🔍 What Are Duplicate Sitemaps?
Duplicate sitemaps occur when Otto detects more than one sitemap pointing to the same content but under different URLs. The most common example is a www vs non-www conflict, such as:
- www.bleudentist.com/sitemap.xml
- bleudentist.com/sitemap.xml
Both URLs resolve to the same sitemap file, but search engines may treat them as separate sitemaps. This can dilute crawl signals, cause indexing confusion, and trigger technical SEO warnings inside Otto. Resolving this keeps your site's crawl data clean and ensures Otto is only tracking one authoritative sitemap.
⚠️ Why This Happens
Otto automatically discovers all sitemaps associated with your connected domain. If your site responds to both the www and non-www versions of its URL without a proper redirect in place, Otto will register both sitemap variants as active. This is not an Otto error — it reflects the actual configuration of your website and needs to be resolved either at the sitemap level inside Otto or at the server level on your site.
🛠️ How to Disable a Duplicate Sitemap in Otto
Follow these steps to remove or disable the duplicate sitemap entry inside Otto:
- Log in to your Search Atlas account and navigate to OTTO SEO using the left sidebar, then open SEO Automation inside it.
- Select the project for the affected domain (for example, bleudentist.com).
- Inside the project dashboard, locate the Otto panel and open it.
- Look for the Sitemaps section. Otto will display all discovered sitemaps for your domain.
- Identify the duplicate entry — this is typically the sitemap using the non-canonical version of your URL. For example, if your canonical domain is www.bleudentist.com, the duplicate would be bleudentist.com/sitemap.xml (without www), or vice versa.
- Select the duplicate sitemap entry and choose the option to disable or remove it from Otto's tracking.
- Confirm the change. Otto will stop processing the disabled sitemap in future crawls.
After completing these steps, only your preferred canonical sitemap will remain active in Otto.
✅ How to Identify the Correct Sitemap to Keep
Always keep the sitemap that matches your site's canonical domain — the preferred URL version you use consistently across your site and in Google Search Console. To verify which version is canonical:
- Check your Google Search Console account. The domain listed under your verified property is your canonical version.
- Test both URLs in a browser. The version that does not redirect to the other is typically the canonical one.
- Check your website's robots.txt file (e.g., yourdomain.com/robots.txt). The sitemap URL declared there should match the version you keep active in Otto.
🌐 Fix the Root Cause: Set Up a Redirect on Your Server
Disabling the duplicate inside Otto resolves the issue at the SEO automation level, but the underlying cause — your site responding to both www and non-www URLs without redirecting — should also be fixed to prevent the duplication from reappearing and to protect your overall SEO.
To permanently resolve this, configure a 301 redirect on your server so that all traffic to the non-canonical version automatically redirects to the canonical version. For example:
- If your canonical domain is www.bleudentist.com, set up a 301 redirect from bleudentist.com to www.bleudentist.com for all pages.
- If your canonical domain is bleudentist.com (non-www), redirect www.bleudentist.com to bleudentist.com.
This redirect is typically configured in your .htaccess file (Apache), nginx.conf (NGINX), or through your hosting provider's domain settings. Once the redirect is live, rerun a crawl in Otto so it can verify the duplicate no longer exists.
🔄 Re-sync Sitemaps After Making Changes
After disabling the duplicate in Otto and optionally fixing the server redirect, trigger a fresh sitemap discovery to confirm everything is resolved:
- Return to the Sitemaps section inside the Otto panel.
- Select Re-sync or Refresh Sitemaps to prompt Otto to re-discover your site's sitemaps.
- Confirm that only one sitemap entry now appears for your domain.
If the duplicate reappears after re-syncing, it means the www vs non-www redirect has not yet been applied at the server level. Address the redirect first, then re-sync again.
💬 Need More Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.