Updated on December 9th, 2024 at 07:53 pm
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
Issue: If your sitemap.xml contains HTTP URLs for a website that uses HTTPS, it can confuse search engines, leading to incomplete or inefficient crawling of your site.
Fix: Update your sitemap.xml to ensure all URLs use HTTPS.
How to Fix for Beginners
- Identify HTTP URLs: Open your sitemap.xml file and look for any URLs that start with
http://
instead ofhttps://
.- Example:
http://example.com/page
should be updated tohttps://example.com/page
.
- Example:
- Replace with HTTPS: Manually or using a tool, replace all HTTP URLs with their HTTPS versions.
- Check Redirects: Ensure your HTTP pages already redirect to HTTPS. If not, set up 301 redirects.
- Test the Sitemap: After updating, use Google Search Console’s “Sitemaps” tool to check and validate the updated sitemap.
- Monitor for Issues: Run regular audits to ensure future updates don’t reintroduce HTTP URLs.
Tip: Using consistent HTTPS URLs improves site security, SEO, and ensures proper indexing by search engines.
More articles relating to Sitemaps:
- How to fix: Sitemap.xml files are too large
- How to fix: Incorrect pages found in sitemap.xml
- How to fix: Format errors in sitemap.xml files
- How to fix: Sitemap.xml not indicated in robots.txt
- How to fix: Sitemap.xml not found
- How to fix: HTTP URLs in sitemap.xml for HTTPS site
- How to fix: Orphaned pages (in sitemap)