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.
Submitting multiple sitemaps
-
I recently moved over from html to wordpress. I have the google sitemap plugin on the new wordpress site, but in webmaster tools, it's only showing 71 pages, and I have hundreds, but many are html.
Is it okay, to submit an html sitemap as well as the wp sitemap that's already in there?
-
I agree with it. If you want to go with multiple XML site maps so you have to wait after submission.
I have very good experience with multiple XML site maps.
I am working on eCommerce website and submitted 24 XML site maps to Google webmaster tools.
Just look in to multiple XML site maps for Lamps Lighting and More!
You can see that Google webmaster tools shows very few index URLs.
I have similar experience for my another eCommerce website where I have submitted 7K+ URLs and 300+ indexed by Google with in 15 days.
-
Can someone help me here?
I used the sitemap generator, got like 500 plus pages.
I uploaded it to the root of my server, submitted it a second time to google, and got:
Parsing error
We were unable to read your Sitemap. It may contain an entry we are unable to recognize. Please validate your Sitemap before resubmitting.
I don't know how to fix this**.**
-
Well, I created a new sitemap using the above; renamed it; uploaded it to server; submitted it to google, and google did not accept saying error.
-
I'm not saying the sitemap is html, I'm saying the pages are html. And, that already have one xml sitemap that is autogenerated by the new wordpress platform, but I have a ton of html pages the new sitemap is not picking up.
So do I just create another one and add all those pages? So then there will be 2 sitemaps.
Edit: Just ran the sitemap generator. Pretty cool. Now there are some duplicates. So do I need to go in and remove those pages that already show in the first sitemap, or is it okay to have them in both sitemaps?
-
Google does not support html sitemaps and will only crawl them as any other webpage. But you can submit more xml sitemaps both in bing and google. I personally use a program called sitemap generator.
-
oh- and add both of them to your robots.txt file or create a sitemapindex.xml file that then lists both, and then just include that index version in the robots.txt file.
-
you can create one manually, or use a sitemap generator. Just be sure to call it something other than the name of your existing WP generated sitemap.xml file - so it could be sitemaphtml.xml or sitemap2.xml
They need to be in the XML format as outlined by sitemaps.org to be recognized by Google Webmaster Tools - and also submit both to Bing Webmaster Tools.
-
Well, the current sitemap google is recognizing is the wordpress (newer one) that is a .xml.
So how can I create an additional one that will show all the html pages, so google can easily find them?
-
I'm not sure about your HTML sitemap; I don't think HTML sitemaps are a supported format for you to submit to Google (I don't see them on sitemaps.org). You just need Google to crawl this page, and all the pages it links to? There is a plain text format (see here) that is allowed for sitemaps. You could probably change your HTML sitemap pretty easily to that format.
I'm pretty sure you're allowed to submit multiple sitemaps, but I can't find anything concrete saying you can or can't. The Google Webmaster Tools UI seems to support it, so my guess is that it would be fine. Try it and see if it works? You could also create a sitemap index file that references both these sitemaps.
You can read more about sitemaps on sitemaps.org. According to the Google help doc here, they adhere to these standards.
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
-
Multiple H1s and Header Tags in Hero/Banner Images
I work on education websites, and our sites are being flagged by SEO and accessibility checkers for having multiple H1s. The home pages have the site name as an h3 in the hero image, and an aspirational headline (think: Be Like Mike) as an H1. The sub-pages have two H1s: one on the site name in the banner image, and the other on the page title. Note that the site name is very keyword-rich. If we were to remove the H1 and H3 tags from the hero/banner images, would it do any SEO harm? At the same time, we’d rewrite the H1 on the home page to be more keyword-focused. Any other options? I also read that it’s OK to have multiple H1s as long as it’s clear which H1 belongs to the heading area and which one belongs to the body area of the page. Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | UWPCE0 -
Canonicalising a product with multiple variants
I am working with an ecommerce site and have encountered an issue I haven't come across before and would appreciate some advice on how to proceed. There are multiple variation products with one master product and then up to 20 or 30 variant products, the variation could be colour, size or both. The site has been set up to canonicalise all the variations to the master variant product, which I understand to be best practice. But, this is where the issue occurs, the master variant product URL 302 redirects to one of the variant product URLs. Example below. My question is, is this harmful to our SEO efforts? Would be be best to canonicalise to a preferred colour or size variation? EXAMPLE: Master variant product: www.example.co.uk/primary-category/product-123 Seeing this product on the page and clicking will 302 redirect to www.example/co.uk/primiary-category/product-123/colour-456 On page www.example/co.uk/primiary-category/product-123/colour-456 the canonical tag is www.example.co.uk/primary-category/product-123 Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
On-Page Optimization | | SimonKenworthy0 -
Best Tool for Retrieving Multiple URL Word Counts in Bulk?
I am doing some content analysis with over 200 URLs to go through! Does anybody know of, or can recommend any bulk on-page word count checkers which would help with the heavy lifting? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | NickG-1230 -
Should I include unnecessary pages in the sitemap.xml
I have a lot of pages that I don't want Google to index, so for most of them, I used cannonical, were they were duplicates, noindex were I wanted to remove the pages, but the question is: Should I include these pages in the sitemap.xml, or just the important pages? Also should I include them in order to get the changes indexed fastet by Google?
On-Page Optimization | | Silviu0 -
XML Sitemaps for Property Website
Hi all, I was hoping that someone might have a link to a good example of an XML Sitemap for a large property (real estate) website? Thanks in advance to anyone who does! 🙂 Gavin
On-Page Optimization | | IcanAgency0 -
How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect
Hi all I hope that someone can help.... How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect The url in question is: How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/search/Category/luxury_hotels_venues_uk_wedding_venues/exclusive_use_venues/letter/c http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/location/uk-england/bedfordshire-weddings/franklin-park http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/deal/location/uk-england/chorley-weddings/curtis-bay etc, going to http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business the above is just a few examples, google webmaster is showing over 8.000 404 page not found errors. Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Taiger0 -
Image titles and alt tags for multiple images
I'm hoping some of you may be able to help me understand the best way to optimize my image titles and alt tags for a specific situation. I'm working on an interior design website and they have hundreds of pictures. each of their projects has about 10 pictures. Is it best for me to us the key phrase in each title and tag? or is that to repetitive? here is what I mean: A project called "urban interior design" all images are of urban interior design, just different angles and features, so my initial idea is to just have each image title like this: Title: "urban interior design dinning area" Alt: "urban interior design dinning area view" Title: "urban interior design living room" Alt:"urban interior design living room couch view" Is this the best way or will it actually hurt my ranking with too much exact keyword use? Thanks for your help!
On-Page Optimization | | TBSEO0 -
What is the best way to format an xml sitemap?
I am wondering if the urls should be in alphabetical order or if they should be set out in a way that reflects the sites hierarchy? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | Webat0