Importance of submitting a site map?

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16
What is the importance of submitting a site map. what if we dont submit it?
#search engine optimization #importance #map #site #submitting
  • If every part of your site is readily gotten to via the
    main page, you don't need a sitemap. Google does not
    need help finding anything. It would help to put a
    sitemap if you have pages that are obscure and can't be
    gotten via clicking from the main page. A sitemap does
    not force google to do anything.

    Bottom line, if you have obscure pages, you need to ask
    yourself, why?

    Paul
    • [1] reply
    • Spot on, indeed.

      Though I will add that submitting a sitemap via Google webmaster tools (and indeed for the other search engines) is another way to quickly get indexed in some cases.

      Some people swear by getting indexed through submitting to social bookmarking sites, some just start building normal backlinks and "let it happen when it happens", but I tend to get my sites indexed quickly by first submitting my sitemap. Has not failed me yet.

      Although once indexed, as Paul says, there is little necessity of submitting (or having) a sitemap if all your pages can easily be found by the search engines bot, which usually means having all pages linked to from the main page, or not more than a page or twos "depth" away from any given page on your site.
  • Most of my sites do not have sitemaps and they do just fine. The only ones that have sitemaps are the larger dynamic ones - they need it..
  • Still...there is no harm in having a site map, even if it helps a little.
  • Sitemaps are REALLY overrated and not needed for most web sites. They are really good for three situations:

    1) for new sites that have no back links but want to get indexed
    2) for HUGE sites with hundreds of thousands or millions of URLs
    3) sites that have crawlability issues like sites that use JavaScript for all of their navigation

    But using them doesn't guarantee any of the URLs contained within the sitemap will be indexed. And it certainly doesn't mean that ALL of the URLs will get indexed. It's primarily useful for prioritizing which URLs get indexed first using the PRIORITY. You can tell the engines, "Index these pages first... if you still have room in your index for more of my pages, index these pages next... if you still have room in your index for more of my pages, index these pages next... etc." And for new sites that do get indexed because they submitted a sitemap, they often get deindexed a week or two later if they have not gotten any external back links in the meantime.

    Honestly, the best way to get a site indexed IMO is the old fashion way... by building links to your site and waiting on the search engines to discover it naturally. Sitemaps are very useful for HUGE sites.

    You only need to submit sitemaps if it's a new site because the search engines don't know you exist. But once your site is indexed, there is really no need to submit changes. Simply keep the updated sitemap.xml on your web server and point to it in your robots.txt. Search engines read your robots.txt each time they crawl your site before doing anything else. If they see the Sitemap: directive in there, they will read you sitemap each time they crawl rather than you having to submit.
    • [1] reply
    • I have always seen positive results from sitemap submission. It may not be incredibly significant to rankings, but it's certainly a small thing that helps and small things add up. Plus it only takes a few minutes to do.

      It's been worth the time for me to do it, especially for sites just starting out. It won't make or break your rankings or indexing but it doesn't hurt you either.
  • It can't hurt, so go ahead and do it. Just like anything else, not some sort of huge secret or magic bullet, though.
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    • [1] reply
    • I agree with Morgan....why not just take a few minutes and set one up....I like to cover as many bases as possible in my SEO efforts....especially if it only takes a few clicks.
  • Hello Suzy!

    Submitting site map will helps google to know about your sites url and all other

    pages that you have on your site that may skipped by normal crawling process. This

    will help you to get better rankings in Google.

    Jamian.
  • Yes, This thing is also depends upon you that if you want to add site map on your site, it will helps you not hurt you.
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    • [1] reply
    • Could you then please expalin why the dozen sites that I do not have sitemaps on all rank well, have google bot all over them all teh time and Google indexes all the pages on it ???? They are not that important. They are really only useful on the larger dynamic sites.
  • Besides indexing, sitemap will help to prioritize your pages. You can also set changing frequency for different pages using sitemap.
  • For most sites, and especially small niche marketing sites, they're about as effective as South Pacific cargo cult natives building an airstrip and expecting a real cargo plane to land on it. But at least you're doing something to appease the gods of the Internet so it must be helping, right?
  • I agree they're not that important, used to always submit them (because everyone said you must) - but makes absolutely no difference in my experience - sites get listed, pages indexed just as quickly without a sitemap. Maybe if you have a complicated site ?
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