Search engines rely on sitemaps in order to crawl and index your web pages properly. A small mistake such as using an incorrect URL or an incorrectly formatted XML tag can have a huge negative impact on the performance of your website and how well it ranks in search results.

In this post we will discuss the sitemap generator spellmistake, the way it can affect your websites SEO, and how you can fix spellmistakes to improve your ranking and to increase the number of pages indexed on your site.

What Is A Sitemap Generator?

A sitemap generator is an automated tool or plugin that is capable of generating an XML formatted sitemap file for you. A search engine uses the sitemap file to help it find and crawl (index) pages on a website.

What Is A Sitemap Generator Spellmistake?

A spellmistake is an error in spelling, grammar, or syntax in the sitemap file that usually goes undetected by the user. The consequences of spellmistakes can include

1. blocking a search engine from crawling your pages or website,
2. preventing a search engine from indexing your pages or website; and
3. lower levels of organic traffic.

Typical Errors made by Sitemap Generators when creating a Sitemap

Incorrect File Name: (i.e. “sitmap.xml” versus “sitemap.xml”)

Misspelled URLs: Incorrect slugs or missing characters from a URL

Invalid XML Tags: (i.e. instead of )

Improper Protocol: Use HTTP instead of HTTPS

Broken or Redirected URLs: 404 pages and other incorrect redirects

Why are Sitemap Generator Spelling Mistakes bad for SEO?

If there is a mistake in your sitemap, search engines could avoid it altogether and not crawl any pages on your site; thus, hurting your crawl budget by not crawling all the important pages; as well as, hurting your rankings because they are not indexed correctly.

Find / Fix Your Sitemap Generator’s Spelling Mistakes

Google Search Console: Search for “couldn’t fetch” or “invalid URL”.

XML Validator: Use an XML validator to check for correct syntax and format.

Manual Checks: Click on a URL to verify that it loads.

Common Problems and Solutions
Problem | Solution
Sitemap not fetched | Change file name to “sitemap.xml”
Invalid XML | Fix any broken or misspelled XML tags
URLs won’t be indexed | Remove noindex or prohibited URLs
Sitemap has HTTP URLs | Change to only accept HTTPS

Sitemap Error Prevention Best Practices

Always use lowercase, uniform URLs.

After any substantial alteration to a site’s content, also revise the sitemap.

Anytime there is any update to your sitemap, run tests against that sitemap.

Conclusion

If there are any noticeable spelling mistakes or typos on a sitemap generated by a Sitemap Generator this could negatively affect the ranking of the website in the search engine results pages. Regularly checking and correcting errors in your sitemap will help search engines locate and index your site’s content.