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    4. Priority Attribute in XML Sitemaps - Still Valid?

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    Priority Attribute in XML Sitemaps - Still Valid?

    Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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    • Allie_Williams
      Allie_Williams Subscriber last edited by

      Is the priority value (scale of 0-1) used for each URL in an XML sitemap still a valid way of communicating to search engines which content you (the webmaster) believe is more important relative to other content on your site?

      I recall hearing that this was no longer used, but can't find a source.

      If it is no longer used, what are the easiest ways to communicate our preferences to search engines? Specifically, I'm looking to preference the most version version of a product's documentation (version 9) over the previous version (version 8).

      Thanks!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Allie_Williams
        Allie_Williams Subscriber @Mobilio last edited by

        Thanks Peter, I appreciate you tracking that down!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Mobilio
          Mobilio last edited by

          Here is it:
          https://www.seroundtable.com/google-priority-change-frequency-xml-sitemap-20273.html

          Just as John Mueller suggest you should use lastmod attribute to indicate change http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html and then you can do sitemap ping to Google for reindexing. This is easy http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=URLOFSITEMAP.xml and it's allowed https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183669?hl=en

          Allie_Williams 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
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