Google errors

[Chocolate World]

Hi,
I don't know if anyone can help but I am having problems with google. I have just set up a second site for my distributors which is at the moment mainly a duplicate of my main site. Now google finds the new site but not the old one.
Some of the things I have found out.
1. I do not have a site map listed and cannot figure out how to submit one in xml.
2. http://www.chocolate-world.co.uk/robots.txt in crawler access gives a 404 not found error
3. In crawl errors it is searching http://www.chocolate-world.co.uk/aca...te-world.co.uk and finding a 404 not found error. I don't know where that URL has come from or how to correct it.
I've also got some title tag duplicates but I know how to sort that!
I have no idea what is going on so all help appreciated.

Kay

[pinbrook]

if google thinks you have duplicate sites, it will drop one.

I would block google from the distributor site and let it find the retail site. Do this by using htaccess (search google for this) and disallow the whole distributor site.

I wouldnt stress to much re xml sitemap - although if you search this forum you will find plenty of help. Many of us just stick with the html sitemap created by actinic, just make sure there is a link to it from your home page.

[PeterThake]

HTML Sitemaps and Google

Jo, when I look in my Google webmaster tools, it tells me that it is not using my html actinic sitemap. It says:

Your Sitemap appears to be an HTML page. Please use a supported sitemap format instead.

Just wondered if this was a new google 'feature' and if I should worry? I don't fancy hand coding an XML sitemap!

Cheers,
Pete

[guccij]

You can create a free .xml sitemap with automatic priority and everything. Go to http://www.xml-sitemaps.com .
Download the sitemap, ftp it to your root. Tell Google webamaster tools where to find it.

[pinbrook]

Google webmaster tools look for an XML file - you can optionally create one of these.

Otherwise just ignore XML files and webmaster tools and allow Google to spider your pages naturally by crawling your site with or without the help of the HTML sitemap