Problem in Google Sitemaps

[rmrpereira]

Hi, I submitted a sitemap (that was generated in xml-sitemaps.com) to Google Sitemaps.

The xml (sitemap) that I submitted is this one:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset
xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84
http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84/sitemap.xsd">

<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Course%27s%20Description.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Where,%20when%20and%20price.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/About%20us.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Contact%20info.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
</urlset>


Google gave me the following error report (after I had submitted the sitemap for about a few days):
" Empty Sitemap Your Sitemap does not contain any URLs. Please validate and resubmit your Sitemap. More"

When I click the "More" link, it says:
"Empty Sitemap

Google downloaded your Sitemap, but it does not contain any URLs. Check your Sitemap and ensure that it is not empty. If your Sitemap uses the Google Sitemap protocol, validate it to ensure that the URLs are tagged correctly. Then, resubmit your Sitemap."

I can't seem to validate it. I suspect that it has got something to do with the url's names.

My html original filenames are:
"Course's Description.html"
"Where, when and price.html"
"About us.html"
"Contact info.html"

Thanks for your help,
Ricardo Pereira

[evilgreenmonkey]

Hi,

I'm guessing that an error was found in the output, most likely due to invalid characters which Google's XML schema does not accept.

<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Where,%20when%20and%20price.html</loc>


The above line will most probably fail due to the use of a comma in the URL which makes the URL invalid. There may also be other errors.

I would recommend reading the HOWTO guide given by Google and creating a sitemap by hand.

:cool:

Rob

[rmrpereira]

Hi Rob, thanks for your reply :)

Yes, I also suspect that it is those urls that are messing up with Google's validation in Sitemaps.
The thing is, I do not wish to change the html's filenames (which would solve the problem) as the whole site was done with Apple's iWeb and I would prefer to leave it this way. So, now, I have to find out how how to translate the html's filenames ("When, Where and price.html" and "Course's Description.html") to an url encoding that Google doesn't mind accepting.

Any further help on this will be appreciated :)

Thanks,
Ricardo Pereira

[evilgreenmonkey]

Your wish is my command:
http://www.dommermuth-1.com/protosite/experiments/encode/index.html

;)

[rmrpereira]

Hi.

Wow, that was fast! :D
Thank you very much.

I think the problem might have been with the particular html file "Where, when and price.html", because this was the only filename that wasn't encoded the same way that the site you provided did.

I'll try to use the sample encoded by the site you mentioned:
"http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Where%2C%20when%20and%20price.html"
which is different than what I had.

I'll resubmit the sitemap to Google Sitemaps and as soon as I have a feedback I'll let you know.

Thanks again,
Ricardo Pereira

[g1smd]

URLs with spaces in them%20are%20very%20hard%20to%20read%20 and underscores_disappear_in_underlined_links.

Use hyphens or dots instead. Start with all your new pages in the future, and then gradually migrate your older content too.

[rmrpereira]

Well, I'll take that advice, yes. In the future I will be doing that.

The problem is that it still isn't working and I needed it to work with these pages.

The xml is now like this and it still got the error "Your Sitemap does not contain any URLs. Please validate and resubmit your Sitemap."


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset
xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84
http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84/sitemap.xsd">

<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Course%27s%20Description.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Where%2C%20when%20and%20price.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/About%20us.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.synccreationinportugal.com/Contact%20info.html</loc>
<priority>0.5</priority>
<lastmod>2006-07-13T17:41:38+00:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
</url>
</urlset>


Can anyone please tell how to encode the url (if that's the problem) in a way that Google Sitemaps accepts it?

Thanks,
Ricardo Pereira

[rmrpereira]

Ok, I'll change my filenames and the internal links to them, and it'll solve my problem.

Thanks to everyone