diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 90388290..03972a3f 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -3,9 +3,11 @@
 ## 1.4.0
 
 * Switches doc links to `stable` slug.
+* !!POTENTIAL BREAKING CHANGE: Fixes duplicate version strings in sitemaps for versioned docs. This removes the `version` variable previously set in the sitemaps configuration section of `conf.py`. If you have any custom code that uses this variable elsewhere, do not remove it.
 
 ### Changed
 
+* `docs/conf.py` [#477](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-docs-starter-pack/pull/477)
 * `docs/Makefile` [#468](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-docs-starter-pack/pull/468), [#472](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-docs-starter-pack/pull/472)
 * `.github/workflows/automatic-doc-checks.yml` [#466](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-docs-starter-pack/pull/466)
 * `.github/workflows/check-removed-urls.yml` [#466](https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-docs-starter-pack/pull/466)
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 9a54d8b2..1b2a20ca 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -186,14 +186,9 @@
 
 html_baseurl = os.environ.get("READTHEDOCS_CANONICAL_URL", "/")
 
-# URL scheme. Add language and version scheme elements.
-# When configured with RTD variables, check for RTD environment so manual runs succeed:
-
-if 'READTHEDOCS_VERSION' in os.environ:
-    version = os.environ["READTHEDOCS_VERSION"]
-    sitemap_url_scheme = '{version}{link}'
-else:
-    sitemap_url_scheme = 'MANUAL/{link}'
+# sphinx-sitemap uses html_baseurl to generate the full URL for each page:
+
+sitemap_url_scheme = '{link}'
 
 # Include `lastmod` dates in the sitemap:
 
diff --git a/docs/how-to/set-up-sitemaps.rst b/docs/how-to/set-up-sitemaps.rst
index a3d04b1e..84c97cd4 100644
--- a/docs/how-to/set-up-sitemaps.rst
+++ b/docs/how-to/set-up-sitemaps.rst
@@ -31,55 +31,26 @@ Add ``sphinx_sitemap`` to ``extensions`` in your configuration file (:file:`docs
 
     extensions = ['sphinx_sitemap']
 
-Required sitemap configuration
-------------------------------
-
-Sphinx Sitemap requires a ``html_baseurl`` configured for the project in your
-configuration file. For example, in :file:`docs/conf.py`:
-
-.. code-block::
-
-    html_baseurl = 'https://canonical-starter-pack.readthedocs-hosted.com/'
-
-Make sure to include the trailing slash (``/``) to avoid errors in the concatenated
-URLs in the sitemap.
-
-.. note::
-
-    Sitemap configuration is included in the Starter pack's
-    `default configuration file <https://github.com/canonical/sphinx-docs-starter-pack/blob/a489ae041f6cebb7948fdf21b996e8c67d636a83/docs/conf.py#L176>`_.
-
-URL configuration
------------------
-
-Sphinx sitemap uses a configurable URL scheme to set language and version options
-for your documentation. If you have no languages and no versions in your URL, add
-the following to your ``conf.py`` file:
-
-.. code-block::
-
-    sitemap_url_scheme = "{link}"
+Sitemap configuration
+---------------------
 
-To add versioning, this can be done manually, or you can read the version from
-the RTD instance. To implement a manual version:
+The Sphinx starter pack's configuration file (:file:`docs/conf.py`) includes default sitemap configuration.
 
-.. code-block::
+The ``sphinx-sitemap`` extension requires a ``html_baseurl`` variable to be configured.
+This is set as follows:
 
-    sitemap_url_scheme = "<version>/{link}"
+.. code-block:: python
 
-Or, if the version is set with the ``version`` key in your configuration file:
+    html_baseurl = os.environ.get("READTHEDOCS_CANONICAL_URL", "/")
 
-.. code-block::
+When building on Read the Docs, this sets ``html_baseurl`` dynamically to the value of the
+``READTHEDOCS_CANONICAL_URL`` environment variable, which resolves to the full URL of the documentation
+including the version and language (if applicable).
 
-    sitemap_url_scheme = "{version}{link}"
+In local builds and builds on other hosts, ``html_baseurl`` defaults to ``/``.
 
-To read from the provided RTD environment variable::
-    
-    if 'READTHEDOCS_VERSION' in os.environ:
-        version = os.environ["READTHEDOCS_VERSION"]
-        sitemap_url_scheme = '{version}{link}'
-    else:
-        sitemap_url_scheme = 'MANUAL/{link}'
+The ``sitemap_url_scheme`` variable is set to ``'{link}'`` by default. This uses the value of ``html_baseurl`` to generate
+the full URL for each page for the sitemap.
 
 .. note::