Sitemaps....what to and not to do!

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by Ollyski, Aug 10, 2008.

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  1. #1
    Hey guys,

    I'm revamping a sitemap on one of my sites at the moment.

    As our site is pretty much 100% db driven, I'm writing a script that pulls out every single page on the site.

    It has a pretty content full blog on it.

    My question is, should it be simple e.g.:

    - Home
    - About
    - Contact
    - Services
    - - Sub service 1
    - - Sub service 2
    - Blog

    Or should, under blog, every single blog post be listed?

    So...

    - Blog
    - - Blog category 1
    - - - Blog post a
    - - - Blog post b
    - - Blog category 1
    - - - Blog post d
    - - - Blog post e
    - - - Blog post f

    etc..

    Any advice please? :)
     
    Ollyski, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  2. geester1

    geester1 Well-Known Member

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    #2
    geester1, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  3. Littile John

    Littile John Peon

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    #3
    Hey thats great lam about to sort a site map out thats great, geeter1
     
    Littile John, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  4. bermuda

    bermuda Peon

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    #4
    Hi, I would choose the unique title formats for the pages and posts, this will help them better indexed and faster.
     
    bermuda, Aug 10, 2008 IP
  5. catanich

    catanich Peon

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    #5
    Although the topic of Site Map is discussed many time in this forum, here is some quick sources for success.

    First, create a robots.txt file. This is very important. It blocks what you do not want indexed. But also, it give you the ability to add a site map command within the robots.txt file that will tell every SE where to go and get the XML site map.

    Code:

    # Robots.txt file created by 7/25/08
    # For domain: http://www.catanich.com
    #
    # All other robots will spider the domain
    User-agent: *
    Sitemap: http://www.catanich.com/site-map.xml.gz
    Sitemap: http://www.catanich.com/urllist.txt.gz    ​


    Second, I am currently using to tool from gSiteCrawler to create the XML sitemap. It's free. This tool also has many great output reports and CSV data that will help you.

    Third, at the bottom of every page, place the code:

    <noscript><a href="sitemap.xml">XML Sitemap</a></noscript>​


    This way, when any of your pages get indexed, the XML Sitemap gets submitted again.

    And last, sign up for a Google Webmaster Tools account and use this tool to submit your XML Site map. Both Yahoo and MSN have there versions of this now. Using these three tools will speed up the indexing greatly.

    Do not use any submission service, automated submission tool and such. It isn't needed and I get better results from all three SEs when I do not use the submission tools.

    For my clients new sites, I am just placing a link to their XML site map file and when my home page is indexed by a SE, the it is submitted. Google is now indexing ~400 pages the first time, by doing this.

    The only mistake that I have done, is have these links on my home page as Google did the PR update (dumb-not good). But if you use the "nofollow" attribute, non of the SEs will index it.

    Hope these ideas will help you...

    Note the Example:

    Notice the links on this post, my two Sitemap files will be submitted by this Forum when it is indexed.

    And as for the need for title, description, etc. Having it in an XML Sitemap will give you no advantage. Save your effort for SEOing your pages.

    Hint, you can export the xml data (CSV) and past it into an HTML page. It will give you the URL, Title and Description that is in the page. This will help you greatly when you create the HTML version of a Site Map.
     
    catanich, Aug 10, 2008 IP