Entries from Search Engine Roundtable tagged with 'sitemaps'

In one of Matt Cutts' videos on SEO questions, he answers a question about if you should build an HTML or XML Sitemap. An HTML sitemap is an old school landing page for users to find all (or most) of...

Posted on October 9, 2009 8:36 AM

A Google Webmaster Help thread reports that when using Google Sites and submitting a Sitemap file to Webmaster Tools, you may receive an error. The error some people are seeing is: Your Sitemap appears to be an HTML page. Please...

Posted on September 8, 2009 8:13 AM

There is a brand new Google Webmaster Tools error for Sitemaps files. The new error or warning is named "Duplicate URL" and has been springing up for many webmasters recently. The full error reads: This URL is a duplicate of...

Posted on August 3, 2009 8:28 AM

Over a year ago, we reported that Google Recommends You Split Sitemap Files By File Type. The issue back then, is the same issue some webmasters are experiencing. When you want to create a geo-sitemap, you have to make that...

Posted on July 30, 2009 10:33 AM

If you are currently seeing a warning in Google Webmaster Tools that reads, "Invalid XML tag," don't worry. There are many webmasters reporting the issue and Google has confirmed it is a bug. Google said in an announcement post: Some...

Posted on June 15, 2009 8:32 AM

A Google Webmasters Help thread has a webmaster worried that Google has not downloaded his XML Sitemap file in about five days. I went to check the status of my sitemap file in Google Webmaster Tools and Google has not...

Posted on April 20, 2009 8:31 AM

A Google Webmaster Help thread asks if there is a limit on the number of Sitemap files you can have under a single Google account. Currently, there is no documentation on the limit but there is a 500 limit per...

Posted on March 17, 2009 9:00 AM

If your Google Sitemap file is in "pending" status and you are worried that it will never come out of that status, I would not worry. Google recently posted an announcement that this is a known issue and they are...

Posted on February 19, 2009 8:41 AM

A content publisher asked about getting his publishing site included in Google News. In the Google News Help thread Googler, Inbal, said that you don't always need to have three digits in the URL to be in Google News. In...

Posted on January 28, 2009 3:23 AM

If you are noticing that your index count in Google Webmaster Tools in your Sitemaps section shows zero pages are indexed, then don't panic. Google has confirmed in a Google Webmaster Help thread that there may be a bug impacting...

Posted on January 26, 2009 6:09 AM

About a week ago, we ran a poll asking Who's To Credit For Faster Indexing? The options included Google Sitemaps or FeedBurner, due to the topic we were discussing. The results are now in and the majority said, Google Sitemaps,...

Posted on January 15, 2009 9:19 AM

The Google Webmaster Central blog announced the release of a new Google Sitemaps generator available at code.google.com/p/googlesitemapgenerator. The new tool works differently then other sitemaps tools. The tool "finds new and modified URLs based on your webserver's traffic, its log...

Posted on January 14, 2009 8:47 AM

An SEOMoz post charts the positive impact having a Sitemap file can have on the speed of Google and Yahoo crawling and indexing your web pages. The report seems pretty impressive and I myself feel that Sitemaps are important to...

Posted on January 9, 2009 8:36 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks why does the site command in Google not match up in the number of "indexed" URLs reported in Google Webmaster Tools. A very valid question, let me show you. A simple site command in Google for...

Posted on January 7, 2009 8:25 AM

A Google Webmaster Help thread reports that in some instances, Google will tell you that your Sitemap file is OK, but in reality, it is not. The issue comes up when on the summary page, Google may report that your...

Posted on December 29, 2008 8:29 AM

Every day that goes by, I become a bigger fan of setting up an XML Sitemap file for Google and the other search engines to chew on. I think Sitemap files are important for sites to take full advantage of...

Posted on November 18, 2008 8:22 AM

There has always been this myth that Google and other search engines cannot crawl or process more than 100 links on a single web page or document. That truth is that Google and other search engines can and do crawl...

Posted on October 29, 2008 7:51 AM

The other day we reported Google Webmaster Tools Showing 0 Pages Indexed For Sitemaps Users. In short, some of those who have submitted a Sitemap file via Google Webmaster Tools were having issues with those Sitemaps. Many saw their Sitemap...

Posted on October 27, 2008 7:21 AM

If you login to your Google Webmaster Tools account and notice that Google is reporting that they have indexed 0 of your submitted pages through Sitemaps, then don't worry - you are not alone. A WebmasterWorld and Google Groups thread...

Posted on October 23, 2008 7:57 AM

Hopefully by the time you read this post, the issue will be resolved. However, yesterday afternoon, a Google representative, JohnMu said there is currently a display issue in the Google Webmaster Tools. A Google Groups thread reports several webmasters who...

Posted on October 9, 2008 7:18 AM

We discussed the value of adding a Sitemap file in Google in the past. And we also discussed the various data you can send to Google about each of URLs. In a Google Groups thread, a webmaster created multiple Sitemap...

Posted on September 11, 2008 7:52 AM

Over the past couple weeks, we reported about two issues: (1) Did Google Stop Crawling Blogger Blogs on Personalized Domains? (2) Google Bloggers Having Sitemap File & Continued Crawling Issues? Google seems to have resolved both issues. The Google Groups...

Posted on August 14, 2008 8:38 AM

There have been reports with Google's Blogger tool and Sitemaps not working well together. A Google Groups thread notes that those submitting a Sitemap file to Google Webmaster Tools, and using Google's Blogger service, are having issues. Many who have...

Posted on August 12, 2008 8:32 AM

Google Webmaster Tools is now reporting "too many redirects" within Sitemaps files. A WebmasterWorld thread has reported the warnings back last week. I have finally hunted down a screen shot of such an error: The only way to see this...

Posted on August 4, 2008 7:48 AM

The Google team has just announced that your Google Sites web site -- that is, the sites.google.com properties -- can be submitted to Google Webmaster Central. This fixes a bug with verification that we reported on June 16. Google has...

Posted on July 31, 2008 2:22 PM

A Google Groups thread asks if having two Sitemaps for the same site will cause an issue with Google. In short, Google said no. Why does this site have two Sitemaps? Well, the only way for multiple Google Accounts to...

Posted on July 16, 2008 7:35 AM

Several webmasters are noticing new errors found in their Google Webmaster Tools Sitemaps error diagnostic section. The new error is: All the URLs in your Sitemap are marked as having dynamic content. We have threads at WebmasterWorld and Google Groups...

Posted on June 25, 2008 7:52 AM

There are many SEOs spilt on the topic of the value in submitting a Sitemap to Google. In my opinion, it is clear that if a site has very poor navigation and on-page SEO, submitting a Sitemap might be your...

Posted on June 16, 2008 7:17 AM

Video search engine optimization has been a hot topic since the launch of Google Universal Search. A Google Groups thread I have been tracking for some time, gives us some insight into how to improve the visibility of your videos...

Posted on June 6, 2008 7:55 AM

A Google Groups thread reports an issue (or a feature, depending on your view) with Google's Sitemap handling. In short, a webmaster used one Sitemap file for all his content. In that file, he specified the geo data by using...

Posted on June 6, 2008 7:45 AM

Do you want your videos to be more searchable in Google Video Search? Then check out Google's newest announcement relating to Google Video Sitemaps. Google says: By submitting this video-specific Sitemap in addition to your standard Sitemap, you can specify...

Posted on December 18, 2007 9:50 AM

The official Microsoft Live Search representative at WebmasterWorld said that Microsoft will finally be supporting Sitemaps (for real this time) now. Microsoft will currently support autodiscovery of your sitemap file if it is included within your robots.txt file. I have...

Posted on July 25, 2007 7:54 AM

An excellent WebmasterWorld thread asks if the new Sitemaps Auto-Discovery supported by all four major search engines is not just an easy way for search engines to find and index your content. The thread asks if this enables scrapers to...

Posted on May 7, 2007 7:45 AM

Last week, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft & Ask.com To All Support Sitemaps Autodiscovery. So how do you ping these services to notify the search engines of an update to your Sitemaps, if you do not want to wait for them to...

Posted on April 16, 2007 8:16 AM

Great news from yesterday at SES. Danny has a great roundup describing that Search Engines Unite On Sitemaps Autodiscovery at Search Engine Land and I have some more details with my coverage of the Sitemaps & URL Submission session from...

Posted on April 12, 2007 7:41 AM

On November 15, 2006 Google, Microsoft & Yahoo! Back SiteMaps Protocol and Microsoft posted about it back then that they are supporting it. We are 100% behind this protocol - this kind of collaboration will help improve the search experience...

Posted on March 20, 2007 7:36 AM

Bill Slawski, Cre8asite Forum Admin, started a thread at Cre8asite Forums about a patent application Google recently published named mobile sitemaps. The abstract reads: A method of analyzing documents or relationships between documents includes receiving a notification of an available...

Posted on March 2, 2007 7:29 AM

Google has announced the release of a tool that many thought would never come but always dreamt of - a tool that shows us our links for our sites. It has been sought over since Google changed the link command....

Posted on February 6, 2007 7:28 AM

We have reported time after time again the issues with Google's Webmaster Central tools, specifically Sitemaps. It is a wonderful tool, it allows you to see a ton of data about your site plus submit data back to Google. But...

Posted on December 29, 2006 7:45 AM

Typically, if you want to make sure your site is indexed in Google, you would use a site command (i.e. site:www.domain.com) to see if Google returns results for your site. You can also search on just the domain (i.e. www.domain.com),...

Posted on December 19, 2006 8:08 AM

Last month Google, Microsoft & Yahoo! Back SiteMaps Protocol, so it makes sense to begin converting your sitemaps to one standardized file. One such webmaster did that, submitted the new file to Yahoo! and claimed that Yahoo!'s Site Explorer dropped...

Posted on December 5, 2006 7:34 AM

Matt Cutts wrote an excellent blog post named How google handles hacked sites. This is very interesting to me, since I had a similar situation with a client in the past (see Jennifer Convertibles Web Site Hacked & Delisted In...

Posted on December 4, 2006 7:45 AM

The other day we reported that Google Webmaster Sitemaps Tool Back With Old Data? where I said, there was in issue with the common words. The issue is most likely old data. Vanessa Fox replied to the forum thread at...

Posted on November 30, 2006 7:28 AM

Like any new tool, there are bugs, and Google's Webmaster Central tools, including their powerful Sitemaps tool, seems to have its share of bugs. Two different reports come from WebmasterWorld with possible bugs in the tool over the weekend. The...

Posted on November 27, 2006 8:04 AM

Google released a Sitemaps protocol and reporting engine for the Google News index. I am lucky enough to be included in Google News, so I am able to share with you some of the reports I have in my Sitemaps...

Posted on November 27, 2006 7:19 AM

Last week the search engines, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! united to provide one standard sitemaps protocol for submission to the search engines for page inclusion. But there is confusion as to where one would submit a sitemaps file to Microsoft....

Posted on November 24, 2006 7:45 AM

This morning, I logged into my Google Webmaster Central Sitemaps tool and noticed all my sites are "pending verification." I then found a thread at WebmasterWorld with an other person reporting this issue. So I dug deeper and found a...

Posted on November 21, 2006 8:03 AM

Brett Tabke posted a thread at WebmasterWorld showing that the SiteMaps Protocol is backed by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo! Sitemaps are an easy way for webmasters to inform search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling....

Posted on November 16, 2006 10:31 AM

In Google Sitemaps there is a statistic under stats/ crawl statistics that shows you "Your page with the highest PageRank." It looks like this for this site: Now, several people are reporting that they have heard of or seen themselves,...

Posted on November 13, 2006 7:39 AM

Folks at WebmasterWorld are reporting that the Google Webmaster Central Sitemaps tool is now showing older data. One member said when he looked at his last visit date to his home page it was November 7th. He then looked again...

Posted on November 10, 2006 7:39 AM

There are two threads, both the same exact subject, one at Search Engine Watch Forums and the other at WebmasterWorld that asks if it is wise to use one Google Account for all your sites in your Google Webmaster Central...

Posted on November 1, 2006 6:59 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread has some credible sources claiming the site:www.domain.com, site command, at Google is becoming more accurate. In the past, conducting a site command on a domain may have returned a lot more pages than what is currently accessible...

Posted on October 30, 2006 7:31 AM

A WebmasterWorld thread asks why after he set up his site in Google's Webmaster Central Sitemaps, his site was no longer "verified." Vanessa Fox from Google replied saying; We recommend that you leave the verification file or meta tag in...

Posted on October 27, 2006 8:01 AM

Well that was fast! After I resubmitted the site October 25th at 7am and I checked again this morning at it is back in the index. This is after Jennifer Convertibles Web Site Hacked & Delisted In Google.com, I decided...

Posted on October 27, 2006 7:23 AM

The Google Webmaster Central blog announced the release of several new tools added to the Webmaster Central toolbox. The new features are pretty neat and include; Googlebot activity reports that shows the "number of pages Googlebot's crawled from your site...

Posted on October 19, 2006 7:24 AM