Sitemap in Webmaster Tools Problem

[KevinMcC]

I am getting the following errors with my sitemap through Google's Webmaster Tools:

Incorrect namespace
Your Sitemap or Sitemap index file doesn't properly declare the namespace.
Tag: urlset
Problem detected on: Jul 15, 2009

Invalid XML attribute
The XML attribute of this tag was not recognized. Please fix it and resubmit.
Tag: urlset
Attribute: schemaLocation
Problem detected on: Jul 15, 2009

Can anybody make sense of either of these errors?

Thanks for the help

[themike537]

How did you make the sitemap? If you make a new one through xml-sitemaps.com it may fix the problem.

[OPC]

make sure the configuration of the sitemap is correct in terms of how the xml document is composed (i.e. - spaces between entries cause the document to soil). XML must be well constructed - which "could" be the issue. Most errors i've encountered have been ones with excessive spacing.

[KevinMcC]

It was made through XML-Sitemaps.com... I will try making a new one. The only difference between this one and the others I have made is when I entered the site in the Webmaster Tools I didn't include the WWW. - could that be a problem because my non WWW. is re-directed?

[Michael Martinez]

There have been sporadic reports of problems with Webmaster Tools over the past week or so. Google is apparently aware of the issues.

I would first use a couple of sitemap validators to check the integrity of the file. If it seems okay to the independent validators I would wait a little bit.

It's not well known, but you can create text file sitemaps that just include URLs (no formatting code) and submit them to the major search engines.

You cannot use the advanced XML sitemap techniques with these text file maps. Yahoo! requires that your text file sitemap be called "urllist.txt" but both Microsoft and Google are flexible on what you call them.

Just include one URL per line in the text file. You can link to it in your "robots.txt" file (as well as to your XML sitemap files).

An entry in "robots.txt" would look like this:

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/urllist.txt

The entry IS case-sensitive (or so I understand it to be).

[OPC]

It was made through XML-Sitemaps.com... I will try making a new one. The only difference between this one and the others I have made is when I entered the site in the Webmaster Tools I didn't include the WWW. - could that be a problem because my non WWW. is re-directed?

The redirect could cause an error, but not that one - I don't think

[pokerworx]

I alway copy the one off my pas site when making ones for other sites and they work everytime. Just edit with txt and rename it to .xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">

<url>
<loc>http://xx/</loc>
</url>

<url>
<loc>http://www.xx.html</loc>
</url>

<url>
<loc>http://www.xx.html</loc>
</url>


</urlset>

[KevinMcC]

Okay I made a new sitemap and I am getting this error:


Paths don't match
We've detected that you submitted your Sitemap using a URL path that doesn't include the www prefix (for instance, http://example.com/sitemap.xml). However, the URLs listed inside your Sitemap do use the www prefix (for instance, http://www.example.com/myfile.htm).

** When I listed the site in Webmaster tools I made it BonusPokerReview.com (without the WWW). My other sites I included the WWW. and everything is fine with their sitemaps. I am guessing this is the problem, but how the heck do I fix it?

[Michael Martinez]

Have you set a canonical preference in Webmaster Tools? That might be causing the error.

[KevinMcC]

I have "Preferred Domain" set to: Don't set a preferred domain

Is that what you were referring to? Should I change that at all?

Thanks