Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Submitting multiple sitemaps
-
I recently moved over from html to wordpress. I have the google sitemap plugin on the new wordpress site, but in webmaster tools, it's only showing 71 pages, and I have hundreds, but many are html.
Is it okay, to submit an html sitemap as well as the wp sitemap that's already in there?
-
I agree with it. If you want to go with multiple XML site maps so you have to wait after submission.
I have very good experience with multiple XML site maps.
I am working on eCommerce website and submitted 24 XML site maps to Google webmaster tools.
Just look in to multiple XML site maps for Lamps Lighting and More!
You can see that Google webmaster tools shows very few index URLs.
I have similar experience for my another eCommerce website where I have submitted 7K+ URLs and 300+ indexed by Google with in 15 days.
-
Can someone help me here?
I used the sitemap generator, got like 500 plus pages.
I uploaded it to the root of my server, submitted it a second time to google, and got:
Parsing error
We were unable to read your Sitemap. It may contain an entry we are unable to recognize. Please validate your Sitemap before resubmitting.
I don't know how to fix this**.**
-
Well, I created a new sitemap using the above; renamed it; uploaded it to server; submitted it to google, and google did not accept saying error.
-
I'm not saying the sitemap is html, I'm saying the pages are html. And, that already have one xml sitemap that is autogenerated by the new wordpress platform, but I have a ton of html pages the new sitemap is not picking up.
So do I just create another one and add all those pages? So then there will be 2 sitemaps.
Edit: Just ran the sitemap generator. Pretty cool. Now there are some duplicates. So do I need to go in and remove those pages that already show in the first sitemap, or is it okay to have them in both sitemaps?
-
Google does not support html sitemaps and will only crawl them as any other webpage. But you can submit more xml sitemaps both in bing and google. I personally use a program called sitemap generator.
-
oh- and add both of them to your robots.txt file or create a sitemapindex.xml file that then lists both, and then just include that index version in the robots.txt file.
-
you can create one manually, or use a sitemap generator. Just be sure to call it something other than the name of your existing WP generated sitemap.xml file - so it could be sitemaphtml.xml or sitemap2.xml
They need to be in the XML format as outlined by sitemaps.org to be recognized by Google Webmaster Tools - and also submit both to Bing Webmaster Tools.
-
Well, the current sitemap google is recognizing is the wordpress (newer one) that is a .xml.
So how can I create an additional one that will show all the html pages, so google can easily find them?
-
I'm not sure about your HTML sitemap; I don't think HTML sitemaps are a supported format for you to submit to Google (I don't see them on sitemaps.org). You just need Google to crawl this page, and all the pages it links to? There is a plain text format (see here) that is allowed for sitemaps. You could probably change your HTML sitemap pretty easily to that format.
I'm pretty sure you're allowed to submit multiple sitemaps, but I can't find anything concrete saying you can or can't. The Google Webmaster Tools UI seems to support it, so my guess is that it would be fine. Try it and see if it works? You could also create a sitemap index file that references both these sitemaps.
You can read more about sitemaps on sitemaps.org. According to the Google help doc here, they adhere to these standards.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best Tool for Retrieving Multiple URL Word Counts in Bulk?
I am doing some content analysis with over 200 URLs to go through! Does anybody know of, or can recommend any bulk on-page word count checkers which would help with the heavy lifting? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | NickG-1230 -
Should I include unnecessary pages in the sitemap.xml
I have a lot of pages that I don't want Google to index, so for most of them, I used cannonical, were they were duplicates, noindex were I wanted to remove the pages, but the question is: Should I include these pages in the sitemap.xml, or just the important pages? Also should I include them in order to get the changes indexed fastet by Google?
On-Page Optimization | | Silviu0 -
XML Sitemaps for Property Website
Hi all, I was hoping that someone might have a link to a good example of an XML Sitemap for a large property (real estate) website? Thanks in advance to anyone who does! 🙂 Gavin
On-Page Optimization | | IcanAgency0 -
Multiple domains for the same business
My client purchased over 500 URLs for targeting various customers and ranking for different keywords. It is for the same business though. What is the best strategy to deal with this kind of approach in your opinion. They use different meta data for each of the URLs starting with brand name in meta title. Are there any other points to keep in mind when developing strategy for all those URLs. Is this a good approach?
On-Page Optimization | | alicaomisem1 -
How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect
Hi all I hope that someone can help.... How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect The url in question is: How can I fix multiple 404 errors with Wildcard htaccess redirect http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/search/Category/luxury_hotels_venues_uk_wedding_venues/exclusive_use_venues/letter/c http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/listing/location/uk-england/bedfordshire-weddings/franklin-park http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/deal/location/uk-england/chorley-weddings/curtis-bay etc, going to http://www.5starweddingdirectory.com/business the above is just a few examples, google webmaster is showing over 8.000 404 page not found errors. Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | Taiger0 -
Handling multiple locations in the footer
I have a client with several locations. Should I include only the main office's address in the footer? The client is wanting to add them all.
On-Page Optimization | | SearchParty0 -
Multiple domains vs single domain vs subdomains ?
I have a client that recently read an article that advised him to break up his website into various URL's that targeted specific products. It was supposed to be a solution to gain footing in an already competitive industry. So rather than company.com with various pages targeting his products, he'd end up having multiple smaller sites: companyClothing.com companyShoes.com Etc. The article stated that by structuring your website this way, you were more likely to gain ranking in Google by targeting these niche markets. I wanted to know if this article was based on any facts. Are there any benefits to creating a new website that targets a specific niche market versus as a section of pages on a main website? I then began looking into structuring each of these product areas into subdomains, but the data out there is not definitive as to how subdomains are viewed by Google and other search engines - more specifically how subdomains benefit (or not!) the primary domain. So, in general, when a business targets many products and services that cover a wide range - what is the best way to structure the delivery of this info: multiple domains, single domain with folders/categories, or subdomains? If single domain with folders/categories are not an option, how do subdomains stack up? Thanks in advance for your help/suggestions!
On-Page Optimization | | dgalassi0 -
Is is ok to have multiple H2 or H3s?
Hi mozzers, I am wondering if the search engine gets bothered to read multiple heading 2s or heading 3s or heading4s (these would be unique content headings of course)? I am asking this because I need to follow a consistent content structure and many of titles would fall into one type of headings. Thanks Ty
On-Page Optimization | | Ideas-Money-Art7