Sitemap Submission & Indexing Is Down

[BloggingPro]

So I submitted my sitemap to Google Webmaster tools since that is a requirement before you apply to the Google News program and my posts no longer index (site:url) within minutes from posting.

Before I did this my posts were indexing at an amazing rate. I would literally write the article and within five minutes the url would be indexed. I verified this via the site:url search operator.

Now, since submitting I have articles that are days old and have yet to be indexed. Did I screw something up here by doing this or does the "index rate in minutes" not really matter?

[raviv]

Originally Posted by BloggingPro

So I submitted my sitemap to Google Webmaster tools since that is a requirement before you apply to the Google News program and my posts no longer index (site:url) within minutes from posting.

Before I did this my posts were indexing at an amazing rate. I would literally write the article and within five minutes the url would be indexed. I verified this via the site:url search operator.

Now, since submitting I have articles that are days old and have yet to be indexed. Did I screw something up here by doing this or does the "index rate in minutes" not really matter?

I cannot see a relationship between submitting a sitemap and your site's indexing rate.

There is a QDF component in Google algorithm which expanded is Query Deserves Freshness. If new content is published regularly on a blog, over time, the Google bots recognize this especially if there is a pattern in posting the content (specific days of the week for example). The posts get indexed very quickly and even rank for a while (maybe few hours) and then gradually vanish on the SERPs.

There is nothing you have to panic about. Please keep in mind that there are billions of sites with billions of pages published every passing day. One cannot expect Google to keep track of all sites and index it instantly unless it sees links to your posts on cyberspace.

Best
Raviv