Does anyone have suggestions for a good XML Sitemap Generator?
-
Does anyone have any suggestions on a good XML Sitemap Generator? Also interested in best practices and tips for updating the XML Sitemap.
I typically have relied on my web developers to do this however it seems that they have not been setting this up with SEO in mind.
-
Google will look for /sitemaps.xml. This is pretty standard.
Some people may not name it that way - not advised. But if you're using the other sitemaps for images, videos, etc, then you can use the robots.txt file to tell search engines where they are explicitly.
Also, be sure to set up an account at http://www.google.com/webmasters/ and submit your sitemaps there.
-
Thanks for the info! I'm working on loading up the xml-sitemaps software now.
What is the purpose of a link to all the sitemaps in a robots.txt file?
-
If you have ftp access to the root, you can simply overwrite the current one with a new one. Google will pick it up.
Also, you should include a link to all your sitemaps in a robots.txt file - also in the root. If you look at SEOMoz's robots.txt file, you can see how to do that. http://www.seomoz.org/robots.txt
-
there is already a sitemap on my server that was generated by my web developers. What is the best practice for overriding an existing site map?
-
Thank you Cyril. Based on my research as well this seems to be a good option. Google webmaster tools also recommends it.
-
Thanks Jbrock!
That really helps to see how yours is set up. My website developer currently has a sitemap set up however I don't think its taking advantage of all the features possible.
-
You can probably set it to ignore parameters you don't want added to the sitemap. Here's a screenshot from my standalone version to give you an idea of the settings.
-
I bought the standalone version of http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/standalone-google-sitemap-generator.html in 2007 or 8 and have really liked it. They've really kept the product updated, but the $19.99 price hasn't changed since.
It gives you a high degree of control, supports really large websites, generates multiple sitemaps (xml, image, video, news, mobile, ror, etc.) and more. Plus, updates are free for life once you purchase.
Use the free generator on the homepage to see how it works.
-
Hey Nathan,
I've used this one in the past <cite>www.xml-sitemaps.com/ </cite>
It works pretty decently for me, but you have to make sure you edit it after its created. Look for pages that no longer exist or are redirected somewhere else. Also make sure you aren't listing any pages with search query's in them, (www.url.com/index.php**?xxxx**) if you use search query's that way.
Updating is just what it is, every time you create a new page on your site, you need to update the site map.
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
-
Links>TopPages: Mostly image URLs: Good for SEO? Redirect obsolete ones??
Looking at my "Links > Top Pages" report shows the top fifteen being image URLs (jpg files). Weird or normal? Clicking the "View Links" icon for a few of the image URL's shows that the best links in the list have DA in the 30's and 40's, and some PA in the 20's. But the linking sites have names that SOUND pretty crappy (from sites with names that sound weird or spammy) QUESTION 1: Do links to image URLs... A) help the overall SEO of the site's HTML pages, B) only help the specific page the image appears on, C) or are they of no value to the regular pages? QUESTION 2: What to do with the obsolete images? (images still hosted on our site, but do not appear on any pages) If I remove the images, the links will be lost. Which is good if the links are hurting us, but it would be bad for our SEO if the links are helping (unless we 301 the obsolete images to current ones) Thanks!
Moz Pro | | GregB1230 -
Just how accurate is anyone's appraisal on this forum?
When people are discussing what affects their search engine rankings on this particular forum, which has got to be one of the most read on the Internet just how much guesswork is really going on? It seems like God almighty Google works from its own criteria and the rest of us all scrap to guess! I myself in the last week of posted various topics on here and are conflicting reports by so-called experts not that I am being critical for the sake of it. If you to one website and said to all the people on this forum just exactly why is it ranking to a degree for this particular key phrase or not as the case may be would there be any truly accurate knowledgeable answers that will come through and explained the difference? If you have a top 10 of most important things that would influence your rankings that are not guesswork would that be possible to say based on knowledge and expertise? And if so spill the beans what are ? What are the movers and shakers in their particular keyword phrases doing ongoing that's getting them the great results we all want ? Or is the entire subject of how well you rank ultimately not totally understood and only the realms of guesswork based on observation. When I was young I trained as electrician which dealt in facts, it seems like this is not possible with the world of business and search engine rankings?
Moz Pro | | WhitbyHolidayCottages1 -
In alt tag of a image can we use #hashtag or domain.com ? Is that good SEO or not allowed ?
Some of the Google Search shows a title has a hashtag of an article, which contain keyword and while tweeting them, the title which has a hashtag automatically very good used for getting traffic to the blog. And other one, can we use the hash tag inside the alt attribute ? Or our domain name with .com in it. Like Google.com or #Google ?
Moz Pro | | Esaky0 -
My Google Keyword Rankings are Missing. Anyone else having this problem?
I logged in to pull my reports for my clients and noticed that I am missing all of my ranked keywords for my campaigns for the Google columns. One word is ranked. All the rest have a TUES sign that looks like it references Tuesday. Is anyone else having this issue? I had over 30 words ranked last week. Only showing 1 today. The rankings for Bing and Yahoo are intact though. There is no report showing a decline in ranking for all those words either (in the google column.) This is also happening in another campaign of mine but they have a WEDS in place of the google ranking... ugh Frustrated...
Moz Pro | | JChronicle1 -
I'm seeing duplicate links listed in open site explorer. Can anyone explain why this might be happening?
For each link listed in Open Site Explorer, I am seeing two identical entries. You can see why this might be a problem for both workflow and data accuracy. Any ideas why this might be happening? Is there a setting or filter that I'm missing?
Moz Pro | | StephenEggett0 -
Did anyone else see "Rel Canonical" drop to zero after their latest SEOmoz crawl?
In the Crawl Diagnostics section of the SEOmoz reports, we get errors in red, warnings in yellow, and notices in blue. After my latest crawl, I saw the "Rel Canonical" part go from about 300 down to 0. Obviously, this isn't right, so I'm wondering if this is a bug that everyone is experiencing. U9W5I
Moz Pro | | UnderRugSwept0 -
Rank Tracker is anyone else having problems with it
Hi, i have been trying to check some ranks with my site www.in2town.co.uk but for some reason over the past couple of days the rank tracker has not been working. I thought it could be a fult with my computer but i have tried a few computers and i am still getting the same responce. Can anyone let me know if they are experiencing any problems
Moz Pro | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Meta description tag in rss xml file?
The SEOmoz crawl diagnostic tool is complaining that I'm missing a meta description tag from a file that is an RSS xml file. In my <channel>section I do have a <description>tag. Is this a bug in the SEOmoz tool or do I need to add another tag to satisify the warning?</description></channel>
Moz Pro | | scanlin0