

My sitemap.xml is not submitting correctly in Google Webmaster.

There is 697 url submitted but only 56 are in Google index.

At the top of webmaster this is what it says ->>>

http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml has been resubmitted.

But when when I clicked status button RED X occurs.

Any suggestions about this, thanks...

[Socialdude]

Cheers for your reply and answer

& Yes most of your assumptions were correct I am using sitemap generation. The issue is fixed there was a problem with the sitmap when created but it's all sorted now & submitted correctly in WMT.

Thanks...

[Socialdude]

Cheers for your reply and answer

& Yes most of your assumptions were correct I am using sitemap generation. The issue is fixed there was a problem with the sitmap when created but it's all sorted now & submitted correctly in WMT.

Thanks...

[RyanKent]

For the 8 invalid pages, you need to fix the URLs. Based on your questions I assume you are using some form of sitemap generation software. Apparently it is not configured correctly. You will need to take a look at these pages to determine why the URLs are invalid and/or contact the sitemap software vendor.

With respect to the indexing, submitting a sitemap is no guarantee that the pages will be indexed. You can submit a 1000 page site and have every page indexed, or you can have only a couple hundred pages indexed. There are a variety of factors involved.

Some factors which can affect indexing:

• Is your robots.txt file blocking any of these pages?

• Are any of these pages duplicate content?

• Are any of the pages invalid URLs?

• Are any of these pages canonicalized to other pages?

• Are any of these pages 301'd to other pages?

• How well is your site's navigation working? Sitemaps help Google find island pages and such, but your site will be crawled much better with proper navigation along with both internal and external links.

• How popular is your site and these pages? Pages with good PA are crawled regularly and sites with high DA are crawled more frequently and deeper then other sites.

[daracreative]

I'm just wondering how to do go about fixing these? I ses that they are not valid. Also once fixed do you think this will solve the sitmap issue? (like are these 8 not valid pages causing 600+ pages not being indexed) thanks.

[RyanKent]

The links in your reply are not valid. Try clicking on one of them. They are to your secure Google WMT page and they have an extra http:// prefix.

[Socialdude]

Errors look this ->

1916

Invalid URLThis is not a valid URL. Please correct it and resubmit.URL:http://exhibitions/info_22.htmlParent tag: urlTag: locProblem detected on: Aug 4, 2011 1919Invalid URLThis is not a valid URL. Please correct it and resubmit.URL:http://irish-myths-and-legends/info_12.htmlParent tag: urlTag: locProblem detected on: Aug 4, 2011There is about 10 errors like the above, any suggestions?

[RyanKent]

You need to click on the sitemap in Google WMT and it will inform you of the issue. There are many possible causes ranging from the sitemap link not being accessible to the file not being formatted correctly.