A couple of Google questions

[Trev Mac]

Hi all,

I realise that Google and sitemap.xml questions have been asked on here before but I have to be honest and say that I am pretty confused by it all.

I uploaded a sitemap.xml file for my site and added it through the Webmaster facility at Google on the 8th Jan and Google accessed it on the 9th. All went fine and and Google said the file was OK. On Friday I had added a couple of fresh pages to the site so I added them to the sitemap.xml file. I did not resubmit the file, I just uploaded it to my server. Google accessed the sitemap file again on the 12th. This time it said the file was an "Unsupported file format". I checked the file today and noticed I had left an </url> tag when copying and pasting into the sitemap file on Friday (In a rush to get to the pub). I am assuming that this was the problem. I have changed this now and validated the file and all seems OK with it.

Now my question is. Will Google, having had a problem with the file automatically come back and check it again or should I resubmit it?

Another linked question.

There were four error 404 on links that I had changed the file names for. These were links in the content that I had added manually and overlooked to change. I have now made the necessary changes and was now wondering, would it be best to manually remove these broken URL's using the "Remove URL" tool on Google?

I am just taking my first steps into the world of seo and I realise that it is a long and winding road so please forgive me if the answers to these questions seem a bit obvious to you. I am genuinely quite baffled by some of the contradicting information out there on the web. I know a lot of you guys deal with this sort of thing quite regularly and have never let me down in the past so I am hoping that I may get it clarified here.

Many thanks in advance.

[RuralWeb]

I uploaded a sitemap.xml file for my site

Your site is not an actinic one

[fergusw]

Malcolm,
His Digital Canvas site is on 8 HIZA.

Trev,
To be honest, the majority of your Google sitemap and indexing questions are answered within the Google Webmaster FAQ's on Google itself.
There is a wealth of valuable and useful information that is very much worth reading as you embark on SEO.

Try here for starters

[Trev Mac]

The site was created using Actinic.

[Trev Mac]

Hi Fergus,

Thanks for the reply.

It does say the following on Google:

"Your Sitemap does not appear to be in a supported format. Please ensure it meets our Sitemap guidelines and resubmit"

I just wanted to double check before following this advice as I have read a few things on my seo journey saying that you should avoid resubmitting the sitemap.xml file at Google. It was just confusing me and I thought that perhaps some of you guys would have already had some first hand experience of this situation.

Once again thanks for the reply.

By the way Fergus. I noticed "His Digital Canvas site is on 8 HIZA."

Is there some relevance to that and the statement made by Malcolm?

[RuralWeb]

should avoid resubmitting the sitemap.xml file at Google

I avoid submitting them full stop

[Trev Mac]

Thanks for the reply Malcolm.

Point taken.