Getting a Sitemap for a Subdomain into Webmaster Tools
-
We have a subdomain that is a Wordpress blog, and it takes days, sometimes weeks for most posts to be indexed. We are using the Yoast plugin for SEO, which creates the sitemap.xml file.
The problem is that the sitemap.xml file is located at blog.gallerydirect.com/sitemap.xml, and Webmaster Tools will only allow the insertion of the sitemap as a directory under the gallerydirect.com account.
Right now, we have the sitemap listed in the robots.txt file, but I really don't know if Google is finding and parsing the sitemap.
As far as I can tell, I have three options, and I'd like to get thoughts on which of the three options is the best choice (that is, unless there's an option I haven't thought of):
1. Create a separate Webmaster Tools account for the blog
2. Copy the blog's sitemap.xml file from blog.gallerydirect.com/sitemap.xml to the main web server and list it as something like gallerydirect.com/blogsitemap.xml, then notify Webmaster Tools of the new sitemap on the galllerydirect.com account
3. Do an .htaccess redirect on the blog server, such as
RewriteRule ^sitemap.xml http://gallerydirect.com/blogsitemap_index.xml
Then notify Webmaster Tools of the new blog sitemap in the gallerydirect.com account.
Suggestions on what would be the best approach to be sure that Google is finding and indexing the blog ASAP?
-
Thank you Darin
-
Thanks, Wissam. I have done as you suggested and will watch WT closely.
-
Verify blog.gallerydirect.com in your Google Webmaster tools and go ahead submit the sitemaps.
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
-
Subdomain optimization - advices
Hi, I need some specific advices on which is the best way to optimize the subdomain of a main domain. Besides meta title, description, etc. Br.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tormar0 -
Backlink Audit Tool Recommendation?
I need to do a back link audit on an e-commerce site, their number of back links large proportion of them are okay but we seem to have collected a few bad ones (not by us) along the way. Need a recommendation of a good quality reliable tool or set of tools with a proven track record. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoman100 -
Page Count in Webmaster Tools Index Status Versus Page Count in Webmaster Tools Sitemap
Greeting MOZ Community: I run www.nyc-officespace-leader.com, a real estate website in New York City. The page count in Google Webmaster Tools Index status for our site is 850. The page count in our Webmaster Tools Sitemap is 637. Why is there a discrepancy between the two? What does the Google Webmaster Tools Index represent? If we filed a removal request for pages we did not want indexed, will these pages still show in the Google Webmaster Tools page count despite the fact that they no longer display in search results? The number of pages displayed in our Google Webmaster Tools Index remains at about 850 despite the removal request. Before a site upgrade in June the number of URLs in the Google Webmaster Tools Index and Google Webmaster Site Map were almost the same. I am concerned that page bloat has something to do with a recent drop in ranking. Thanks everyone!! Alan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan10 -
If I only Link to Page via Sitemap, can it still get indexed?
Hi there! I am creating a ton of content for specific geographies. Is it possible for these pages to get indexed if I only put them in my sitemap and don't link to them through my actual site (though the pages will be live). Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Travis-W
Travis0 -
Sitemap Folders on Search Results
Hello! We are managing SEO campaign of a video website. We have an issue about sitemap folders. I have sitemaps like ** /xml/sitemap-name.xml .** But Google is indexing my /xml/ folder and also sitemaps and they appear in search results. If i will add Disallow: /xml/ to my robots.txt and remove /xml/ folder from webmaster tools, Google could see my sitemaps? or it ignores them? Will my site effect negatively after remove /xml/ folder completely from search results? What should i do?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | roipublic0 -
Subdirectory vs. Subdomain
I work for a large franchise organization that is weighing the pros and cons of using subdomains versus subdirectories for our franchisee locations. What are the pros and cons of each approach?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Glassdoctordfw0 -
10yr old Domain, Conflicting Message from Webmaster tools/Google search
This is the first time I have encountered this and am quite frankly a little baffled on how to proceed. We have some domains that are 10 years old, and do get some hits / impressions and they have a lot of content. So I redid the site in wordpress etc... Anyway, on Google the sites show up as www. , and on Webmaster tools,- the www. shows no impressions or anything, while the non-www domain shows up in google webmaster tools with data. The question is, if google displays the site as www. and webmaster tools shows data for non www. Which one do I proceed with, finding info on this has been pretty hard to do. Any input is appreciated, Thanks in advance:)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | choiceenergy0 -
Can a XML sitemap index point to other sitemaps indexes?
We have a massive site that is having some issue being fully crawled due to some of our site architecture and linking. Is it possible to have a XML sitemap index point to other sitemap indexes rather than standalone XML sitemaps? Has anyone done this successfully? Based upon the description here: http://sitemaps.org/protocol.php#index it seems like it should be possible. Thanks in advance for your help!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CareerBliss0