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Sitemap being cached by Hummingbird

Sitemap generated by Yoast is getting cached by Hummingbird. I have added to exclusions list but it’s not working.

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 7:29:03
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Hummingbird Pro
  • Kris Tomczyk
    • Ex Staff

    Hi Link Right Media

    I hope you are doing good today.

    I was able to replicate this issue on my lab site only in the Edge browser. However, it is not a cache issue. What I mean here sitemaps files from Yoast are never cached, from version 9.0. You can see that in files like:
    post-sitemap.xml
    page-sitemap.xml
    Those by default are skipped from the cache via Yoast core.

    Also, your sitemap loads ok in Chrome and Firefox. The only issue exist in the Edge browser.
    I reviewed the source of all 3 files and all of them generate correct XML data. This issue is caused by the stylesheet of the sitemap not loading. As the sitemap is outputting the correct code, there is nothing preventing Google from reading the sitemap file though. So all is good at this point.

    However, I will report this Edge stylesheets issue to our developers as it could mislead our members that something is not right.

    Kind Regards,
    Kris

    • Link Right Media
      • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

      Kris,
      You’re misunderstanding our issue. We aren’t having problems with the XML sitemap showing up in the browser. The problem is that Google Search Console, where XML sitemaps are submitted for crawling, cannot read the file.

      Please see the attached screenshots. I can see the sitemaps loading properly in the browser. HOWEVER, Google cannot read the file. This is the case for the majority of the client websites using Hummingbird. [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

  • Link Right Media
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    This is not what I’m experiencing. In Chrome incognito it does not look right. And I have read that xml files cannot have comments before the <?xml> tag. You can see from my screenshot that Hummingbird IS caching the page and is adding a comment before the <?xml> tag. We are getting an error that the sitemap cannot be read in Google Search Console.

    We have actually seen some sites clear up in Google Search Console even though they look wrong in the browser though. We are still investigating to see if this is still an issue.

  • Link Right Media
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    Kris,
    We are still having problems with Google Search Console showing errors in the XML sitemap. See attached. I’m not sure which site you were using to troubleshoot in your message above, as we have many clients and have recently switched them all over to WPMU.

    We have the exclusions set up correctly but doesn’t matter, Google is still saying the xml sitemap can’t be read. This a big issue for us as an SEO agency.

    Please escalate this because we need a resolution asap. Our developer is suggesting using a 3rd party sitemap plugin which I’d prefer not to do. We use Yoast and would like to continue using Yoast for xml sitemaps.

    Best,
    Jen Breeding
    Lead SEO

  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Link Right Media ,

    We got an update from the developer, you’ll have to exclude the SiteMap URL in the Hummingbird Cache settings, under Hummingbird Pro > Caching > Page Caching > Exclusions by adding the following file name:
    sitemap_index.xml

    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

    Could you please check and see whether the above method helps? Looking forward to your response.

    Kind Regards,
    Nithin

  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Link Right Media ,

    I can confirm the same worked on my side without any issue. I checked your website and could notice it’s’ working fine at the moment:

    [attachments are only viewable by logged-in members]

    I don’t see any Hummingbird HTML comments for any of the sitemaps links listed. Could you please double check on your side? Please make sure to clear the browser history and cache and then see how it behaves.

    If you still have anomalies regarding this, then please do enable support access and also share a screenshot of how it loads on your side so that we could double-check what’s being missed.

    You can grant access from WPMU DEV > Support > Support Access > Grant Access, or check this manual: https://vvpmudev.com/docs/getting-started/getting-support/#chapter-5

    Please let us know once you enable access so that we could get this sorted. Have a nice day.

    Kind Regards,
    Nithin

  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Link Right Media ,

    Could I know which Hosting provider are you using for the website? And are all the websites hosted on the same server? Do you have server cache enabled along with Hummingbird Pro cache?

    Since support access to the website wasn’t enabled, I wasn’t able to check the dashboard settings. Could you please enable support access so that we could have a better idea regarding this?

    You can grant access from WPMU DEV > Support > Support Access > Grant Access, or check this manual: https://vvpmudev.com/docs/getting-started/getting-support/#chapter-5

    Please let us know once you enable access so that we could get this sorted asap.

    Kind Regards,
    Nithin

  • Link Right Media
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    We have separate hosting for each client but most are on GoDaddy hosting. redresponderstx.com is hosted with Bluehost. Most of our clients on GoDaddy have Sucuri, but I have cleared that cache. And redresponderstx.com does not have Sucuri nor any other server level caching.

    I have granted support access to creativenightscapes.com.

  • Link Right Media
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    I would actually rather you test dhillonlawfirm.com. Their sitemap is: https://www.dhillonlawfirm.com/sitemap_index.xml

    I have granted you support access to that site.

    Also, we have several clients that are on Flywheel hosting and DO NOT have Hummingbird installed. They ARE using Flywheel’s caching solutions but DO NOT have any sitemap issues in the browser or in Google Search Console. This further confirms the issue is with Hummingbird.

  • Nithin Ramdas
    • Support Wizard

    Hi Link Right Media ,

    We respond to tickets in order of oldest to newest and hence a delay. Sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

    On further troubleshooting, I could notice what you meant. It seems more like the following expression which is causing the conflict in the Exclusion list you have added ie:
    *sitemap.xml

    I could replicate the issue you have mentioned when I add the following in the exclusion list:

    sitemap_index.xml
*sitemap.xml

    If I only add this:
    sitemap_index.xml

    Then issue doesn’t occur for the main sitemap page. On further testing, this should be the correct rules to be added under the exclusion list:

    sitemap_index.xml
sitemap.xml

    It seems like the * sign was causing the issue. I could validate in Google without any issue with the above rules on my test site. I have added the above in the dhillonlawfirm, and removed other exclusions added for a sitemap on your website in the cache settings. Could you please monitor the site and see whether the issue occurs again?

    Please do let us know how that goes. Looking forward to your response.

    Regards,
    Nithin

  • Jair Jaramillo
    • Staff

    Hello Lauren with jollity.io

    I suggest you to try the recommendations shared above regarding how to exclude the sitemap from the Hummingbird Pro caching. Any of these exclusions should be valid and shouldn’t cause any errors:

    
sitemap_index.xml
sitemap.xml

    If somehow after adding them you still encounter an error, perhaps it’s an issue related to your own site. In that case, I suggest you to create a new Support Ticket so we can investigate that.

    Kind regards,
    Jair.