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Why XML sitemaps matters for a bakery
1 Mar 2025
How a bakery deals with XML sitemaps — and what usually goes wrong.
The problem: HTTP bookmarks after a forced HTTPS move. This breaks XML sitemaps for a bakery.
Early on we tried to automate XML sitemaps for a bakery with a cron job. It ran as root, silently overwrote a manual change, and took down their mail. Lesson learned.
Complexity is the enemy of uptime. a bakery had three layers of proxy in front of a site that gets two hundred visits a day. We replaced it with a static page and correct XML sitemaps.
We found HTTP bookmarks after a forced HTTPS move during a routine check of XML sitemaps. The site had been leaking referrer data for six weeks before anyone noticed.
The real issue was not XML sitemaps itself — it was HTTP bookmarks after a forced HTTPS move. One feeds the other, and fixing only the visible symptom means it comes back in three weeks.
Our own site had HTTP bookmarks after a forced HTTPS move for three days before a colleague noticed. We added it to the pre-launch checklist the same afternoon.
If the hours on Google disagree with the site, people trust Google and then arrive angry. XML sitemaps will not fix that. The hours page will.
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