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Sitemaps?

by edco
19 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
OK, I know you guys can answer this one.

My website (cockapoocrazy dot com) uses Blogger / Blogspot hosting. I just noticed in my Google Webmaster tools that my sitemap was only indexing 26 pages of around 150, which is apparently the norm for Blogspot blogs, to my surprise. That means it was ignoring over 100 of my posts for over a year now!

I submitted a proper XML sitemap, with all pages, to Google. It worked. Still, I know very little about sitemaps, and I had a few questions.

1) Is the sitemap very important and why?
2) Does the sitemap affect search engine results, ranking, or any other SEO factors?
3) Am I likely to notice any difference in traffic, search results, or any other area?
4) Will Google automatically use the sitemap I generated and submitted to crawl permanently, or will I need to upload a new one every post?

Sorry if these questions sound dumb, but my searches on this subject turned up many answers that were contradictory, unclear, etc.
#help a dummy #sitemaps #website help #xml
  • Profile picture of the author HorseStall
    Sitemaps are like roadmaps for search engines. Telling the engines where pages are on your site, they are particularly important if you use javascript or flash for navigation because many search engines have a harder time following those links. You should submit your sitemap to webmaster tools and update it as your site changes.

    HTH
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    • Profile picture of the author edco
      Originally Posted by HorseStall View Post

      Sitemaps are like roadmaps for search engines. Telling the engines where pages are on your site, they are particularly important if you use javascript or flash for navigation because many search engines have a harder time following those links. You should submit your sitemap to webmaster tools and update it as your site changes.

      HTH
      I do use Javascript, and I honestly had no idea. I had never manually updated my sitemap until today. Man, it makes me wonder what other stuff I'm missing...
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  • Profile picture of the author Microsys
    It is best to think of sitemaps as something that can help speed-up indexing of more of your content.
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    • Profile picture of the author edco
      Originally Posted by Sitemapper View Post

      It is best to think of sitemaps as something that can help speed-up indexing of more of your content.
      OK, makes sense. So would that content not have shown up in searches without the sitemap? In other words, were over 100 of my pages being ignored because the sitemap did not include them? Or do the search engines eventually get around to them, just not as efficiently or quickly?
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      • Profile picture of the author Barryemuncy
        A website map (or sitemap) is a record of webpages of a website available to spiders or customers. It can be either a papers in any type used as a preparing device for Web style, or a Website that details the webpages on a Web website, generally structured in ordered style.
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      • Profile picture of the author Microsys
        Originally Posted by edco View Post

        OK, makes sense. So would that content not have shown up in searches without the sitemap? In other words, were over 100 of my pages being ignored because the sitemap did not include them? Or do the search engines eventually get around to them, just not as efficiently or quickly?
        Well...

        When people ask me I limit myself to stating things like:

        * Sitemaps can help get more pages indexed
        * Sitemaps can help speed-up getting pages indexed
        * Sitemaps can help Google prioritize which pages to crawl first
        (i.e. instead of spending allocated time crawling random possible duplicate URLs, it may decide to pick URLs in your sitemap first)

        But the specifics can vary from site to site, and only Google truly knows how they use sitemaps to assist their crawlers.


        If you use Javascript and Flash navigation, you could try enable support (although it is not perfect) for that in A1 Sitemap Generator (those settings are not on by default)

        ... but Google can also to some degree search for links in Javascript and flash. (But again, that may very well also depend on a lot of factors like site importance etc. how much crawler time your site gets allocated.)
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        • Profile picture of the author edco
          Originally Posted by Sitemapper View Post

          Well...

          When people ask me I limit myself to stating things like:

          * Sitemaps can help get more pages indexed
          * Sitemaps can help speed-up getting pages indexed
          * Sitemaps can help Google prioritize which pages to crawl first
          (i.e. instead of spending allocated time crawling random possible duplicate URLs, it may decide to pick URLs in your sitemap first)

          But the specifics can vary from site to site, and only Google truly knows how they use sitemaps to assist their crawlers.


          If you use Javascript and Flash navigation, you could try enable support (although it is not perfect) for that in A1 Sitemap Generator (those settings are not on by default)

          ... but Google can also to some degree search for links in Javascript and flash. (But again, that may very well also depend on a lot of factors like site importance etc. how much crawler time your site gets allocated.)
          Thanks, to all who replied.

          Sitemapper, thanks for the info. Just knowing that it might help me get more pages indexed is huge, since that means possibly 125 more indexed pages on my site than at the current time! I will look into enabling support, as I do use Javascript on my site.
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  • Profile picture of the author andyvezteri
    Sitemap simple just a file which contain all page of one website and it help search engines index your site quickly and fully. Dont be stupid to say too much about it!
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  • Profile picture of the author medigap4seniors
    Google site map is the very important for all website. Its helps to index your all pages quickly and site visitors can see the all pages of your sites directly.
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  • Profile picture of the author edco
    Well, I submitted it yesterday, but Google has yet to index the pages. Hopefully they will soon, and we'll see how it affects things!
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  • Profile picture of the author ericfox
    According to me XML site map is very important for your online business, sitemap will let people know what your web pages are about. Creating sitemaps is a simple and effective way to give the search engines a list of all the links that you want them to index.
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    • Profile picture of the author edco
      Originally Posted by ericfox View Post

      According to me XML site map is very important for your online business, sitemap will let people know what your web pages are about. Creating sitemaps is a simple and effective way to give the search engines a list of all the links that you want them to index.
      Thanks. I submitted my new sitemap 3 days ago now, yet it is still pending. I was going to submit a new one frequently (once per week), but if it is going to take several days for each to be accepted, maybe I should only submit once in a while (every few weeks.) Any thoughts on frequency of submission?
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    I only submit about once in 6 months. However I don't add content at the rate that most blogs do.

    I also don't have a problem getting indexed. When I go to webmaster tools to submit the sitemap, there's usually only a page that isn't indexed yet.
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  • Profile picture of the author ours
    Sitemap is like Index page of any book. If you consider your website a book then your sitemap is index page. If you consider Google crawler a reader of your book, then if Google find the index page then it can easily understand about the book. So, that the reason it is useful.

    No need to keep updating your sitemap. I am not sure how your sitemap is built. There are 2 sitemaps. Google Crawler love RSS sitemap. And RSS sitemap can be automated. So you dont need to update daily. Hope this make sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobts004
    You should create a specific sitemaps and declare it to google index.
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  • Profile picture of the author wellm97
    Sitemap helps your web pages to index fast in SE.
    Yes ,m you will surely see the difference in traffic after uploading sitemap.
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  • Profile picture of the author edco
    Well, it has been indexed now. Hopefully the traffic improvement will come quickly. I'll post back, to inform you all what difference (if any) I see. Least I can do! Thanks everyone.
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  • Profile picture of the author Fun2Video
    Google can crawl page without sitemap but sitemap help them to drive straight to your high priority and low priority pages and tell search engine that your website have these pages to index.
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    • Profile picture of the author harrison9
      you can see all your website page link in one page, and sitemap also help to search engine to index website easily.

      Thanks
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