Why the hell you want a sitemap.xml

I don't know why people want a sitemap.xml it's completely useless to be indexed without backlinks and not ranked. And it can hurt you.

I think it's a poor and not well wise idea to submit a site to google or build a sitemap.xml, the only purpose of these action is to be indexed in google. I don't know for you but i don't want to be indexed in google i want to rank.

Google don't talk a lot and when it do it it's a precious piece of information you don't want to waste. If google don't index or rank you it tell you this particular page/section of the website has major SEO flaw and you need to take care of it.

The bad thing with a submit or a sitemap.xml is that you may get indexed without any backlinks and you will may never know that there is flaw in your site links/seo architecture.

Don't screw up the information google give to you. You never ever need a sitemap.xml or submiting your website to google.

With no sitemap.xml or submit, the information google give you is more accurate and you can see better where the weakness and strengh is........and make a better seo/build of your internal/external link.

From my point of view there only disavantage in putting a sitemap.xml on a website (including the time you spend on it).

Analyst of the link structure and google results and building a wise link building take lot more time that any of these little seo tricks, but it's effective and don't hurt you in any way.

I can't think of any single good reason (unless your are begginer seo firm who want to steal more money from clients and have bad ethics) for search engine to read sitemap.xml and for webmaster to make them. Anyone have one ?

 

Seems you're much confused about the purpose of sitemap and its submission to search engines.

 

Seems you also have lot to learn about Google. Let me give you a hint. If Google say tthat having a sitemap is a good idea and helps them then......why don't you pay atention, after all it is their index you are trying to get into?

 

So i am confused and you are not. Fine. And you can't tell me 1 single good reason for a sitemap.xml

Getting indexed isn't a good reason. I already told why.

 

Getting indexed IS a good reason. Let's say i've got a website that has more than 100k pages and your going for the long tail... Using a sitemap, the crawling will be accelerated. And if you have good internal linking and strong backlinks for the homepage you will reach SERPS pretty quick.

 

For your information i know a lot about search engine. I've got some sucess ranking in competitive keywords. I don't pretend to know everything but i have some good background.

No i won't listen to google generic premade answer without understanding. I don't think being blind and don't understand what is going on and only listen is a good reason. In facts i'm pretty sure on serious competitive keywords and advanced SEO that sitemap.xml hurts you and it's a bad idea.

Getting indexed is a BAD reason. Why ? because now you can't see the error in internal/external link juice/strengh.

I've seen some people reporting faster crawling after putting a sitemap.xml, but crawling doesn't mean indexing and ranking. You are in a hurry ? I like better to wait 2-3 week and get a better knowledge on how bad/good the link juice flow inside my 100k pages website.

Without a sitemap.xml and when you ask google and he don't have indexed a section or a page, you know that the link juice are wrong you can redirect more link to this page/section and get more traffic from main keywords AND longtail. Take more time but a lot more effective...don't agree ?

 

...links and in the process miss a link or two that was not properly linked back to the main page....

Exactly ! you've got it. That the main point. With a sitemap you can get index but you WON'T see the error in the link structure. This information is LOST with a sitemap.xml. You will get indexed and won't ever know what page NEED more backlinks to rank better.

Wise idea to put a sitemap.xml and LOOSE information from Google ?

I really think sitemap.xml is a very poor SEO idea.

 

An XML Sitemap takes like 5 mins to create and the cons you've just listed simply aren't true.

 

Not another useless comments....ok i know on small website it take 5 min, on some medium/large website if you use some sitemap generator it can be fast too.

What i have listed isn't true and why ? you don't have any arguments to prove your idea ?

Lets me try to explain it another time, we have 2 website :

example1.com/
and this page on the website
example1.com/unknowpage.html (without backlinks or not indexed backlinks)

If you put a example1.com/sitemap.xml and include the unknowpage.html the page may get indexed even if the backlinks to this page are very low or have none.

When you search on google for site:example1.com you may think SEO have been done and properly done since all pages are indexed. But in facts this page won't ever rank for competitive keywords. The information about links is lost and it show you unacurate results.

Lets see a example2.com withtout a sitemap.xml

example2.com/
and this page on the website
example2.com/unknowpage.html (without backlinks or not indexed backlinks)

If you search for site:example2.com you won't find all pages and KNOW there is a error somewhere in the way internal/external link are made.

Now you have the information you can go edit your website and make link from external source to this page and RANK for a competitive keywords.

In the end : example1.com won't ever rank, example2.com WILL.

The facts is for all SEO jobs sitemap.xml really hurt you, it's not a good SEO pratice and many SEO recommend and do it. Cheap, fast, bad results....yeah i still think it's a bad seo pratice and ethics to do that.

I know these idea aren't well discussed in SEO field but i really think they are true.

I don't care about getting indexed for a 10 pages website on a uncompetitive keywords, any webmaster who know near nothing in SEO can do that. That don't really require SEO skills. Even on these small website it's the same it hurt you, but on much more smaller scale.

I'm interrested in professional well-done advanced SEO to make medium/large website and competitive area rank better. These idea are good for very small website too, but that's not really the kinds of challenge i'm looking for. Get lots more traffic from main keywords and longtail by building a good SEO link structure and know what is going on.

Someone else have a good reason to put even 2 min in making a sitemap.xml ?

I should remeber some people here that the whole purpose of SEO and sitemap.xml is for search engine to RANK better....not get indexed without any ranking or ranking only on unique compagny name which is really easy and don't really require SEO. That why i get paid for : visitor from search engine by ranking better. Getting indexed without rank don't bring any visitor and are pure time and money investement lost. Yeah even if it take only 5 minutes. Most people put many months and years to build link and make SEO for their website and taking 5 minutes to loose information and fool yourself or a client that the SEO job is done when isn't is a bad idea.

I think many people don't deeply understand what SEO is. It's not rocket science. A major factor of ranking is the quality(relevance) and quantity of backlinks. Building a healty link structure who link juice can flow in it is vital to SEO, and sitemap.xml don't help it make the job worse.

I'm expecting many more stupid comments without any idea or proof

 

theonlydrayk has it right.

When I first started crunching out large sites I made a fantastic sitemap and ended up with 1000 indexed pages .....and two SE hits a day...

When I set up a website with 1K+ pages I let Google find my site through a very simple sitemap: sitemap.txt

with only one url: mywebsite.com

This way, when G has visited my site I can see what pages are getting indexed.

Now you can anticipate on why G index certain pages and why G does not index certain pages.

What pages need work, juice, seo, whatever etc.

And since you can see for yourself winch pages G seemed to like on its own without you telling G to index.. you can make more of them.

after three months or so I create a supersonic mega xml gzipped sitemap and let it go......

Learn

 

I understand his point, but I think that if you have a large site you won't be looking for every page to rank highly as you'll focus your SEO on the homepage primarily. Sometimes, just being listed is the target and a XML sitemap is the best way of doing this.

 

You do make some valid points, and I can see what you are trying to say.... But

So you have your 1000+ page website. You build the perfect link structure so Google can find all your pages without the need for a sitemap.xml..
You get link juice to all the parts of your website you think are most important.
Now you have all your pages indexed...Job well done!.

Google will only crawl.. how many pages of your site every day, once it is indexed? 10% or 20% more?.. less?

Now some important NEW information comes to light.. and you need to add and update some of the existing pages on your site .. So you update the pages on your site to reflect this new information.
How do you let Google know that you updated the pages in your site that are already indexed... without suppling a sitemap.xml?
Do you let Google Bot discover the changes by chance?
That would be very poor SEO in my opinion..
But each to his own..

Just sharing my opinion

Cheers
James

 

Seems you don,t know the purpose of sitemap and its submission to search engines.

 

Ha!

How exactly does letting the search engines know of all your URL's hurt you?