New domain's Sitemap.xml file loaded to old domain - how does this effect SEO?
-
I have a client who recently changed their domain when they redesigned their site. The client wanted the old site to remain live for existing customers with links to the new domain. I guess as a workaround, the developer loaded the new domain's sitemap.xml file to the old domain. What SEO ramifications would this have if any on the primary (new) domain?
-
I don't believe any. Like Jesse said, change it and move on (Google is fairly forgiving).
-
That is a great point. I've just never seen something like that before - questionable, very very questionable.
-
Whatever ramifications it had, nothing a sitemap reports is permanent. So just fix it and move on and it will quickly refresh. Be sure and submit it in GWMT just to be extra sure.
-
Chances are the client didn't have the foresight to match URL's, which means the sitemap contains many invalid URL's. I do not know what exact effect this will have, but it can't be good.
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
-
URL Structure On Site - Currently it's domain/product-name NOT domain/category/product name is this bad?
I have a eCommerce site and the site structure is domain/product-name rather than domain/product-category/product-name Do you think this will have a negative impact SEO Wise? I have seen that some of my individual product pages do get better rankings than my categories.
Technical SEO | | the-gate-films0 -
Delete or re-submit sitemaps for new products? How often?
When I add new products (approx. 10 a month), I usually delete the old sitemap and submit a new one. Is this ok to do, or should I just re-submit it with the new info included? Also, is once a month too much?
Technical SEO | | tiffany11030 -
Need advice for new site's structure
Hi everyone, I need to update the structure of my site www.chedonna.it Basicly I've two main problems: 1. I've 61.000 index tag (more with no post)2. The category of my site are noindex I thought to fix my problem making the category index and the tag noindex, but I'm not sure if this is the best solution because I've a great number of tag idexed by Google for a long time. Mybe it is correct just to make the category index and linking it from the post and leave the tag index. Could you please let me know what's your opinion? Regards.
Technical SEO | | salvyy0 -
PR 6 Redirect to a brand new domain name
Hello all, I checked a lot fo blog posts about 301 redirects but wanted to double check with you all. I got an email from a potential client who want to do a re-brand of his business and decided to buy a new domain name.
Technical SEO | | artdivision
His old domain name is PR 6 and his new domain obviously PR 0. I tried to check his old web site but it is too late as he has redirected everything to the new one. What it seems he has done though is redirect everything from his old domain (whether it is a sub category link, a blog link or a specific product) to the new domain index page. So for example if someone linked to his old product page www.xxxxxx.com/product/product_1 or his blog post www.xxxxxx.com/blog/11-21-2013/xxxxxxxxx.com in both cases it will take em to the new domain index page www.xxxxxx.com as he has not created product pages, blogs or anything than just a 4 page web site. I know that ideally he should have created same folders/subfolders, get his blog posts up and set up proper re-directs to the new pages but as I was not in charge of this process nor know if he has kept the old web site yet I wanted to know how bad is this for SEO and if his old PR 6 will pass value to his new domain. Yiannis0 -
Undo a 301 or Starting New Domain?
Hi Guys & Gals, I have a question I'd appreciate your input on. Quick History
Technical SEO | | Nobody1560986989723
When I first started in web design it was just me and a couple of clients. I had a website based on my name on the domain moxby.org.uk. The only 'SEO' work done on it was a bit of on-site work, various links based on forum and blog activity I was involved in (genuine involvement not crappy link building) and of course, building websites with a credit in the footer. When we got serious about the business we considered and finally put in place a new website, new branding and 301'd old URLs to their shiny new location on the new domain: _summitweb.net _(put in place about 12 months ago) Ranks were pretty much maintained and until recently we ranked well locally (still figuring the fallout from the last week or so's changes). The Question I would like to build a personal website, well I'm going to anyway. But as it's a personal/showcase website I need a personal URL for it and my natural choice would be my old url moxby.org.uk. However it is not that simple because summitweb.net is benefitting from redirected links and I don't want to harm our business' rankings just to reclaim a personal URL. So... is there benefit or would it be to my detriment to undo the 301 and build a website on moxby.org.uk or would it, in fact, just make more sense to buy a new domain and have a clean slate?0 -
Should a 301 from a penalised domain to a new domain be removed?
A business traded on a domain let's say example.COM which was heavily penalised due to non-removable spammy back links. Their previous SEO advised them to set up on example.CO.UK but redirected example.COM to example.CO.UK. Example.CO.UK ranks very poorly, presumably due to being 'tarred with the same brush' i.e. attributed with the ills of example.COM. Will it do any good to remove the redirect or is example.CO.UK now doomed as well?
Technical SEO | | Ewan.Kennedy1 -
Using an exsisting domain for a new busines?
I have a domain name that is in use and has a domain age of 4 years. My question is this, will taking that domain name and promoting it under a completely new business in a completely different industry with a totally different business model hurt getting this new business to rank? The domain name is my first and last name. I've been promoting videos that I like under this domain name. I would now like to use the domain name to promote my local SEO services. Will this hurt my efforts to rank with search engines since Google and others have been indexing the site for a certain industry and topic? Thanks
Technical SEO | | fun52dig
Gary0 -
Duplicate XML sitemaps - 404 or leave alone?
We switched over from our standard XML sitemap to a sitemap index. Our old sitemap was called sitemap.xml and the new one is sitemapindex.xml. In Webmaster Tools it still shows the old sitemap.xml as valid. Also when you land on our sitemap.xml it will display the sitemap index, when really the index lives on sitemapindex.xml. The reason you can see the sitemap on both URLs is because this is set from the sitemap plugin. So the question is, should we change the plugin setting to let the old sitemap.xml 404, or should we allow the new sitemap index to be accessed on both URLs?
Technical SEO | | Hakkasan0