XML Sitemaps

[john@stinkyink.]

I would incline to agree with Duncan, it would be interesting to see how your sitemap was configured. I am no expert though and I don't think there are many out there who do know the in's and out's of sitemaps. All I have reported is based on our own experience using them

[Duncan Rounding]

...Since removal I can report an increase of pages indexed of 20% and an increase in visits of 17% compared to the period previous to sitemap removal....

Or perhaps an incorrectly configured sitemap.

Please report back with more details as time goes by.

[Runner]

Update on site performance since removal of xml sitemap

Hi all,

Since reading this thread back at the beginning of September, I decided to remove my xml sitemap from google on 3rd Sept. Reason: The number of pages indexed was approx 1/3 of those submitted and was flatlining week on week.

Since removal I can report an increase of pages indexed of 20% and an increase in visits of 17% compared to the period previous to sitemap removal.

This may be coincidence? I will persevere and see what happens....

[Darren B]

im even more confused with bloody xml sitemaps than i already was, i know does not take much but kin ell

[pinbrook]

with a spp site i tend to strip all section pages out to leave me with a xml sitemap of spp pages only. i also favour my spps to be

section
subsection
product
subsection
product

thus i only have addtocart on spp and lead google to those pages only

[malbro]

Hah, you say that, but we use the final section as our printer page

As I said I think Gabe will get as many answers to this one as there are possibilities, it depends on what you are selling, how the site is organised, and what you expect your potential customers to search for.

[john@stinkyink.]

Hah, you say that, but we use the final section as our printer page and products are much less important for us because we are optimised within Google as follows:

Manufacturer:Family:Printer:Ink - so for instance search Google for 'hp photosmart c4180 ink' and we are top two and that page is a subsection

[malbro]

are products more important? are the major sections? or is it more down to whatever gets the most hits in your stats?

I suspect you will get some very different answers to this but my answer is that products are much more important than sections.

[gabrielcrowe]

With information from this page in mind, I'm creating (well, already created) a php script for ActSQL, that generates perfect sitemaps, including the priority.

Without any priority data, and a lack of manual input, i opted to generate them based on the structure of the catalog.

The code walks back through the sections to count the depth from the root. this number is then used to determine the priority, with a special override, for products pages.

With this is mind, we can configure the sections to different priorities.

regardless of the depth, what is the rough guide to those people who have sites with differing structures. Yours at stinkyink is differnt from a few others, and not everyone has all major sections leading to a tree of brands, then printers then inks.

are products more important? are the major sections? or is it more down to whatever gets the most hits in your stats?

[john@stinkyink.]

Hi Steve,

I think once your understand how Google sees the information then you can use it to your benefit, we were just uploading a site map without any thought to what it has the potential to do!!

[Steve G Griggs]

XML Sitemaps.

Hi John.

Well done on bringing this up, I have never got too involved with sitemaps, but I probably will have to soon, but that is scary how it affects a webiste so quickly.
Definitely one to beware of.

[Darren B]

Jan I was thinking about you while reading the thread, using a variable to set priorities, i like the idea

John thanks for extremely well laid out case study, and much more i thank you for sharing this sort of information

D

[Jan]

That is really interesting John.

I'll be updating the mole end generator to allow additional pages to be defined and to include suplementary pages such as additional info pages. When I do this I will also add the option to define priority, so you can have a default one for most pages but then add a variable to the key ones that assigns a higher one to it. It will be a little while in the making but will be a good addition when it arrives.

Regards,

[Buzby]

I uploaded a more in-depth sitemap about a week ago and have seen a large increase in traffic.

I used the mole end feed and then added the extra information using a find and replace option in Dreaweaver, and then edited the priorities individually.

I would not under any circumstances give Google access to my server or logs just as I would not let a competitor look at my order book.

Google can rank my site on content and not how busy my site is.

A restaurant when quiet fills the window area to give the appearance it is busy. They wouldn't hang a sign on the door saying that they are empty so why actually send that sign to Google by letting them in to view.

[Ghome1971]

I uploaded a new site map on 28/06 (G Crawler). My business has nose dived over the past few days but I am not sure if it is just the time of year and current market. I have uploaded a mole end site map which is what I had before just in case. I will keep you posted.

Best Wishes

Geraldine