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        4. Priority Attribute in XML Sitemaps - Still Valid?

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        Priority Attribute in XML Sitemaps - Still Valid?

        Intermediate & Advanced SEO
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        • Allie_Williams
          Allie_Williams Subscriber last edited by

          Is the priority value (scale of 0-1) used for each URL in an XML sitemap still a valid way of communicating to search engines which content you (the webmaster) believe is more important relative to other content on your site?

          I recall hearing that this was no longer used, but can't find a source.

          If it is no longer used, what are the easiest ways to communicate our preferences to search engines? Specifically, I'm looking to preference the most version version of a product's documentation (version 9) over the previous version (version 8).

          Thanks!

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Allie_Williams
            Allie_Williams Subscriber @Mobilio last edited by

            Thanks Peter, I appreciate you tracking that down!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Mobilio
              Mobilio last edited by

              Here is it:
              https://www.seroundtable.com/google-priority-change-frequency-xml-sitemap-20273.html

              Just as John Mueller suggest you should use lastmod attribute to indicate change http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html and then you can do sitemap ping to Google for reindexing. This is easy http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=URLOFSITEMAP.xml and it's allowed https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183669?hl=en

              Allie_Williams 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 4
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