How long until changes are reflected in Google
-
I updated my site to remove duplicate titles and also include the rel=
"next" etc tags.When can I expect to see these reflected in Google andSEOMoz?
I also found out I should update my sitemap every month, when will Google pick up the new sitemap?
Sorry if these are basic questions, new to the whole world of SEO.
Thanks
M
-
A sitemap index is used to manage multiple sitemap files. For example, a sitemap file should have a maximum of 50k URLs. If you need to index a site with 240k URLs, it would require at least 5 sitemap files and one sitemap index.
-
Thanks Ryan - my question probably wasn't clear.
When I was lookin on Google I found reference to a sitemap and a sitemap index - is it necessary to have both? what is the advantage of also have a sitemap index?
Thanks
M
-
There are a few advantages of having a sitemap:
-
if your site has any issues with navigation or crawlability, then a sitemap offers another way for search engines to discover your pages
-
you can ping search engines immediately after adding a page to your site to let them know your sitemap has been updated. Search engines may find new content faster.
-
-
Thanks Ryan
What is the point in a Sitemap Index file?
Should I ahve one of them on my site?
Thanks
M
-
Hi Martin,
Both Google and SEOmoz crawl the web based on the importance of web pages. That importance is determined primarily be links. If you were to make a change on the New York Times home page, that change would be crawled by Google in minutes. If you have your own quiet website, it may take a month for Google to notice any change to a page other then your home page.
Try this: perform a search in Google which shows your site as a result. If necessary, search for your home page. Next, hover your mouse to the right-side of your result. A couple grey arrows should appear. If you hover over those arrows, you will notice a cached copy of your web page will appear to the right. Above the page you will see the word "cached". Click it. At the top of the page it will show the date / time the cached page was created. This will offer you some idea of the last time Google crawled that page.
I also found out I should update my sitemap every month, when will Google pick up the new sitemap?
Ideally your sitemap should be updated any time a change is made to your site. If you add a page, modify a page, etc. the sitemap can inform search engines about the change. It is also ideal for you to have sitemap software which pings google any time your sitemap changes. This process can be automated easily. Otherwise, I would recommend keeping the sitemap at your root such as mysite.com/sitemap.xml and using your robots.txt file to indicate the location of your sitemap and checking your WMT panel to ensure Google is seeing it.
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
-
GWT Change of Address not working
I work at a .jsp site where we have vanity urls that 301 to the www,domainname.com/index.jsp?c_id. Now when I do a change of address in GWT it tells me that it can't fulfill the change of address cause the redirect goes to www.domainname.com/index.jsp instead of www.domainname.com. I could create a GWT account for www.domainname.com/index.jsp/ but that is a 404 (it needs the c_id). How would I do my change of address?
Reporting & Analytics | | mattdinbrooklyn0 -
Google Analytics: Okay to change domain?
So, we are a long time user of GA and we're planning a domain change.
Reporting & Analytics | | jmueller0823
Does anyone know if I can 'change the domain' in GA so we don't lose our past data?
Thanks!0 -
Google Analytics
Is there any way around being able to set up 20 goals in Analytics? What if one of my clients want to set up 10 pages with separate actions to track on each page. Will then each actions count as a separate goal? If this is the case, how could I work around creating more than 20 goals? Would I have to look into hiring/buying a third party or separate software? Your help is greatly appreciated.
Reporting & Analytics | | flcity150 -
Major practices which helps to index pages by google.
Actually, We have submitted more than 100 pages in to google through xml sitemap. But, we see in that 75% of the pages where indexed by google. Note : Excluding the duplicate pages
Reporting & Analytics | | Webworld_Norway0 -
Google Analytics Not Working
I added the code before tag but still google not showing it is installed. Status: Tracking Not Installed Last checked: Mar 15, 2013 10:38:10 PM PDT Can someone check my domain - www.plugnbuy.com
Reporting & Analytics | | chandubaba0 -
Google Analytics Myth?
Dear Moz-members, I have read several discussions regarding not to implement Google analytics on your website. Reason: Google is tracking your website behavior, for example you have a high bounce rate it will affect your rankings negative. See it as we are opening the doors too much to Google so it can have a negative impact on your online business, especially when your site is new and you are still building your credit. Because of this i have not chosen to install GA. What is your experience with this? Most of the time if i read analytics posts at Seomoz, people do have GA installed. I am also in doubt whether to switch over at GA, but then again mine site is relative new and i am still working on the negative bounce rate/daily visitors. Would like to hear from you pro's whether this is a myth or not 🙂 Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | mcweb0 -
Google Analytics - New account creation broken
Is it just me or is the new Google Account Creation button not working. After i set it up, it just simply doesn't save.
Reporting & Analytics | | TheGrid0 -
A lot of traffic to one page from Google referral
We recently received a lot of traffic to one page from
Reporting & Analytics | | underthesun808
google.com referral. When I look in analytics it reports that the traffic is
coming from /url that’s not real helpful. Is there a way to get more specific
information as to what the referring url was?0