Manage your sitemaps using the Sitemaps report
The following errors are possible when processing a fetched sitemap:
URLs not accessible
Google encountered an error when attempting to crawl a URL in your sitemap. Inspect the URL in the sitemap using the URL inspection tool to see whether the URL is available to Google.
URLs not followed
Google couldn’t crawl all the URLs listed in your sitemap. Here are some possible reasons:
- The URL contains too many redirects for Google web crawlers to follow. We suggest that you replace any redirect URLs in your sitemaps with the URLs that should actually be crawled.
- If you are permanently redirecting from one page to another, use a permanent redirect.
- Avoid using JavaScript or meta-refresh type redirects.
- Google is having problems with relative URLs in your sitemap. Where possible, use absolute or complete links rather than relative links. For instance, when linking to another page in your site, link to https://www.example.com/mypage.html rather than simply mypage.html.
URL not allowed
Your sitemap includes some URLs that are at a higher level or different domain than the sitemap file.
Higher level: If your sitemap is at http://www.example.com/mysite/sitemap.xml, the following URLs are not valid for that sitemap:
- http://www.example.com/ – Higher level than the sitemap
- http://www.example.com/yoursite/ – In a sibling directory of the sitemap (you must go up and then down to get to it).
Different domain: Check that the URLs all begin with the same domain as your sitemap location. For instance, if your sitemap is at http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml, the following URLs are not valid for that sitemap:
- http://example.com/ – Missing “www”
- www.example.com/ – Missing “http”
- https://www.example.com/ – Using https rather than http
Compression error
Google encountered an error when trying to uncompress your compressed sitemap file. Recompress your sitemap (using a tool such as gzip), upload it to your site, and resubmit it.
Empty sitemap
Your sitemap doesn’t contain any URLs. Check your sitemap to ensure that it is not empty.
Sitemap file size error: Your sitemap exceeds the maximum file size limit.
Your sitemap is larger than 50MB when uncompressed. If your sitemap is larger than the limit, break it into several smaller sitemaps and list these in a sitemap index file and submit the sitemap index file(s).
Invalid attribute value
You assigned an invalid value to an XML tag attribute. Check your sitemap to make sure that only the allowed attributes are present, and that you assign only allowed values according to the sitemap specifications. Check your attributes and values for typos.
Invalid date
Your sitemap contains one or more invalid dates. This error could be because a date is in the incorrect format, or the date itself is not valid. Dates must use W3C Datetime encoding, although you can omit the time portion. Make sure your dates match one of the following W3C Datetime formats:
2005-02-21 2005-02-21T18:00:15+00:00
Specifying time is optional (the time defaults to 00:00:00Z), but if you do specify a time, you must also specify a time zone.
Invalid tag value
Your sitemap contains one or more tags with an invalid value. Check the specifications for your sitemap type (index, standard, video, and so on).
Invalid URL
A URL in your sitemap is not valid. This error might be because it contains unsupported characters, spaces, or other characters such as quotes, or it might be incorrectly formatted (for example, htp:// instead of http:// ).
Make sure that the URLs listed in your sitemap are encoded for readability and escaped properly. Check for any incorrect characters such as spaces or quotes. You also try copying the URL into a browser to see if the browser can understand the URL and load the page.
Invalid URL in sitemap index file: incomplete URL
Your sitemap index file doesn’t include the full URL for each sitemap file that it lists. When we see a sitemap index file, we look in the same directory for the files that it references. For instance, if your sitemap index file is http://www.example.com/folder1/sitemap_index.xml and lists a sitemap as sitemap.xml (no / at the beginning), then we’ll look for that sitemap at http://www.example.com/folder1/sitemap.xml. If we can’t find it there, you’ll see this error.
Update your sitemap index file to include the complete path to each listed sitemap file, then resubmit.
Invalid XML: too many tags
Your sitemap contains duplicate tags. For example, the following entry would cause this error because the tag is listed twice:
http://www.example.com/ http://www.example.com/page1.html 2005-01-01 monthly 0.8
The error lists the problematic tag and the line number. Remove the duplicate tag and resubmit your sitemap.
Missing XML attribute
A tag in your sitemap is missing a required attribute. Check your sitemaps to make sure that no required attributes are missing. Once you have fixed the attribute values, resubmit your sitemap.
Missing XML tag
One or more entries in your sitemap is missing a required tag. The error message lists the line number. Review the sitemap fundamentals page for information on required tags.
Missing thumbnail URL
One or more video entries is missing a URL to a thumbnail image. Make sure that the location of any thumbnail URLs are specified using the tag.
Missing video title
One or more video entries is missing a title. Make sure that each video in your sitemap has a title, specified in the the tag.
Incorrect sitemap index format: Nested sitemap indexes
One or more entries in your sitemap index file uses its own URL or the URL of another sitemap index file. A sitemap index file can’t list other sitemap index files, only sitemap files.
Remove any entries pointing to sitemap index files, then resubmit your sitemap.
Parsing error
Google could not parse the sitemap’s XML.
Often, this problem is caused by an unescaped character in the URL. As with all XML files, any data values (including URLs) must use entity escape codes for certain characters such as & ‘ ” symbols. Be sure that your URLs are properly escaped.
Temporary error
Our system experienced a temporary problem that prevented us from processing your sitemap. Generally, when you receive this error, you do not need to resubmit your sitemap. Google can try to retrieve your sitemap again later. If the error still exists after several hours, try resubmitting your sitemap.
Too many sitemaps
Your sitemap index file lists more than 50,000 sitemaps. Split your sitemap index into multiple sitemap index files and ensure that each lists no more than 50,000 sitemaps.
Too many URLs
Your sitemap lists more than 50,000 URLs. Split your sitemap into multiple sitemaps and ensure that each contains no more than 50,000 URLs. You can also use a sitemap index file to manage your sitemaps.
Unsupported format
Your sitemap is not in a supported format.
Some common XML mistakes:
Path mismatch: Missing www
The path to your sitemap does not contain the www prefix (for example, http://example.com/sitemap.xml), but the URLs it lists do (for example, http://www.example.com/myfile.html).
Modify your sitemap to remove “www” from all the URLs to match your sitemap location.
Path mismatch: Includes www
The path to your sitemap contains the www prefix (for example, http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml), but the URLs it contains do not (for example, http://example.com/myfile.xml.
Modify your sitemap to add “www” to all the URLs to match your sitemap location.
Incorrect namespace
The root element of your sitemap doesn’t contain the correct namespace, or the namespace is declared incorrectly, or has a typo or incorrect URL.
Be sure that you are using the correct namespace for your file type. For example:
- A sitemap file: xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″
- A video sitemap file: xmlns:video=”http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1″
- A sitemap index file:
- Other sitemap types…
Leading whitespace
Your sitemap begins with leading whitespace, rather than a namespace declaration. XML files should begin with the XML declaration that specifies the version of XML being used.
This error won’t prevent Google from processing your sitemap, but you might want to remove the whitespace so that the file adheres to the XML standard and you no longer see this error.
HTTP error [specific code]
Google encountered a 400-level HTTP error when when attempting to download your sitemap. This message displays the status code we received (for example, 404). Make sure that the sitemap URL you specified is correct and that the sitemap exists at that location. Then, resubmit your sitemap.
General HTTP error
Google encountered another HTTP error not covered by a more specific error listed here. Expand the details to see what kind of error occurred. This can also be caused by a 404 (page not present) error, which is a fetch error.
Thumbnail too large
The video thumbnail image specified in your sitemap is too large. Resize your video thumbnail image to 160 x 120 px. Update your sitemap with the new information, and then resubmit it. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.
Thumbnail too small
A video thumbnail image specified in your sitemap is too small. Resize your video thumbnail image to 160 x 120 px. Update your sitemap if necessary. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.
Video location and play page location are the same
In a video sitemap, the video content URL and the player URL cannot be the same. If you provide both and , the URLs must be different. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.
Video location URL appears to be a play page URL
In a video sitemap, the URL points to the page hosting the player. More information about adding video information to a sitemap.
Too many News URLs
More than our specified maximum number of URLs (1,000) open in the sitemap file. More information about adding news information to a sitemap.
Missing tag
Each URL in a News sitemap must have a tag. More information about adding news information to a sitemap.
Sitemap contains urls which are blocked by robots.txt
Google cannot access your sitemap, or can’t access all the content listed in your sitemap, because it is blocked by a robots.txt file. Use the URL Inspection tool to confirm which file is being blocked, and modify your robots.txt file to allow Googlebot to access it.
