How long until changes are reflected in Google

[MartinSpence46]

I updated my site to remove duplicate titles and also include the rel=
"next" etc tags.

When can I expect to see these reflected in Google andSEOMoz?

I also found out I should update my sitemap every month, when will Google pick up the new sitemap?

Sorry if these are basic questions, new to the whole world of SEO.

Thanks

M

[RyanKent]

A sitemap index is used to manage multiple sitemap files. For example, a sitemap file should have a maximum of 50k URLs. If you need to index a site with 240k URLs, it would require at least 5 sitemap files and one sitemap index.

[MartinSpence46]

Thanks Ryan - my question probably wasn't clear.

When I was lookin on Google I found reference to a sitemap and a sitemap index - is it necessary to have both? what is the advantage of also have a sitemap index?

Thanks

M

[RyanKent]

There are a few advantages of having a sitemap:

• if your site has any issues with navigation or crawlability, then a sitemap offers another way for search engines to discover your pages

• you can ping search engines immediately after adding a page to your site to let them know your sitemap has been updated. Search engines may find new content faster.

[MartinSpence46]

Thanks Ryan

What is the point in a Sitemap Index file?

Should I ahve one of them on my site?

Thanks

M

[RyanKent]

Hi Martin,

Both Google and SEOmoz crawl the web based on the importance of web pages. That importance is determined primarily be links. If you were to make a change on the New York Times home page, that change would be crawled by Google in minutes. If you have your own quiet website, it may take a month for Google to notice any change to a page other then your home page.

Try this: perform a search in Google which shows your site as a result. If necessary, search for your home page. Next, hover your mouse to the right-side of your result. A couple grey arrows should appear. If you hover over those arrows, you will notice a cached copy of your web page will appear to the right. Above the page you will see the word "cached". Click it. At the top of the page it will show the date / time the cached page was created. This will offer you some idea of the last time Google crawled that page.

I also found out I should update my sitemap every month, when will Google pick up the new sitemap?

Ideally your sitemap should be updated any time a change is made to your site. If you add a page, modify a page, etc. the sitemap can inform search engines about the change. It is also ideal for you to have sitemap software which pings google any time your sitemap changes. This process can be automated easily. Otherwise, I would recommend keeping the sitemap at your root such as mysite.com/sitemap.xml and using your robots.txt file to indicate the location of your sitemap and checking your WMT panel to ensure Google is seeing it.