Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 7:58 AM
Submitting a Sitemap to Google just became even easier. No longer do you have to specify the Sitemap file type—we'll determine the type of data you're submitting automatically. Let's take a quick look at the kinds of Sitemap files we support as well as the ways they can be submitted to us.
If you have multiple Sitemap files that you wish to submit to Google, you can include up to 1,000 of these in an XML Sitemap Index file. If you have more than 1,000 Sitemap files, you can just submit multiple Sitemap Index files - we'd love to take them all!
We hope these simplifications make it even easier for you to send us your Sitemap files!
Sitemap file formats supported by Google
Part of what makes the web so interesting is that there are so many different kinds of content out there. Do you use videos on your website? If so, send us a Video Sitemap file so that we can send you visitors to those videos! Do you host source-code samples? Submit a Code Search Sitemap! Here are the various kinds of Sitemap files that Google supports at the moment:- XML Sitemap files for web pages - Use these files to submit all of your web pages (this is the preferred format for web pages). While not all search engines may support the Sitemap types listed below, the XML Sitemap for web pages is supported by all search engines of sitemaps.org.
- RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 feeds for web pages - Many blogs create these automatically.
- Text files with web page URLs - If you can't automatically create one of the above formats, you can create a text file with your URLs in it.
- XML Sitemap files for Video Search - Videos on your website can be indexed and made available for Google Video Search.
- Media-RSS feeds for Video Search - mRSS feeds are used by various other systems, we can use these for Google Video Search as well.
- XML Sitemap files for Google Code Search - If you make programming samples or code available to your users, you can submit these for Google Code Search.
- XML Sitemap files for mobile web pages - Using this kind of format allows us to recognize content that has been optimized for mobile devices (please note that there was recently a small change in the format).
- XML Sitemap files for geo-data - If you have geographic data on your website in the form of KML or GeoRSS files, please let us know about these files.
- XML Sitemap files for News - News websites can submit their news content in this special Sitemap format (please note that you must first register with Google News before these files are processed).
If you have multiple Sitemap files that you wish to submit to Google, you can include up to 1,000 of these in an XML Sitemap Index file. If you have more than 1,000 Sitemap files, you can just submit multiple Sitemap Index files - we'd love to take them all!
Submitting your Sitemap files to Google
Once you have your Sitemap files ready and available on your server, all that's left is making sure that the search engines can find them. Google supports three simple ways to submit Sitemap files:- Using Google Webmaster Tools
Submitting your Sitemap files through Google Webmaster Tools is the preferred way of letting us know about them. The main advantage of doing it this way is that you'll always have direct feedback about how your Sitemap files were downloaded (were we able to reach your server?), how they were recognized (were they in the right format?) and what happened to the web pages listed in them (how many were indexed?). To submit your Sitemap files, make sure that your website is verified in Webmaster Tools, then go to "Sitemaps" in Webmaster Tools and enter the file name of your Sitemap(s).
Sometimes it makes sense to keep your Sitemap file on a different server / domain name. To submit Sitemap files like that, you must verify ownership of both sites in Webmaster Tools and submit the Sitemap on the appropriate site. For instance, if your Sitemap file for http://www.example.com is kept on http://sitemap-files.example.com/ then you need to verify ownership of both sites and then submit the Sitemap file under http://sitemap-files.example.com (even though the URLs listed in it are for http://www.example.com). For more information, please see our Help Center topic on submitting Sitemap files for multiple sites. - Listing Sitemap files in the robots.txt file
Another way of submitting a Sitemap file is to specify the URL in your robots.txt file. If you use this method of submitting a Sitemap file, it will be found by all search engines that support the Sitemaps protocol (although not all of them support the extensions listed above). Since you can specify the full URL of your Sitemap file in the robots.txt file, this method also allows you to store your Sitemap file on a different domain. Keep in mind that while Sitemap files submitted this way are processed on our side, they will not be automatically listed in your Webmaster Tools account. In order to receive feedback on your files, we recommend adding them manually to your account as well. - Using an HTTP "ping"
If your Sitemap files are generated automatically, a convenient way to submit (and re-submit) them is to access the "ping" URL for Google Sitemaps. This URL includes the URL of your Sitemap file. For more information on the "ping" URL for your website, please see the Help Center article on Updating a Sitemap. Feel free to "ping" this URL whenever you update your Sitemap file - we'll know to pick it up and process it again. If you also have your Sitemap file registered in Webmaster Tools, we'll update the status there as well. This method is also valid if your Sitemap file is kept on a different server, but you must still verify both sites in Webmaster Tools as previously mentioned.
Search engines that are a members of sitemaps.org support a similar way of submitting general web Sitemap files.
We hope these simplifications make it even easier for you to send us your Sitemap files!
39 comments:
woohoo
Very nice, thanks! I was just getting ready to submit a new sitemap for Site-O-Rific.
One area of search engine marketing that has changed dramatically over the years is submissions. Submitting to the search engines used to be so complicated, with having to choose between manual versus software submissions; only being able to submit so many pages a day; having to be careful about oversubmitting; and the list goes on.
Submissions used to be the worst part of the search engine optimization process, at least for me
Thanks for this. Sitemaps can help online businesses when they submit their sites to search engines. This is a really useful tool in the search engine optimization process. I'll try to include this in my blog so visitors can read about it. I'll surely credit this. Thanks a lot!
m trying to get sitemap. site is verifyed. them i put in my pages. example www.affordablechef.info/menu and so on. i put 4 pages in and there comeing back as errors. please help ive been trying to get this for a year. just got the code right. help marksgall@sbcglobal.net mark
I'm curious about sitemaps and blogs. The primary reason for a sitemap is to get pages in your site indexed, but this is almost never an issue with a blog, so is there any real reason to submit a sitemap for a blog?
very nice and informative site
Now, let me ask you a question.
Does a sitemap on Google make that site higher in SERP?
It seems the case for my Gatlinburg Real Estate site. I uploaded a sitemap few months back. But I have not doing so for my Gatlinburg Cabins Rental site and it shows much lower in SERP. So, is it something to consider SERP wise?
Hi,
I have a question related (not sure) with sitemap. I have a Blogger based blog and using XML sitemap. On the other hand, my blog's RSS is redirected to Feedburner that's why some sitemaps problems occurs.
To cancel the Google bot's redirection, i have started to use this way:
http://www.mafiamax.com/atom.xml?redirect=false
After using this way, there hasn't been a problem, but nowadays my blog seems a video site on Google Search.
What's the problem? Could you give me an opinion?
Hi again,
Now the problem is fixed.
nice and simple.. shouldnt be too hard to newbies.. :)
visit: http://www.iwebneed.com/ - Your complete webmasters forum. And talk about anything related to running and building a website. :)
I read on the web that the sitemap xml format is limited to 50000 pages and that for big sites it mandatory to promote multiple sitemap with 50000 url in each other. is it right?
you said that over 1000 site map files, we can promote multiple site map. But is it possible to promote mutiple site of multiple sitemap?
Thanks for the informative post but can anyone help me regarding my Top 10 List - Best Top Ten blog's sitemap.
When I first tried to put a sitemap using GWM tool... it succeeded (adding meta data) and I didn't find any problems. But when I edited some codes of my blog, I accidentally deleted the verification code. I already checked my verification code at the TOOL > Manage Site Verification but it show a .html file instead of the meta file.
What should I do? Can someone help me regarding my problem? Thanks.
At last, a complete info on a must subject.
Thanks.
I get the following error trying to submit my RSS feed:
"Invalid XML: too many tags
Too many tags describing this tag. Please fix it and resubmit."
The feed is valid (with no warnings) according to both http://www.feedvalidator.org/ http://validator.w3.org/feed/ and does not redirect.
Contact me via email if you want the feed details.
@Code Sitemaps are used to improve crawling and indexing of new and modified pages. They do not impact rankings (other than perhaps allowing more pages to be found for your site).
@MaFiAMaX You do not have to submit Sitemap files for Blogger -- they're automatically submitted for you :).
@Proverbe That's right, if you have more than 50,000 URLs, you will have to use multiple Sitemap files. If you want, you can submit these separately or you can list them in a Sitemap Index file and submit only the Sitemap Index file (both are equivalent).
@Ian I'd suggest posting in the Webmaster Help forum at http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Webmasters?hl=en (with the URL of your Sitemap file). There's likely a fairly simple way to resolve it.
Hi. Thanks for discussion. I find interesting information about mobile sitemap here.
I have three Blogger-hosted blogs. Do I need to submit site maps? How do I do that? The instructions are difficult for me to understand. Thanks.
@John Mueller
Does that includes Blogger blogs on hosted domains with feedburner feeds?
Nice blog its really very informative
I submitted the atom feed to sitemaps on webmaster Tools and I'm getting errors saying the urls are not allowed.
I'm also using feedburner, but there's no way to submit a feedburner feed to the webmaster tools.
Please advise.
wow finally i'm really want to make my own sitemap to submit to google thanks a lot
nice post!!
can we submit sitemaps to google through HTTP. i know we can re-submit through HTTP.
Comments on this would be appriciated.
I need this information to increase visitor to my blog .. thx alot
Nowadays without sitemap Google bot is not fully crawl our site.
The new version of Blogger seems to accept the sitemap at: feeds/posts/default
This is the address of the Atom feed.
Unfortunately it seems to only accept 26 URLs, but since the older URL are usually indexed already, it's not a big deal.
Alex from OOAK Table Tennis Forum
which is the best method out of 3 specified above for submitting sitemap?
Are they all same?
Waqas Ahmed
The Maverickz (Cloud Computing Development Company)
Hi
I am trying to submit feedburner feed address as sitemap but everytime i submit it is rejected so what should i do?
Hi guys . Can I submit an .ashx version on Google sitemap? Does Google supports .ashx instead of xml ? The link is http://www.EXAMPLE.com/sitemap.ashx
Thanks
So, I just setup my website using Google Sites where all code is HTML. So when I submit my Sitemap url it gets rejected since it's not XML. Any suggestions on a work around?
Yes, I notice how easy to submitted sitemap, but I wonder why there is only few get indexed, let say there 10 url have been submitted but there are only 6 get indexed? Could I get more clear explanations about this matter?
Very nice, thanks! I was just getting ready to submit a new sitemap for Arabtion
Dear Friend and Google Staff
I use Wordpress for Long time
with my own article never SPAM any content , I'm confident my contents are unique and flesh article and do slowly slowly, I have submit
by Google webmaster tool
But some time
it show some link still no index
and I got result about some keyword (Notprovided) in my Google Analytic
Can anyone suggest my problem
or I have technical term problem about page load or else I have submit my link in bad webpage ?
This is My website
Please Come and Check this
http://sirwilliams.org
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