Comments on: Sitemap.xml can get pages Indexed, but not Ranking http://www.vertical-leap.co.uk/blog/sitemap-xml-can-get-pages-indexed-but-not-ranking/ Content-Driven Search Marketing Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:48:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Alex http://www.vertical-leap.co.uk/blog/sitemap-xml-can-get-pages-indexed-but-not-ranking/#comment-337 Alex Wed, 19 May 2010 15:48:06 +0000 http://www.vertical-leap.co.uk/?p=6458#comment-337 XML sitemaps use an open standard format, intended to allow the search engines to crawl your site more easily. It’s always best to provide sitemaps to the search engines, as not only will it allow your site to be more easily crawled, the search engines don’t crawl every page of the site, so implementing a sitemap will increase the chances of the site being indexed more rigorously. The true benefit although marginal, is beneficial and for the short period of time it takes to create a sitemap, it is worth doing. Add the URL of a new page to the sitemap speeds encourages indexing. XML sitemaps use an open standard format, intended to allow the search engines to crawl your site more easily. It’s always best to provide sitemaps to the search engines, as not only will it allow your site to be more easily crawled, the search engines don’t crawl every page of the site, so implementing a sitemap will increase the chances of the site being indexed more rigorously.
The true benefit although marginal, is beneficial and for the short period of time it takes to create a sitemap, it is worth doing. Add the URL of a new page to the sitemap speeds encourages indexing.

]]> By: Paddy Moogan http://www.vertical-leap.co.uk/blog/sitemap-xml-can-get-pages-indexed-but-not-ranking/#comment-336 Paddy Moogan Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:42:50 +0000 http://www.vertical-leap.co.uk/?p=6458#comment-336 I'm in two minds as to the usefulness of XML sitemaps. We recently relaunched a pretty big Ecommerce site that involved a lot of 301s and new URLs for Google to find. I held back on submitting a new sitemap to Google as I wanted to see how Google indexed the site on its own. This can help identify potential problems in site structure and internal linking. But on the other hand I've seen examples similar to your own experiment which proves sitemaps can get pages indexed. However I'd just add that I think sitemaps are good for getting pages "discovered" rather than properly indexed and ranking. Hence the reason your page was indexed but not showing up for exact text searches. Add a link or two from other pages on your site and I'd bet it would start showing up. Cheers for the post Pete! I’m in two minds as to the usefulness of XML sitemaps. We recently relaunched a pretty big Ecommerce site that involved a lot of 301s and new URLs for Google to find. I held back on submitting a new sitemap to Google as I wanted to see how Google indexed the site on its own. This can help identify potential problems in site structure and internal linking.

But on the other hand I’ve seen examples similar to your own experiment which proves sitemaps can get pages indexed. However I’d just add that I think sitemaps are good for getting pages “discovered” rather than properly indexed and ranking. Hence the reason your page was indexed but not showing up for exact text searches. Add a link or two from other pages on your site and I’d bet it would start showing up.

Cheers for the post Pete!

]]>