Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Do I need an XML sitemap?
-
I have an established website that ranks well in Google. However, I have just noticed that no xml sitemap has been registered in Google webmaster tools, so the likelihood is that it hasn't been registered with the other search engines. However, there is an html sitemap listed on the website.
Seeing as the website is already ranking well, do I still need to generate and submit an XML sitemap? Could there be any detriment to current rankings in doing so?
-
Thanks for all your help guys, much appreciated.
-
XML Sitemap is helping you to provide information to Google! Your website is small and ranking well is so, that's really good.
First of all, XML sitemap will not create any negative effect to your existing ranking. So, you have to go for XML Sitemap.
XML Sitemap can help you to measure total number of pages and existence of indexed pages. If your indexing value will go down so, you can drill down more to improve it.
One another thing, you can provide image information in your XML sitemap and that will help you to improve impression and clicks from Google image search.
And bigger picture is that, you'll never be small ... Your website will be big in future so, why should not start to follow standard practice of SEO to get maximum in future.
I hope, it will work for you!
-
XML Sitemaps are important for search engines. It makes their job easier. Even if you rank in the #1 position today you still want to take care of the maintaining your position. Especially for the simple stuff.
Here is a link for an XML Generator
I hope this helps and Good luck.
-
Look at your risk vs reward. The only "risk" here is the time involved in doing it.... which hopefully will not take you long- Even for a large site. The "reward" is making it easier for search engines to find your pages. ....And that can only be a good thing - right?
-
For the sites that I have added sitemaps to, no matter how small, it seems to only have helped. Either brought out some areas I could improve on or just general site architecture awareness which helped me see a bigger picture.
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
-
New SEO manager needs help! Currently only about 15% of our live sitemap (~4 million url e-commerce site) is actually indexed in Google. What are best practices sitemaps for big sites with a lot of changing content?
In Google Search console 4,218,017 URLs submitted 402,035 URLs indexed what is the best way to troubleshoot? What is best guidance for sitemap indexation of large sites with a lot of changing content? view?usp=sharing
Technical SEO | | Hamish_TM1 -
Link Building - Blogger Outreach - Need Help!
I am looking forward to create a solid link building campaign for my affiliate blog. But, what I want is completely GENUINE and effective link building. Could anyone please suggest what strategies should I opt for. I am planning to get Guest Blogging done? But, is it effective anymore. I have read so much about companies posting on Private networks.
Technical SEO | | scott_eastman
Are there actually companies out there that actually outreach blogs? it would be helpful if somebody could refer based upon personal experience. Much Appreciated!1 -
I Lost Index Status of My Sitemap
We have a simple WordPress website for our law firm, with an English version and a Spanish version. I have created a sitemap (with appropriate language markup in the XML file) and submitted it to Webmaster Tools. Google crawled the site and accepted the sitemap last week, 24/24 pages indexed, 12 English and 12 Spanish. This week, Google decided to remove one of the pages from the index, showing 23/24 pages indexed. So, my questions are as follows: How can I find out which page was dropped from the index? If the pages are the same content, but different language, why did only one version of the page get dropped, while the other version remains? Why did the Big G drop one of my pages from the index? How can I reindex the dropped page? I know this is a fairly basic issue, and I'm embarrassed for asking, but I sure do appreciate the help.
Technical SEO | | RLG0 -
Submitting a new sitemap index file. Only one file is getting read. What is the error?
Hi community, I am working to submit a new a new sitemap index files, where about 5 50,000 sku files will be uploaded. Webmasters is reporting that only 50k skus have been submitted. Google Webmasters is accepting the index, however only the first file is getting read. I have 2 errors and need to know if this is the reason that the multiple files are not getting uploaded. Errors: | 1 | | Warnings | Invalid XML: too many tags | Too many tags describing this tag. Please fix it and resubmi | | 2 | | Warnings | Incorrect namespace | Your Sitemap or Sitemap index file doesn't properly declare the namespace. | 1 | Here is the url I am submitting: http://www.westmarine.com/sitemap/wm-sitemap-index.xml | 1 | | | | |
Technical SEO | | mm9161570 -
Image Sitemap Indexing Issue
Hello Folks, I've been running into some strange issues with our XML Sitemaps. The XML Sitemaps won't open on a browser and it throws the following error instead of opening the XML Sitemap. Sample XML Sitemap - www.veer.com/sitemap/images/Sitemap0.xml.gzError - "XML Parsing Error: no element foundLocation: http://www.veer.com/sitemap/images/Sitemap0.xmlLine Number 1, Column 1:"2) Image files are not getting indexed. For instance, the sitemap - www.veer.com/sitemap/images/Sitemap0.xml.gz has 6,000 URLs and 6,000 Images. However, only 3,481 URLs and 25 images are getting indexed. The sitemap formatting seems good, but I can't figure out why Google's de-indexing the images and only 50-60% of the URLs are getting indexed. Thank you for your help!
Technical SEO | | CorbisVeer0 -
Sitemaps for Google
In Google Webmaster Central, if a URL is reported in your site map as 404 (Not found), I'm assuming Google will automatically clean it up and that the next time we generate a sitemap, it won't include the 404 URL. Is this true? Do we need to comb through our sitemap files and remove the 404 pages Google finds, our will it "automagically" be cleaned up by Google's next crawl of our site?
Technical SEO | | Prospector-Plastics0 -
Ror.xml vs sitemap.xml
Hey Mozzers, So I've been reading somethings lately and some are saying that the top search engines do not use ror.xml sitemap but focus just on the sitemap.xml. Is that true? Do you use ror? if so, for what purpose, products, "special articles", other uses? Can sitemap be sufficient for all of those? Thank you, Vadim
Technical SEO | | vijayvasu0 -
How to Submit XML Site Map with more than 300 Subdomains?
Hi,
Technical SEO | | vaibhav45
I am creating sitemaps for site which has more than 500 Sub domains. Page varies from 20 to 500 in all subdomains & it will keep on adding in coming months. I have seen sites that create separate sitemap.xml for each subdomain which they mention in separate robots.txt file http://windows7.iyogi.com/robots.txt XML site map eg for subdomain: http://windows7.iyogi.com/sitemap.xml.gz , Currently in my website we have only 1 robots.txt file for main domain & sub domains. Please tell me shall i create separate robots.txt & XML site map file for each subdomain or 1 file. Creating separate xml for each sub-domain is not feasible as we have to verify in GWT separately. Is there any automatic way & do i have to ping separately if i add new pages in subdomain. Please advise me.0