Xml Sitemap
-
Hi mozzers,
I am about to submit a sitemap for one of my clients via webmaster tools. The issue is that I have way too many urls that I don't want them to be indexed by Google such as testing pages, auto generated pages...
Is there way to remove certain URL from the XML sitemap or is this impossible?
If impossible, is the only way to control these urls is to "No index" all these pages that i don't want the search engine to see?
Thanks Mozzers,
-
That is correct, you just submit as you would normally. There are two ways to submit the file:
-
Via the webmaster tools interface. Have you created your webmaster tools account yet? Optimization -> Sitemaps -> Add Sitemap
-
By referencing it in your robots.txt. Just add the following on a new line: Sitemap: http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
-
-
Hi Greg,
Since I am not an expert into sitemaps yet, once i finish removing URLs I don t want, should I just save the text editor document and then how do I submit this doc into webmaster tool?
Is it just "add sitemap" and put the name of the doc "www.example.com/sitemap.xml"? or is there another manipulation I should be aware of?
Thank you,
-
Great question! You can manually remove all pages from the sitemap, by opening it up in a text editor of your choice, removing offending entries, and saving the file. Make sure you use a simple text editor like notepad on windows or textwrangler on mac.
It is best to do this before your submission, rather then add pages which you know you don't want indexed and then have to ask google to remove them.
-
You should absolutely be able to exercise complete control over what URLs are contained in your site map. It is dependent upon your sitemap software. There are hundreds of software solutions available.
Regardless of the site map, you should definitely no index the pages you do not wish to appear in search results. A robots.txt entry is definitely not the best solution.
-
Like you mentioned, you could either use robots.txt, or submit a URL removal request through webmaster tools. I've used both methods.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Sitemap generator partially finding list of website URLs
Hi everyone, When creating my XML sitemap here it is only able to detect a portion of the website. I am missing at least 20 URLs (blog pages + newly created resource pages). I have checked those missing URLs and all of them are index and they're not blocked by the robots.txt. Any idea why this is happening? I need to make sure all wanted URLs to be generated in an XML sitemap. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | Taysir0 -
Video sitemap
Hello, I'm no Wordpress developer so need a little help please. I have manually created a video sitemap. It needs to be uploaded to the website. Where should the .xml file be uploaded onto Wordpress? Which directory? Is it Ok to add the code to a notepad file and upload? I'm trying to avoid the plugin route if possible. Thanks
Technical SEO | | AL123al0 -
Is it important to include image files in your sitemap?
I run an ecommerce business that has over 4000 product pages which, as you can imagine, branches off into thousands of image files. Is it necessary to include those in my sitemap for faster indexing? Thanks for you help! -Reed
Technical SEO | | IceIcebaby0 -
Removing images from site and Image Sitemap SEO advice
Hello again, I have received an update request where they want me to remove images from this site (as of now its a bunch of thumbnails) current page design: http://1stimpressions.com/portfolio/car-wraps/ and turn it into a new design which utilized a slider (such as this): http://1stimpressions.com/portfolio/ They don't want the thumbnails on the page anymore. My question is since my site has a image sitemap that has been indexed will removing all the images hurt my SEO greatly? What would the recommended steps to take to reduce any SEO damage be, if so? Thank you again for your help, always great and very helpful feedback! 🙂 cheers!
Technical SEO | | allstatetransmission0 -
Google Sitemap - How Long Does it Take Google To Index?
We have changed our sitemap about 1 month ago and Google is yet to index it. We have run a site: search and we still have many pages indexed but we are wondering how long does it take for google to index our sitemap? The last sitemap we put up had thousands of pages indexed within a fortnight, but for some reason this version is taking way longer. We are also confident that there are no errors in this version. Help!
Technical SEO | | JamesDFA0 -
Should I Edit Sitemap Before Submitting to GWMT?
I use the XML sitemap generator at http://www.auditmypc.com/xml-sitemap.asp and use the filter that forces the tool to respect robots.txt exclusions. This generator allows me to review the entire sitemap before downloading it. Depending on the site, I often see all kinds of non-content files still listed on the sitemap. My question is, should I be editing the sitemap to remove every file listed except ones I really want spidered, or just ignore them and let the Google spiderbot figure it all out after I upload-submit the XML?
Technical SEO | | DonB0 -
Why did I drop ranking after setting up perm redirect, sitemap, and Google places??
I have a site that was ranking in the top two for my search terms. We had a funky url (it contained hyphens) and was advised to change it for SEO, so I setup a perm redirect through my web host (before it was a temporary one I think) At the same time I installed a sitemap plugin for Wordpress and also registered for a Google Places account. I can't remember the exact order I did this -- does it matter? Anyway, within a couple days of doing the above, my ranking dropped to the bottom of the second page. I would like to fix this, but I'm not sure. I need help please!
Technical SEO | | fsvatousek0 -
Do we need to manually submit a sitemap every time, or can we host it on our site as /sitemap and Google will see & crawl it?
I realized we don't have a sitemap in place, so we're going to get one built. Once we do, I'll submit it manually to Google via Webmaster tools. However, we have a very dynamic site with content constantly being added. Will I need to keep manually re-submitting the sitemap to Google? Or could we have the continually updating sitemap live on our site at /sitemap and the crawlers will just pick it up from there? I noticed this is what SEOmoz does at http://www.seomoz.org/sitemap.
Technical SEO | | askotzko0