What is the point of XML site maps?
-
Given how Google uses Page Rank to pass link juice from one page to the next if Google can only find a page in an XML site map it will have no link juice and appear very low in search results if at all.
The priority in XML sitemaps field also seems pretty much irrelevant to me. Google determines the priority of a page based on the number of inbound links to it. If your site is designed properly the most important pages will have the most links.
The changefreq field could maybe be useful if you have existing pages that are updated regularly. Though it seems to me Google tends to crawl sites often enough that it isn't useful. Plus for most of the web the significant content of an existing page doesn't change regularly, instead new pages are added with new content.
This leaves the lastmod field as being potentially useful. If Google starts each crawl of your site by grabbing the sitemap and then crawls the pages whose lastmod date is newer than its last crawl of the site their crawling could be much more efficient. The site map would not need to contain every single page of the site, just the ones that have changed recently.
From what I've seen most site map generation tools don't do a great job with the fields other than loc. If Google can't trust the priority, changefreq, or lastmod fields they won't put any weight on them.
It seems to me the best way to rank well in Google is by making a good, content-rich site that is easily navigable by real people (and that's just the way Google wants it).
So, what's the point of XML site maps? Does the benefit (if any) outweigh the cost of developing and maintaining them?
-
Thanks Axial,
I'm not convinced it matters much if Google crawls deep pages they wouldn't find through organic links. If the pages aren't linked to they won't have any link juice and therefore won't rank well in SERPs.
The link about using site maps for canonical URLs says or implies you should only put your most important URLs in the sitemap. The sitemap tools I've seen tend to take a kitchen sink approach, which is needed if you are using it to try to get a deeper crawl. Plus there's no way (I see) in a sitemap to specify that page A is the canonical of page B. They simply suggest telling Google about page A (and not page B) in the hopes page A will get more weight than page B. A canonical meta tag on page B pointing to page A is obviously a much better way to deal with canonicals.
Image and video site maps are potentially valuable. I am asking specifically about site maps for pages.
Specifying related content for a given URL, such as different languages, is indeed useful and not something I was aware of. But it is not applicable on most sites and not used on most site maps.
-
Your sitemap.xml will help googlebot crawl deep pages, but it serves other purposes such as:
-
helping Google identify canonical pages: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139066#3
-
creating sitemaps for video, images, etc.: "you can also use Sitemaps to provide Google with metadata about specific types of content on your site, including video, images, mobile, and News. For example, a video Sitemap entry can specify the running time, category, and family-friendly status of a video; an image Sitemap entry can provide information about an image’s subject matter, type, and license." http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&hlrm=fr&answer=156184
-
you can specify alternate content, such as the URL of a translated page: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2620865
-
and more.
Sometimes working with a sitemap is less risky and maintenance is easier, especially when your CMS is limitative. The 3rd point is a good example. You may also appreciate the centralized approach more from a personnal point of view.
There are good resources on the Google webmaster resources, check them out.
Hope this helps!
-
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
-
Will Google penalize 2 sites for targeting "like" keyword phrases?
I own (2) different websites, one an HTML site that has been live for 20 years and a ecommerce site that has been live for 7 years. We sell custom printed (branded) tents for use at trade shows and other indoor and outdoor events. While our ecomm site targets "trade show" tents our HTML site targets "event" tents. I believe that the keyword phrases are dissimilar enough that targeting "trade show tents" on one site and "event tents" on the other should not cause Google to penalize one or the other or both sites for having similar content. The content is different on both sites. I'm wondering if anyone has experience with, or opinions on, my thoughts... either way. Thanks,
Algorithm Updates | | terry_tradeshowstuff
Terry Hepola0 -
How do I code SEO for a secondary site without impacting the main site?
We have a secondary site for our online magazine, how do I code the SEO so I don't steal links from the main site?
Algorithm Updates | | gacwebteam0 -
Google indexing site content that I did not wish to be indexed
Hi is it pretty standard for Google to index content that you have not specifically asked them to index i.e. provided them notification of a page's existence. I have just been alerted by 'Mention' about some new content that they have discovered, the page is on our site yes and may be I should have set it to NO INDEX but the page only went up a couple of days ago and I was making it live so that someone could look at it and see how the page was going to look in its final iteration. Normally we go through the usual process of notifying Google via GWMT, adding it to our site map.xml file, publishing it via our G+ stream and so on. Reviewing our Analytics it looks like there has been no traffic to this page yet and I know for a fact there are no links to this page. I am surprised at the speed of the indexation, is it a example of brand mention? Where an actual link is now no longer required? Cheers David
Algorithm Updates | | David-E-Carey0 -
Your search - site:domain.com - did not match any documents.
I've recently started work on a new clients website and done some preliminary work with on-page optimisation, and there is still plenty of work to be done and issues to resolve. They are ranking ok on Bing, but they are not getting any ranking on Google at all (except paid) - I tried the site:domain.com search and comes up with no results... so this confirms that something is going on with the google search rank! Can anyone shed light on what can cause this or why this would happen? My next step is to look at their webmaster tools (haven't had access yet), but if anyone has any tips to resolve this or where to look, that would be great! Thanks!
Algorithm Updates | | ElevateCreativeAU0 -
Images not getting indexed in google image search :( " site: hdwallpaperzones.com " )
hi as i have mentioned in title.. my website images are not getting indexed in google image search engine.. out of 360 images only 5 got indexed from 3 days.. please help me out.. thanks
Algorithm Updates | | toxicpls0 -
How to optimise a news site? - tomorrows chip paper terms
Are there any specific tips to how to gain traffic from very short lived search terms? If the site you are SEO/SEMing want to go for search related to things like the latest celebrity breakup, or a fashion event that lasts less than a week The onsite stuff seems pretty good as SEO onsite tools generally give it an A grade Is it just a case of doing the same stuff as normal, but faster? 😉
Algorithm Updates | | Fammy0 -
Subdomains or Subfolders for a multilingual site?
What kind of structure would you propose for a site with multiple languages, subdomains or subfolders?
Algorithm Updates | | dublinbet0 -
What determines rankings in a site: search?
When I perform a "site:" search on my domains (without specifying a keyword) the top ranked results seem to be a mixture of sensible top-level index pages plus some very random articles. Is there any significance to what Google ranks highly in a site: search? There is some really unrepresentative content returned on page 1, including articles that get virtually no traffic. Is this seriously what Google considers our best or most typical content?
Algorithm Updates | | Dennis-529610