What is the best practice for replacing an old xml sitemap?
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I have an existing xml sitemap that my website developer loaded, however I don't think its set up properly.
What is the best practice for replacing an old xml sitemap?
Is there anything I should be concerned about?
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Depending on the size of your site, I would probably break your sitemap up into categories for better monitoring.
- Sitemap.xml (sitemap index of all your sitemaps)
- sitemap-blog.xml
- sitemap-categories.xml
- sitemap-main.xml
- sitemap-videos.xml (if you have any videos you should create a video sitemap, different then a standard sitemap)
When you have them all complete and tested, then submit them to both Google and Bing via Webmaster Tools.
Sitemap Protocol Information: http://www.sitemaps.org
Google's XML Sitemap information: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=156184
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You could use a XML sitemap builder like http://www.xml-sitemaps.com, I just tested it and seems to work alright.
Make sure you are truthful about how often you update your website with content. This could be daily, weekly monthly and so on. Second, I would let the sitemap builder determine importance of your pages, it should make your home page the most important.
WARNING: Using the above service will let you work with only 500 pages, if you have more than 500 pages on your website do not use the sitemap it generates.
You can find other services by searching "sitemap generator"
The best way would be to use http://code.google.com/p/googlesitemapgenerator/ but configuration and setup is required.
Good Luck! Hope this helps.
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