Sitemap success

[MagMyPic]

Anyone seen the benefits of adding a sitemap in SEO? I have my own experiences, etc - but curious of others

[JazzyJazzdotnet]

I just submitted my sitemap to google a week ago, and haven't noticed a change yet, but from what I hear the benefits are good :)

[minnseoelite]

for me it depends on how each site is built. some sites with lots of deep pages and other things i do see visible improvements, while others mostly smaller sites it don't make much difference.

SEO aside i always submit a sitemap because i like to use the other tools offered so i can see how well google is crawling my sites and find areas that google maybe having problems with.

[candysplash]

It benefits me greatly.

[letoutpuissant]

for me it depends on how each site is built. some sites with lots of deep pages and other things i do see visible improvements, while others mostly smaller sites it don't make much difference.

SEO aside i always submit a sitemap because i like to use the other tools offered so i can see how well google is crawling my sites and find areas that google maybe having problems with.

i agree completely. even if on some sites it may not have the largest SEO benefit, it can help you change aspects of your site to help improve how google sees it.

[Nora]

I added it but I have no clue how it improve rankings or so..

[minnseoelite]

I added it but I have no clue how it improve rankings or so..

it depends on your site, some sites use images for links or links with alot of variables in the URL. these pages normally would not get crawled or indexed by google so by adding a site map to your site it will let google know these pages exist and may help you increase your rankings.

i have also noticed that sites i own with alot of "deep link" pages (3 or more links away from the home page) tend to get those pages indexed faster. then of course all the other little tools like robots.txt validation, average rankings, top keyword clicks, missing pages, date google last accessed your site, google images, incoming links, "what googlebot sees" can all help you better understand how google is seeing your site and give you ideas on which areas to work on to improve your site.


i would also recommend that people use a site map generator that allows you to save both the xml version to submit to google and the html version to upload to your site and then link to it in your footer to help ensure google/yahoo/msn can find all the links/pages in your xml sitemap.

[Connections]

things get indexed faster with the use of site maps.

but also site maps can screw up and get you de indexed.

[Ajay]

ah man i don't know... I really want to make a sitemap for my site. because it would really help my site. but, i don't want to make a sitemap because it will also hurt my site :(


things get indexed faster with the use of site maps.

but also site maps can screw up and get you de indexed.

[MKInfo]

things get indexed faster with the use of site maps.

but also site maps can screw up and get you de indexed.

That is so true.I used a site that does them for you and after a month my indexed pages went from over 5k to 1k.Turns out that they were only submitting 1k pages for some reason.I have just starting using a new sitemap gen (server side) and after 2 weeks I am back up to 3,770 and rising rapidly every day.
Also the benefits far out weigh the disadvantages.Webmaster tools gives you a great deal of info about how your site is seen and indexed by Google.
Just lately (unless I haven't noticed before) they even tell you if your metadesc is too short on a per page basis!!!!!!!
Just make sure you use a good gen.
Go for it.

[Nora]

What sitemap generators do you recommend?

I've used one that only generates 500 pages but had no clue that wrong sitemaps could deindex you :S

[MKInfo]

What sitemap generators do you recommend?

I've used one that only generates 500 pages but had no clue that wrong sitemaps could deindex you :S

http://www.myspacepros.com/forum/showthread.php?t=15217

Thats the one I use now.Generates my sitemap in about 4 minutes (4k+ pages) and auto updates it.

[blinger]

If Im not mistaken, you'll know if Google detects any problem with any of your pages if you submit a sitemap...so i guess it's pretty useful.