FIXED: Sitemap bug (tags not closed) showing in WMT

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  1. drpennypincher profile image85
    drpennypincherposted 10 years ago

    I entered the URL for my sitemap and tested it in Google Webmaster Tools.  The URL I used was:
    ... sitemaps/hub/current/sitemap-hub-drpennypincher.xml.gz

    The test reported 1 error on line 188 and 1 warning on line 8.

    I pasted the message from Google Webmaster Tools below.
    Any advice would be appreciated!

    Dr. Penny Pincher


    Errors
    Parsing error
    We were unable to read your Sitemap. It may contain an entry we are unable to recognize. Please validate your Sitemap before resubmitting.
    Line 188
    May 26, 2013

    Warnings
    Invalid XML tag
    This tag was not recognized. Please fix it and resubmit.
    Parent tag: url
    Tag: url
    Line 8
    May 26, 2013

    1. Matthew Meyer profile image73
      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Is this related to a sitemap that you created?

      1. drpennypincher profile image85
        drpennypincherposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Matthew, No- this is an error in the default sitemap.

      2. NitinVerma858 profile image57
        NitinVerma858posted 7 years agoin reply to this

        Deleted

      3. Matthew Meyer profile image73
        Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        @drpennypincher
        Thanks for the quick reply.
        I just did some research and found that this is a known issue on which our engineering team is working.
        The specific bug is that all the tags are not closed, which lines up with the error you see.
        I anticipate we will deploy a fix for this issue soon.
        Thanks for your patience.

        1. drpennypincher profile image85
          drpennypincherposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Matthew,
          Thanks for the quick response and details about the bug.

      4. Matthew Meyer profile image73
        Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Just wanted to give an update.
        We deployed a fix for this recently.
        It may take 2-3 days for the changes to take effect, but they should gradually resolve.

        Thanks for your continued patience.

        1. drpennypincher profile image85
          drpennypincherposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for the update!

        2. drpennypincher profile image85
          drpennypincherposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          The changes appear to have taken effect- I just tested my sitemap on Google Webmaster Tools and there were no errors and no warnings.  Thanks for your help getting this resolved.

          1. Matthew Meyer profile image73
            Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Sure thing!  Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

      5. Matthew Meyer profile image73
        Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Just wanted to post an update.
        The sitemap itself should now be fine, but it looks like Google is still referencing the cached older version.
        You may be able to manually submit the sitemap again and then mark all errors as fixed and then you should be up and going. Otherwise, it may take a bit of time for Google to update and look at the new and not cached version.

    2. Glenn Stok profile image97
      Glenn Stokposted 10 years ago

      I tried opening your sitemap in Safari and found an error on line 193. The line number may be different due to the dynamic nature of the constantly changing sitemap. But it explains the reason why Google reported a similar error.

      I wouldn't worry about adding the HP sitemap to your Google webmaster account.  I add the sitemap links for all my other websites, but I never added it for HP. Google seems to do well on its own finding and indexing our Hubs. I'd be afraid to give it the sitemap since it may stop indexing anything beyond the first error.

      1. drpennypincher profile image85
        drpennypincherposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Glenn, thanks for the good advice.  It's probably not a big problem.  I am a bit concerned that Google will have trouble indexing my subdomain since there is an error in the sitemap that is listed in robots.txt...

    3. Glenn Stok profile image97
      Glenn Stokposted 10 years ago

      Now that this was fixed I submitted my sitemap to Google. But there is one error and one warning. Matt, I would appreciate if you look into this. 

      Here is a copy of the report from my Google Webmaster account. Not sure why it says detected on May 25 as I just submitted this today (May31)...

      http://s4.hubimg.com/u/8053275_f1024.jpg

      1. Matthew Meyer profile image73
        Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Thanks Glenn.
        I just submitted by sitemap as well and it looks like I am getting the same error and warning.  It also says the 25th like yours, but I too did not submit my sitemap to WMT until today.

        I wonder if it is a cache issue and perhaps Google looked at the sitemap on the 25th hasn't rechecked it yet.

        I have forwarded this to our engineering team.

      2. Matthew Meyer profile image73
        Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

        Glenn,

        I guess when you do a test, it only looks at the cached version of the sitemap.
        Submit is the method that will look at the current version.
        If you mark all the error as fixed, do you still see some going forward?

        1. Glenn Stok profile image97
          Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Matthew - Thanks for your attention to this matter. You are right.  I just looked at it now and there are no errors.  Google obviously was using the cashed version that was from before the fix.

          This experience also shows us something else... the fact that Google already had a cache of the sitemap means that we don't really need to add it ourselves. Google must be picking up each hubber's sitemap from HP's master sitemap. Am I right about that?

          I'm wondering if there is any advantage for Hubbers to specify it in our own Webmaster accounts. Based on this, I think not. Would you agree with that?

          Thanks again Matthew.

          1. Matthew Meyer profile image73
            Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I think that is accurate Glenn, except that I think in this particular instance manually submitting the sitemap forced Google to check it again.
            So going forward, no, it does not seem like there is any need or advantage for individual authors to submit the sitemap to WMT as it appears they are already finding and using it.

            1. Glenn Stok profile image97
              Glenn Stokposted 10 years agoin reply to this

              Appreciate the quick reply Matthew. That also clarifies things. Thank you.

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