Is having a sitemap.xml file still beneficial?
-
Hi,
I'm pretty new to SEO and something I've noticed is that a lot of things become relevant and irrelevant like the weather.
I was just wondering if having a sitemap.xml file for Google's use is still a good idea and beneficial?
Logically thinking, my websites would get crawled faster by having one.
Cheers.
-
It's worth looking at the Webinar video on Sitemaps for this one. It's just a month old so it's completely up to date.
http://www.seomoz.org/webinars/getting-value-from-xml-sitemaps
Sitemaps aren't just a case listing every page on your site anymore, they require a bit of thought and attention.
-
Absolutely relevant, infact i'd say essential.
A great article posted on the site already here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/xml-sitemaps-guidelines-on-their-use
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
-
Sitemap Size effect SEO
So I've noticed that the sitemap I use has a capacity of 4500 URLs, but my website is much larger. Is it worth paying for a commercial sitemap that encompasses my entire site? I also notice that of the 4500 URLs which have been submitted, only 104 are indexed. Is this normal, if not, why is the index rate so low?
Technical SEO | | moon-boots0 -
How to manually create sitemap with 301 redirrctions?
Hi there I've just redirected a few of my pages (created in Dreamweaver) using the PHP Redirect function, I am wondering how do I create a manual sitemap to submit to Google to reflect this or will Google pick it up automatically based on the below? Example:
Technical SEO | | IsaCleanse
URL Being redirected: http://industrytix.com.au/cuban-club-perth-tickets.php **New URL: **[http://industrytix.com.au/buy-tickets/cuban-club-perth-nyd/ Redirect code:](http://industrytix.com.au/buy-tickets/cuban-club-perth-nyd/) Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://industrytix.com.au/buy-tickets/cuban-club-perth-nyd/" );
?>0 -
Mobile sitemap needed for responsive website?
I've seen some older 2012 posts that discuss, but nothing recent given the new changes to emphasize mobile. For website that are already tested and verified as mobile responsive, is best practice to develop a mobile-specific sitemap and submit that as well? Or will any mobile crawlers spider the regular sitemap?
Technical SEO | | Addion0 -
Why are pages still showing in SERPs, despite being NOINDEXed for months?
We have thousands of pages we're trying to have de-indexed in Google for months now. They've all got . But they simply will not go away in the SERPs. Here is just one example.... http://bitly.com/VutCFiIf you search this URL in Google, you will see that it is indexed, yet it's had for many months. This is just one example for thousands of pages, that will not get de-indexed. Am I missing something here? Does it have to do with using content="none" instead of content="noindex, follow"? Any help is very much appreciated.
Technical SEO | | MadeLoud0 -
Siemap.xml appearing in SERP
My sitemap.xml was appearing in the google serp for certain keywords (& not my actual page onsite). Please see image. I recently blocked my sitemap.xml with a robots.txt exclusion but now the sitemap.xml is not getting crawled in google webmaster. Is this the correct method of excluding the sitemap.xml for the serp? User-agent: * Disallow: /assets/cache/ Disallow: /assets/docs/ Disallow: /assets/export/ Disallow: /assets/import/ Disallow: /assets/modules/ Disallow: /assets/plugins/ Disallow: /assets/snippets/ Disallow: /manager/ Disallow: /sitemap.xml Sitemap: http://bryansryan.ie/sitemap.xml Any suggestions what should be done here? thanks. nQo2g.png
Technical SEO | | Socialdude0 -
No Sub-Categories in XML Sitemap
I have a couple of sites using 3dcart, the ecommerce platform. Their tech support recently told me that they do not list sub-categories in the XML sitemap, only products and top-tier categories. Am I the only one that sees a problem with this? Thanks
Technical SEO | | poolguy0 -
More than 1 XML Sitemap
I recently took over administration of my site and I have 2 XML sitemaps for my main site and 1 XML sitemap for my blog (which is a sub-page of the main site). Don't I only need 1 sitemap for my site and one for my blog? I don't know which one to delete - they both has the same page authority. Also, only 1 of them is accessible by browser search. http://www.rmtracking.com/rmtracking-sitemap.xml - accessible in browser http://www.rmtracking.com/sitemap.xml - regularly updated in Google Webmaster Tools but not accessible in search browser. I don't have any error messages in Webmaster tools.
Technical SEO | | BradBorst0 -
Adjust the priority field under the XML sitemap option
For those familiar with this in Drupal - is this worth doing? It seems to be a setting that affects the priority of a URL compared to others on the site. It's set to a default of 0.5 but you can increase up to 1.0 I think. Anyone know about this? thanks
Technical SEO | | inhouseninja0