Missing Wordpress Images in XML Sitemaps, Yoast SEO & Page Builders



For my sins I use ‘WP Bakery Page Builder’ to create my own website; always struggled with the problems of images placed using various styles of Media & Masonry Grids, not showing up in the XML Sitemaps, as created by Yoast SEO.

Given my website IS my business (Designing awesome Logo Designs and Brand Identities, in case you didn’t know), and relies completely on images, then this has always been a major pain in my ass.

It’s a common problem afflicting many people, and it’s not just WPBakery, but Semplice (which I used previously, shocking SEO generally), and some other Wordpress Page Builders.

The Problem

You place x-amount of images in a Media Grid using your Page Builder, save the Page and look at your XML Sitemap.

In my case, the Red Highlights (image below) show my main portfolio pages that have quite a few placed images, but the XML Sitemap would have you believe otherwise. The 1 Image would be my logo in the header.

Worth noting: Google WOULD Fetch and Render these pages correctly, but viewing the Page Source would NOT show any of the images.

 

XML Sitemap for The Logo Smith Freelance Logo Designer

Over the last few days, I’ve been adding new portfolio pages, doing the same thing I’ve been doing for many years.

However, I noticed that a few of these new portfolio pages actually DID show the accurate number of images in the XML Sitemap, which are indicated with the Green Highlights.

So this got me a little confused, and then thinking…

The Solution

Today I found the solution, at least for my particular set-up. Maybe it will work for you too. It’s very simple…

The Culprit: Feature Images

Long and short: turns out that the new pages I had created did NOT have a Featured Image, whereas the older pages DID have a Featured Image.

After removing the Featured Image from the older pages, every single image was updated and accounted for in the XML Sitemap.

As you can see below in the updated XML Sitemap, all the Portfolio, Monomark and Gallery Pages, now have the correct number of images listed, even actually my Home Page.

 

Google Yoast XML Sitemap for The Logo Smith Freelance Logo Designer

 

I know this isn’t a solution for everyone, as there are so many variations at play here, but from what I’ve seen in many Forums regarding this particular problem, then I’m hoping it will be of some use to some of you.

Something as familiar as Wordpress Featured Images seems to be the culprit. Who’d known…