Do we need to update our sitemaps each time our content changes?
-
Dear SEO experts!
We have created sites maps to get our international sub-domains indexed, however we're unsure if we have to update our sitemaps each time our content changes on our many landing pages which are translated to 17 different languages? Obviously the goal is to make it dynamic so it updates itself.
I hope you can help us with some advice.
Thanks a lot!
Allan
-
Thanks a lot for your answers, fantastic!
Best regards,
Allan
-
Ahh yes, <lastmod>. How did I forget this, I'm usually such a stickler on sitemaps. Do you have any further info on 2% tolerance Alan, or is that just your personal findings? </lastmod>
-
I have to disagree, if you include <a><lastmod></a>2012-07-24T08:36:20Zlastmod> tag, then yes you should update it. Bing for example will ignore your site map if it is not accurate. The have a tolerance of about 2% errors.
If your site is only small, and all your pages are linked, then I would not even bother with a sitemap. Bing also stats that you should not list all your pages in a sitemap, but only your key pages.
Sitemaps don't help rankings only indexing, on large sites it is good to tell the search engine what pages have changed, or what pages are good pages to find links to other pages,
-
Hi Allan
You don't need to update the sitemap if the content has changed but the URL of the page remains the same. The only time I update sitemaps is 1. if there are new pages and 2. if we remove pages. If you don't update the sitemap after you remove a page then you'll get 404s (e.g. a busy e-commerce site when products are sold out and not going to be restocked, you'd remove the page).
-
Hey Allan,
You only need to update your sitemaps if you are creating new pages; if you are simply updating the content on pages that already exist in the sitemaps, you do not need to update them.
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
-
Duplicate content across English-speaking ccTLDs
Morning, If a brand offering pretty the same products/services has 4 English-speaking ccTLDs (.com, .co.uk, .com.au and .co.nz), what are the best practices when thinking about SEO and content? In an ideal world, all content should be totally unique, but when the products/services offered across every ccTLD are the same, this may prove tricky. Am I right in thinking that duplicate content across ccTLDs is tolerated by Google as they know you're targeting specific countries? Cheers!
International SEO | | PeaSoupDigital0 -
Is it OK to change language by user IP?
Hello, I just read https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/182192?hl=en#1 about multilingual website. Google says "Avoid automatic redirection based on the user’s perceived language". so Is it ok to redirect url by user IP instead of user language?
International SEO | | visaasancard0 -
Include mobile and international versions of pages to sitemap or not?
My pages already have alternate and hreflang references to point to international and mobile versions of the content. If I add 5 language desktop versions and 5 language mobile versions as https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2620865?hl=en explains, my sitemap will get bulky. What are the pros and cons for referencing all page versions in sitemap and for include just general (English/Desktop) version in sitemap?
International SEO | | poiseo0 -
Impact changing domain from ccTLD to .com
I've got a couple of clients who have an international market for their products or services. Both of these clients have a .co.uk domain. For one site the US market is the major audience, the other it's european countries. At the moment, neither of these clients have translated page or content targeted to a specific country. There are no plans at this stage to create such content. Google considers the .co.uk to be targeted to the United Kingdom. The assumption is that by changing this to .com it will increase their international reach. For both the domains, referral and direct traffic is much more diverse than organic (which as you'd expect is heavily UK weighted - but there is some international organic traffic) Does anyone have any experience making such a change? How did the change affect your international reach/visibility? Does anyone have any metrics that they'd like to share that could be used to make a case to clients? (Note, I'm not interested in how you'd go about handling the domain change - I'm happy/confident about doing this.)
International SEO | | DougRoberts0 -
International algorithm update release dates.
Does anyone know if Google releases all algorithm updates worldwide or if they do it slowly across the globe? I have a SEO agency in Argentina and it does not seem like the algorithm updates hit us as they do in the USA. I’ll give you an example. Penguin 2.0 did not even create a dent in some really spammy websites that we watch. Thanks Carla
International SEO | | Carla_Dawson0 -
Changing server location for a global targetted site
Hi, I am just in the process of purchasing a site from someone. The site has a global target audience (well global English speaking anyway). The site is on a .info domain and is currently hosted in Germany. Checking on SemRush it looks like 70% of traffic comes from English speaking countries (US, Australia, Canada, UK). Now I need to move the hosting to one of my own when I change ownership of the site. Now does it overly matter where I choose my hosting as currently it is hosted in Germany (around 4% of visitors from Germany) but I want to do my best not to knock any rankings but I was thinking of moving it to a UK or US based host but still want to keep a general worldwide userbase. As the US accounts for the largest part of traffic (39%) would I be best choosing hosting based over in the US or does it not overly matter too much (I am in the UK so most hosting I use is UK based). I have read a number of posts on server location but most seem to be for site which have a country specific target audience. Thanks for your help! 🙂
International SEO | | Wardy0 -
Export sitemap or internal linking structure in a visual diagram?
Is there a FREE ONLINE tool that will Export a existing sitemap or internal linking structure in a visual diagram? I'm trying to help my clients see there existing sitemaps in a visual document and show how each page links to the next. Is there a FREE ONLINE tool that does this?
International SEO | | splashmedia0 -
Is duplicate content really an issue on different International Google engines?
i.e. Google.com v.s. Google.co.uk This relates to another question I have open on a similar issue. So if I open the same e-commerce site (virtually) on company.com and company.co.uk, does Google really view that as duplicate content? I would be inclined to think they have that figured out but I havent had much experience with international SEO...
International SEO | | BlinkWeb0