Most of the people use phpBB forum creation software to create forum sites because phpBB forum software is free of cost but phpBB forum site’s url structure create errors in sitemap. Recently, i started a forum site which is actually powered by phpBB forum software and developed a search engine friendly sitemap but submitted sitemap shows errors when i visit webmaster Tools like Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo! Site Explorer and bing Webmaster Center. I can’t understand why my submitted sitemap shows errors.

phpbb forum sitemap error due to url structure

Google tells that an error detected in 74 line of sitemap.xml file and here the statement of warning.

We were unable to read your Sitemap. It may contain an entry we are unable to recognize. Please validate your sitemap before resubmitting.

Later, i analyzed my sitemap and understood the actual reason. The main problem is URL structure. In other words, the url structure of phpBB is not well XML supportable format. Any search engine never accept your sitemap if you create a sitemap by following sitemap creation instructions. Actually, the error is mainly caused by an element within url structure. That element is nothing but & symbol. The primary url structure does not create any problem but the secondary urls which are content pages published by the forum members.

The secondary url structure of any phpBB forum site looks like as stated below.

http://forum.techze.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1

In order to solve this sitemap error, we have to replace & symbol with & in every web page of forum site. I will explain very clearly.

Your Old Url : http://forum.techze.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1

Your new URL : http://forum.techze.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1

Now, once again create your sitemap by following this instruction and upload to your domain root directory. Now, every webmaster tools accept your forum site’s sitemap without showing any sitemap error.