Manage Sitemaps

Manage Sitemaps imports a website's public sitemap into Wheremore. Use it to keep a project's page list current, choose which pages are active and set how pages should be organised for supported content workflows.

Sitemaps belong to a project in the active workspace. The sitemap's website must match the domain connected to that project.

Before you begin

You need:

• An active workspace
• Access to a project in that workspace
• A domain connected to the project
• A public sitemap or website that Wheremore can reach

Open Manage Sitemaps. If no workspace is active, the page shows Select a workspace to view and manage sitemaps.

Add a sitemap

1. Choose the project from Select Project.
2. Enter the website domain or a direct sitemap URL. For example, enter example.com  or https://example.com/sitemap.xml .
3. Select Discover Sitemaps.
4. Review the sitemap files Wheremore finds and select the ones you need. Use the select-all checkbox if every result is relevant.
5. Select Add Selected Sitemaps.

Wheremore adds each selected sitemap separately. If one cannot be added, successfully added sitemaps remain in the project and the page reports the unsuccessful item or a warning.

New sitemaps are Enabled, use Manual refresh and show AI Cluster as their structure. Their eligible URLs are imported as active pages. The same sitemap URL cannot be added twice to one project.

Discovery checks a supplied sitemap URL, the website's robots.txt  file and common sitemap locations. A supplied direct sitemap URL takes priority. The source must use HTTP or HTTPS and be publicly accessible.

Understand what is imported

Wheremore supports XML sitemap indexes, XML URL sets and plain-text sitemaps containing one URL per line. It imports page and document URLs that it can store, including PDF and common office-document URLs. It ignores media, archive and static-asset URLs such as images, videos, ZIP files, stylesheets and scripts.

The current sitemap importer skips URLs longer than 255 characters. If every entry is unsupported or too long, Wheremore rejects the sitemap rather than replacing a valid page list with an empty one.

Adding a sitemap reads its URLs into Wheremore. It does not edit the sitemap, publish pages or make changes to the website.

The imported page list can feed supported workflows elsewhere in Wheremore:

• Content Bank uses processed sitemap pages to build and maintain the project's content inventory and organisation.
• Link Management can use eligible pages when analysing and managing internal-link opportunities.
• Manage Session Tracking lets you select a sitemap and import its pages into interaction tracking.

Adding or refreshing a sitemap does not mean every page immediately appears in each feature. Page status, clustering, a separate import step and each feature's own processing rules can affect when and where a page becomes available.

Find your way around

Each sitemap row shows:

The main search field filters the list by sitemap URL. Use All Projects to show one project's sitemaps. The search and project filters work together.

Choose the status and refresh method

Status and Refresh are separate controls.

Changing a sitemap to Automatic makes it due for background processing. The exact processing time depends on the background queue. It does not make every page active or immediately change the page list in the browser.

Changing Status to Disabled does not make its imported pages inactive. Use the page or path-group controls when you need to exclude pages from supported downstream processing.

Refresh a sitemap now

Select the circular refresh icon to retrieve and reconcile the sitemap immediately.

A successful refresh:

• Adds newly listed supported URLs
• Updates URLs and available last-modified dates
• Removes imported records for URLs no longer listed in that sitemap
• Reapplies saved path and individual-page status choices
• Removes saved individual-page choices for URLs that no longer exist
• Requests a clustering run when clustering is available

The page reports success, a warning or an error. A warning can mean that the URL list was refreshed successfully but clustering could not be queued. You do not need to repeat the refresh merely because clustering produced a warning.

If Wheremore cannot safely retrieve or fully read the sitemap, it preserves the existing page list instead of treating an incomplete result as the new source.

Choose how pages are organised

Use Structure to save the organisation method for the next clustering run.

Choose Sitemap when paths such as /services/  and /guides/  already represent the site's intended structure. Choose AI Cluster when the URL structure is not meaningful enough or topic-led organisation is more useful.

Changing this setting saves the preference but does not immediately reorganise existing content. Select the refresh icon when you want to reconcile the sitemap and request clustering with the saved method. Clustering runs in the background and may already be pending.

Neither option changes URLs or content on the website.

Review the imported pages

Select the chevron at the start of a sitemap row to expand it.

The expanded view includes:

• Path Groups for managing pages by URL folder
• Search pages... for finding a URL within this sitemap
• All Categories for filtering to a URL path
• All Pages, Active Only and Inactive Only status filters
• A selector for 10, 25, 50 or 100 rows per page
• URL, Last Modified and Status details
• Pagination controls for moving through the results

Last Modified is the date supplied by the sitemap, when one is available. It is not the date on which the page was imported into Wheremore.

Activate or deactivate individual pages

Use a page's status switch to control whether the page is available to Wheremore workflows that honour sitemap page status.

• Active pages are eligible for supported downstream processing.
• Inactive pages remain in Manage Sitemaps but are excluded from new processing that uses this status.

The choice is saved for that exact URL and reapplied during later refreshes. Deactivating a page does not remove it from the public sitemap or website.

Manage pages by path group

Path Groups are derived from the folders in imported URLs. For example, /guides/  can represent that path and all pages below it. Groups are shown for useful folder prefixes, up to four path levels.

Each group shows how many matching pages are active. Its state can be All Active, All Inactive or Partially Active.

To change a group:

1. Choose a path under Select a category....
2. Choose Set Active or Set Inactive.
3. Select Apply.

The change is applied immediately and the page reports how many matching URLs were updated.

The saved path rule applies to matching pages discovered in later refreshes. A rule for a parent path also resets earlier individual exceptions and more-specific child rules inside that path. If one page should differ from the group afterwards, change that page's status switch again to create a new individual exception.

Delete a sitemap

1. Select the bin icon beside the sitemap.
2. Confirm Are you sure you want to delete this sitemap? This action cannot be undone.

Deletion removes the sitemap connection and its imported URL records from Wheremore. It does not delete the public sitemap or any website pages.

Use Disabled when you need a reversible pause. Delete only when the sitemap is no longer required by the project.

Continue with another task

• Use Manage Projects if the required project is missing or connected to the wrong domain.
• Use the active and inactive page controls to exclude utility, account, policy or other pages that should not enter supported content workflows.
• Open Content Bank after sitemap processing to review the resulting content inventory and organisation.
• Use Link Management to work with internal-link opportunities based on eligible project pages.
• Use Manage Session Tracking to select a sitemap and import its pages into website interaction tracking. This is a separate import workflow and does not happen merely because a sitemap is added here.

If something does not look right

No workspace is selected

Select a workspace in the header. Projects and sitemaps are loaded only for the active workspace.

No projects appear

Confirm that the correct workspace is active and that you have access to a project in it. Create or correct the project in Manage Projects before returning to Manage Sitemaps.

The sitemap domain does not match the project

The website host in the sitemap URL must match the domain connected to the selected project. Choose the correct project or correct its domain configuration before trying again.

Discovery finds no sitemap

1. Check that the website or sitemap URL is correct.
2. Open the direct sitemap URL in a browser and confirm that it is public.
3. Try the root domain if you first entered a sitemap path.
4. Try the direct sitemap URL if discovery from the root domain fails.
5. Check whether the website lists the sitemap in robots.txt .

RSS and Atom feeds are not supported as sitemaps.

A sitemap index is too large or too deeply nested

Wheremore limits how much of a sitemap index it retrieves in one operation. If it cannot read the complete index safely, existing URLs are preserved and the operation fails rather than importing a partial list.

Add the relevant leaf sitemaps—the URL-set files inside the index—separately. Very large individual responses can also be rejected.

Only some selected sitemaps were added

Each selected sitemap is added in its own request. Review the reported failure, then retry only that sitemap after correcting its URL, access or size issue. Successfully added sitemaps do not need to be added again.

The sitemap is already present

The same sitemap URL cannot be added twice to one project. Find its existing row, then refresh or enable it instead.

A newly published page is missing

Confirm that the page appears in the public sitemap and that its URL is no more than 255 characters. Then select the refresh icon or wait for the next automatic refresh. Clear Active Only, Inactive Only, category and page-search filters when checking the result.

Refresh fails or times out

Confirm that the sitemap is public and returns a supported sitemap format. A manual request can time out while a slow or large source is being processed; wait before trying again and avoid repeated refresh clicks.

If the source is a large sitemap index, add its leaf sitemaps separately. Wheremore preserves the existing page list when it cannot safely complete reconciliation.

A page has the wrong status after refresh

Individual URL choices and path rules are deliberately reapplied during refresh. Change the individual page switch if it should be an exception. If the whole folder is wrong, update the relevant Path Groups rule first, then recreate any individual exceptions.

A page disappeared after refresh

A successful refresh removes an imported URL when it is no longer present in that sitemap. Check whether the website moved the page to another sitemap or removed it from its sitemap files.

Connected features do not show a page

Confirm that the page is present and active, the sitemap belongs to the intended project and any required downstream processing has completed. An active page is eligible for connected features; it is not guaranteed to appear in every feature.

A structure change appears to do nothing

Changing Structure saves a preference. It does not start clustering by itself. Select the sitemap's refresh icon to request processing, then allow time for the background clustering job to finish.

Frequently asked questions

Does Manage Sitemaps change my website?

No. It reads public sitemap data and changes only Wheremore's imported records and settings.

Can I add a competitor's sitemap?

No. The sitemap must match the domain connected to the selected project.

What is the difference between Disabled and Manual?

Disabled prevents the automatic scheduler from selecting the sitemap. Manual is a refresh method for an enabled sitemap and means it refreshes only when you select the refresh icon. The manual refresh action remains available on a disabled row.

Does Automatic activate every page?

No. It schedules page-list refreshes. Saved page and path choices determine whether imported URLs are active.

Does Inactive remove a page from the website or sitemap?

No. It changes that URL's status inside Wheremore only.

What happens when a URL is removed from a sitemap?

The next successful refresh removes that URL from this sitemap's imported page list and removes its saved individual URL preference. Unsafe or incomplete refreshes preserve the existing list.

Does changing Structure reorganise pages immediately?

No. It saves the method used when clustering next runs. A manual refresh requests clustering after the URL list has been reconciled.

Does deleting a sitemap delete website pages?

No. It removes the sitemap and imported URL records from Wheremore only.

Getting help

Contact Wheremore Support if a valid public sitemap continues to fail. Include the active workspace, project, domain, sitemap URL, approximate time of the attempt and the error shown. Do not include passwords or private access details.