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Two Sitemaps, Which Do I Use?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Matt Jo, Jun 3, 2011.

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  1. #1
    Matt Jo, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  2. revium

    revium Member

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    #2
    Typically a sitemap index file just lists other xml sitemaps rather than actual pages. You are limited to 50,000 URLs in a sitemap, so if you have more than that you would create multiple XML sitemaps and list all of them in the sitemap index file so the search engines can find all of them. You would then submit your sitemap index file to Google and they would then find the sitemaps containing actual URLs and crawl them.
     
    revium, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  3. ganeshjacharya

    ganeshjacharya Peon

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    #3
    Please check if those pages are returning proper server response codes (http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/HTRESP.html)

    Google Webmaster tools have automated programs, and it would return what you feed it.
     
    ganeshjacharya, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  4. jsfunstuff

    jsfunstuff Banned

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    #4
    this correct sitemap h**p://wegotthiscovered.com/sitemap.xml
     
    jsfunstuff, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  5. Edwadem

    Edwadem Peon

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    #5
    Use sitemap.xml
     
    Edwadem, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  6. web99

    web99 Peon

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    #6
    I use sitemap.xml to submit. You should wait Google reindex your site.
     
    web99, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  7. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #7
    Matt Jo, Jun 3, 2011 IP
  8. indiarajasthan

    indiarajasthan Peon

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    #8
    search engine need site maps to crawl site page easily . You can add any that content XML site map and use that to your webmaster account
     
    indiarajasthan, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  9. infogle

    infogle Prominent Member

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    #9
    You should submit the first one and wait and let google crawl the links that they are marking as not found...

    hope it helps...
     
    infogle, Jun 4, 2011 IP
    psharma likes this.
  10. revium

    revium Member

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    #10
    I should have been clearer in my earlier response. If you only have one sitemap then yes submit the sitemap.xml. If you have more than a single sitemap (for example sitemap1.xml, sitemap2.xml, etc.) then you would create a sitemap_index.xml file listing all of the different sitemaps and you would submit that.

    It sounds like in your case you only have a single sitemap, so submit the sitemap.xml.
     
    revium, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  11. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #11
    But if you go to sitemap_index.xml you'll see I have 6 sitemaps, not one. But when I submit that one to Google, it tells me page 2 and page 4 can't be found. I'm confused.
     
    Matt Jo, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  12. revium

    revium Member

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    #12
    Can you post the URLs of which 2 sitemap files Google is saying they cannot find?

    Also, if you look in Google Webmaster Central it should say when Google last downloaded your XML sitemap. Has they downloaded it recently?
     
    revium, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  13. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #13
    Matt Jo, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  14. chunkymunky

    chunkymunky Peon

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    #14
    am I naive in thinking it doesn't really matter if you submit a site map at all? I've never sbmitted one and never had any issues with indexing.
     
    chunkymunky, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  15. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #15
    I just submitted it again and now it works. So now I have two sitemaps on Webmaster, sitemap.xml and sitemap_index.xml, which one should I keep? Both? or just choose one? which is better?
     
    Matt Jo, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  16. revium

    revium Member

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    #16
    If you site is not very large and is structured well and if you do not update content often then you may not need one. The search engines may be able to crawl and find all of your content easily which is a good sign.

    The sitemaps help to make sure the search engines know about all of your pages and to let them know about new pages quicker, since new pages should get added to the sitemap when they are created, so they are hopefully crawled sooner then if found during the natural crawl.
     
    revium, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  17. revium

    revium Member

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    #17
    It probably will not hurt you if they are both listed, I have seen large sites with sitemap index and individual sitemap files listed in Webmaster Central with no negative affects.

    I do see that sitemap.xml is not listed in sitemap_index.xml so I would keep both of them, unless all of the URLs listed in sitemap.xml are also included in the different sitemaps listed in the sitemap_index.xml file.

    If there is duplication between the different sitemaps then you may be able to remove one of them. It just depends on whether each sitemap includes unique URLs or not, but until you determine if there is duplication or not, I would just leave both of them.
     
    revium, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  18. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #18
    when I go into webmaster, the status keeps switching between clock and check mark, why is it doing this?
     
    Matt Jo, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  19. revium

    revium Member

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    #19
    Usually the clock means they are still in the process of downloading and verifying it, this is normal activity after resubmitting a sitemap.

    It might take a little while, but the clock should eventually change to a check mark if there are no errors. Just be patient and the clock will be updated.
     
    revium, Jun 4, 2011 IP
  20. Matt Jo

    Matt Jo Member

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    #20
    it keeps switching between the two though, check mark and clock
     
    Matt Jo, Jun 4, 2011 IP
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