Google XML Sitemaps with Multisite support

Posted on by

Google XML Sitemaps with Multisite support is just modified Google XML Sitemaps plugin, originally written by Arne Brachhold.

Some time ago I was employed to work on Gnosis.hr site, which needs to drive two sites on one WordPress installation – one for Croatian version and another for the English one. Everything seemed fine until I realized that Google XML Sitemaps isn’t working with Multi site installation.

My modification changes this – you can have numerous sites on one installation and each of them can have own sitemap.

Installation:

  • Install “Google XML Sitemaps with Multisite support” through the WordPress admin (or download)
  • Create “sitemaps” directory in directory where you’ve installed WordPress
  • Make “sitemaps” writeable”

That’s it. 99% percent of work is done by Arne so, thank you Arne. I hope that our projects will merge into the one in the near future.

UPDATE: Plugin is no more supported since there are many other plugins doing the same thing.

43 thoughts on “Google XML Sitemaps with Multisite support”

  1. If I have one domain and I build a multisite like this, http://www.subdomain.domain.com will this plugin work? and how will it show the site structure? Thanks in advance, Robert

    ps I want to have like 10 subdomains, and they will all be revelant to each other as well as the main domain.

    • It will work without any problem, but sites won’t be connected to each other. This features is coming in next release.

  2. Does the plugin work in multisite installations whose blogs are organized by directories?

    In this case, does the super admin have to activate the plugin in all blogs so that all users can use its functions, or just in the main one?

    • You have to activate this plugin on every site.
      Can you test does it work with your installation and post the result here?
      Thank you

  3. Hi

    Thanks for making this much needed update.

    I have done just that – installed the plugin on a WP4.0 with multisites under a common directory.

    The plugin works well except for one thing – the automatic detection of the sitemap name sets all sitemaps to the same name. As it is now, the plugin requires to set the sitemap name to Custom instead of Automatic, and to change both the custom name and the full URL below.

    Not a big deal but a bit tedious for many sites.

    - Laurent

  4. I’m getting the following error when I try to submit the sitemap to Google:

    “URL restricted by robots.txt
    We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap. Please ensure your Sitemap follows our guidelines and can be accessed at the location you provided and then resubmit.”

    Any ideas why this is happening and how to get around it?

    • @Sjors You can find the sitemap’s link by going to Settings->XML-Sitemap and clicking on “Your sitemap was last built on…”.
      And no, you don’t have to add sitemap’s url into robots.txt file in case you don’t have “robots.txt” – WordPress will create the virtual one for you. Otherwise, edit your robots.txt in root and add “sitemap: [your-sitemap-url]“.

  6. Thanks for the answer. But will the search engines be able to find my sitemap when I don’t have it my robots.txt? It would be a nice feature if the plugin could automatically add ‘sitemap:’ into your robots.txt with the right link.

  7. Btw, is there a way to find out how many posts/pages there are in my sitemap? (other then counting them manually:P)

    • No, there is not the way for doing that at the moment. If more users will require it, this option will be implemented.

    • It does work when I deactivate the plugin kb robots plugin, it would be awesome if you could make it work with kb robots.txt.

  9. Hi Mario,

    I tested your plugin with a multilingual site, multidomain, but was not able to get one sitemap per each language and site. I use the wpml plugin.

    Could you please let me know if it’s possible ?

    • Unfortunately, it is not possible at the moment.
      My idea was (and still is) to merge all projects based on Google XML Sitemaps into the one.
      I’ve contacted author of the original plugin, but there is no reply yet.

  10. Your great tool seems to have a problem – The localization tool which we use gives as a warning for this great plugin:

    Loading Issue: Author is using load_textdomain instead of load_plugin_textdomain function. This may break behavior of WordPress, because some filters and actions won’t be executed anymore. Please contact the Author about that.

    Just so you know… Thank you

  11. Hi Mario,
    Just tried out your plugin on a multisite installation and unfortunately it doesn’t seem to work here. In the root (where WP is installed) I made a dir “sitemaps” and it writes all the sitemaps there, but if I look at those xml files they link to the main superadmin domain instead of the domain of the website. Example

    superadmin-domain.com
    site1.superadmin-domain.com = domainx.com
    site2.superadmin-domain.com = domainy.com

    now the links in the sitemap should show as domainx.com/link/whatever
    but instead they show as site1.superadmin-domain.com/link/whatever

    Am I correct in thinking that this is not the way the plugin is supposed to work?

    I hope you understand my explanation…

  13. Hi,
    I have WP with WPML. Could I use this plugin for multi site by WPML? I have two domains domain1.cz for czech language and domain2.com for english language.

    I hope you understand my explanation…

    • Okay, I see many of you have same problems, but, unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to support this plugin any more or continue developing it.
      In some near future I’ll write tutorial how to make original plugin multisite compatible and work with it.

  15. is it possible to use this plugin with domain mapping installed….Google is fetching the install (i.e. subdomain.domain.com) vs. mydomain.com/sitemaps/domain.xml

    thoughts?

  20. Pingback: Is there a sitemap plugin that can handle the complexity of Wordpress MU? - Quora

  21. This plugin does not include my Buddypess links on the sitemap.xml file. Does this actually work with Buddypress or not or is there a specific tweak to get it to work?

  27. I found this searching over the internet about auto blogging. You can try your own autoblog just for $5.. does anyone know if it’s worth and / or have used it? any kind of suggestions would be accepted…

  28. Mario,
    I just installed your plugin on my new wp 3.1.2 multisite. I then went to settings, and was told the page could not be found. I am using the standard date structure naming convention for the main blog in multisite. Then I did a search and found a number of posts on the WP forum from people saying it does not work with 3.1.2. Please address these issues asap, as clearly those of us with networks need good sitemaps.
    thx

  30. Hi,

    I have installed this at a wordpress network running WP 3.1.1. It auto-generates the sitemap for the main website, but for the websites installed in a subdirectory, it gives me the following error:

    There was a problem writing your sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable.
    There was a problem writing your zipped sitemap file. Make sure the file exists and is writable.

    If I then manually generate the sitemap, it is fine. I have checked that the file/directory location is correct and have the correct CHMOD settings.

    Any ideas why auto-build doesn’t work but manual build does?

    Thanks.

    John

  31. Hello,

    I want to contribute in translation for Feedwordpress plugin in Bahasa Indonesia.
    In exchange I want a link to my blog URL.
    Please let me know if that’s available, and send the instruction/files I need to create/refer to.

  33. Pingback: まとめ：おすすめの WordPress プラグイン (19 個) | attosoft.info Blog

  34. Pingback: My Favorite Plug-ins / Michigan Freelance Web Designer