Hey all .. i have a wordpress site i dont usually use wordpress as its very limited to idea's and layouts, anyway my site was doing ok with rankings but i thought i would see how i go my adding a site map.. now this appears (MAY NOT BE THE CASE) but appears to have effected traffic and SE results.. Can anyone shed some light on this ? Can a site map effect a site so much ? i thought site maps were a must have.. Any advice ASAP is very much appreciated as im trying to sort this out before my site is crawled again. Thanks
sitemaps will never affect your rankings, they are just there to help search engines know your site and pages in case its not properly linked. Sitemaps are still recommended as it helps in proper indexing of site though don't spend too much time on them.
the purpose of site maps is to help the SE in determining where your site is...It is needed to be properly indexed..