Xml Sitemap
-
Hi mozzers,
I am about to submit a sitemap for one of my clients via webmaster tools. The issue is that I have way too many urls that I don't want them to be indexed by Google such as testing pages, auto generated pages...
Is there way to remove certain URL from the XML sitemap or is this impossible?
If impossible, is the only way to control these urls is to "No index" all these pages that i don't want the search engine to see?
Thanks Mozzers,
-
That is correct, you just submit as you would normally. There are two ways to submit the file:
-
Via the webmaster tools interface. Have you created your webmaster tools account yet? Optimization -> Sitemaps -> Add Sitemap
-
By referencing it in your robots.txt. Just add the following on a new line: Sitemap: http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
-
-
Hi Greg,
Since I am not an expert into sitemaps yet, once i finish removing URLs I don t want, should I just save the text editor document and then how do I submit this doc into webmaster tool?
Is it just "add sitemap" and put the name of the doc "www.example.com/sitemap.xml"? or is there another manipulation I should be aware of?
Thank you,
-
Great question! You can manually remove all pages from the sitemap, by opening it up in a text editor of your choice, removing offending entries, and saving the file. Make sure you use a simple text editor like notepad on windows or textwrangler on mac.
It is best to do this before your submission, rather then add pages which you know you don't want indexed and then have to ask google to remove them.
-
You should absolutely be able to exercise complete control over what URLs are contained in your site map. It is dependent upon your sitemap software. There are hundreds of software solutions available.
Regardless of the site map, you should definitely no index the pages you do not wish to appear in search results. A robots.txt entry is definitely not the best solution.
-
Like you mentioned, you could either use robots.txt, or submit a URL removal request through webmaster tools. I've used both methods.
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
-
Which pages should I index or have in my XML sitemap?
Hi there, my website is ConcertHotels.com - a site which helps users find hotels close to concert venues. I have a hotel listing page for every concert venue on my site - about 12,000 of them I think (and the same for nearby restaurants). e.g. https://www.concerthotels.com/venue-hotels/madison-square-garden-hotels/304484 Each of these pages list the nearby hotels to that concert venue. Users clicking on the individual hotel are brought through to a hotel (product) page e.g. https://www.concerthotels.com/hotel/the-new-yorker-a-wyndham-hotel/136818 I made a decision years ago to noindex all of the /hotel/ pages since they don't have a huge amount of unique content and aren't the pages I'd like my users to land on . The primary pages on my site are the /venue-hotels/ listing pages. I have similar pages for nearby restaurants, so there are approximately 12,000 venue-restaurants pages, again, one listing page for each concert venue. However, while all of these pages are potentially money-earners, in reality, the vast majority of subsequent hotel bookings have come from a fraction of the 12,000 venues. I would say 2000 venues are key money earning pages, a further 6000 have generated income of a low level, and 4000 are yet to generate income. I have a few related questions: Although there is potential for any of these pages to generate revenue, should I be brutal and simply delete a venue if it hasn't generated revenue within a time period, and just accept that, while it "could" be useful, it hasn't proven to be and isn't worth the link equity. Or should I noindex these "poorly performing pages"? Should all 12,000 pages be listed in my XML sitemap? Or simply the ones that are generating revenue, or perhaps just the ones that have generated significant revenue in the past and have proved to be most important to my business? Thanks Mike
Technical SEO | | mjk260 -
Advice for rapidly declining ranking-- can an old indexed sitemap cause this?
Hi Everyone, Today, I woke up to a dramatic page rank decline (nearly 20 positions) for a client's website (eacoe.org). When I looked in Webmaster tools, I noticed that the site was just indexed yesterday by Google (a request that the webmaster had submitted back in April of this year). Would this re-indexing event have caused the sharp decline? In Webmaster Tools, I don't see many errors (one 404 error that we are planning on fixing). I likewise see no Manual Actions/ penalties brought up by Google about our site. My first concern is that the re-indexing led to rank decline, but I'm not entirely sure if I should be focusing on something else. And if it is the re-indexing, what are there any recommended steps of attack? Thanks for your help! -Bruce
Technical SEO | | dynedge0 -
Sitemap do they get cleared when its a 404
Hi, Sitemap do they get cleared when its a 404. We have a drupal site and a sitemap that has 60K links and i want to know if in these 4 years we deleted 100's of links and do they have them automatically cleared from Sitemap or we need to build the sitemap again? Thanks
Technical SEO | | mtthompsons0 -
URL or sitemap submit to search engines?
Hello, I have just updated content at some URL site links, and I also added new URL content. Should I submit URL or re-create a sitemap then submit it to search engines? And please advise me some tools for submit them?
Technical SEO | | JohnHuynh0 -
Omitting URLs from XML Sitemap - Bad??
Hi all, We are working on an extremely large retail site with some major duplicate content issues that we are in the process of remedying. The site also does not currently have an XML sitemap. Would it be advisable to create a small XML sitemap with only the main category pages for the time being, and then after our duplicate content issues are resolved, uploading the complete sitemap? Or should we wait to upload anything until all work is complete down to the product page level and canonicals are in place? Will uploading a incomplete sitemap be fraudulent or misleading in the eyes of the search engines and prompt a penalty, or would having at least the main pages mapped while we continue work be okay? Please let me know if more info is needed to answer! Thanks in advance!
Technical SEO | | seo320 -
Wordpress Robots.txt Sitemap submission?
Alright, my question comes directly from this article by SEOmoz http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/r... Yes, I have submitted the sitemap to google, bing's webmaster tools and and I want to add the location of our site's sitemaps and does it mean that I erase everything in the robots.txt right now and replace it with? <code>User-agent: * Disallow: Sitemap: http://www.example.com/none-standard-location/sitemap.xml</code> <code>???</code> because Wordpress comes with some default disallows like wp-admin, trackback, plugins. I have also read this, but was wondering if this is the correct way to add sitemap on Wordpress Robots.txt. [http://www.seomoz.org/q/removing-...](http://www.seomoz.org/q/removing-robots-txt-on-wordpress-site-problem) I am using Multisite with Yoast plugin so I have more than one sitemap.xml to submit Do I erase everything in Robots.txt and replace it with how SEOmoz recommended? hmm that sounds not right. like <code> <code>
Technical SEO | | joony2008
<code>User-agent: *
Disallow: </code> Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml</code> <code>``` Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sub/sitemap_index.xml ```</code> <code>?????????</code> ```</code>0 -
Google WMT shows sitemap.xml highest ranked for one main keyword
Hello, I am seeing my sitemap.xml show up in Google webmaster tools at the top for one of the main keywords for my site. This is in the Your Site on the Web - Keywords section. The URLs of my site contain this keyword, which is why I figure it showed up. I'm curious if this should be a concern to me? I find it odd that the sitemap would show up in this way. Thanks
Technical SEO | | nux0 -
Should I worry about errors MozBot finds but is not on my sitemap?
MozBot crawled a found a couple errors that isn't included on my sitemap plugin, such as duplicate page content on author pages. Should I worry about things not on my sitemap?
Technical SEO | | 10JQKAs0