Is it important to include image files in your sitemap?
-
I run an ecommerce business that has over 4000 product pages which, as you can imagine, branches off into thousands of image files. Is it necessary to include those in my sitemap for faster indexing?
Thanks for you help!
-Reed
-
Thanks Gianluca, very helpful.
-
I'd add one condition:
we do really want our images to rank in Google Images? Maybe we don't want that, especially since Google Images is not anymore that great source of traffic it was before its layout changed (we can see photos directly inside Google without clicking the "see the page" link). If it is so, I would prioritizes the image sitemaps.
But if you want your images indexed, picked up (and hotlinked) by other site or directly stolen but with you being able to find who used them without credit, then the image sitemap is needed:
here an example directly by Google: http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1/sitemap-image.xsd.
I don't know what CMS are you using, but if it WordPress, the WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin automatically generates the image sitemaps.
-
Yes, this will help Google when crawling them as it will give them additional info.
-Andy
-
Thanks Andy,
Would it be best to have all the img alt tags set up before adding site-map?
-
Hi,
It isn't necessary, but if you really want to ensure that every image is indexed by Google, then it will be beneficial to do this otherwise you might not have them all discovered simply by crawling.
-Andy
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
-
Google Search Console - Sitemap
Hi all, Quick question. I'm trying to update my sitemap via Google Search Console using a sitemap.xml file that I've created with ScreamingFrog. However, when trying to submit it, it seems that Google only allows sitemaps that are located at a path within your domain (i.e. www.example.com/sitemap.xml) as opposed to being able to directly upload a sitemap.xml file.Is there any way that I can easily upload my sitemap.xml file? Or is there any easy way that I can upload the file to a path on my domain so I can upload via the URL?Any insight would be much appreciated!Best,Sung
Technical SEO | | hdeg0 -
Moving to TLS and disavow file
I'm considering the move to TLS/SSL obviously will be setting up the version in Search Console, do I need to re-upload the disavowal file previously generated before the move? Look forward to your response.
Technical SEO | | seoman100 -
Recovering from Sitemap Issues with Bing
Hi all, I recently took over SEO efforts for a large e-commerce site (I would prefer not to disclose). About a month ago, I began to notice a significant drop in traffic from Bing and uncovered in Bing Webmaster Tools that three different versions of the sitemap were submitted and Bing was crawling all three. I removed the two out of date sitemaps and re-submitted the up to date version. Since then, I have yet to see Bing traffic rebound and the amount of pages indexed by Bing is still dropping daily. During this time there has been no issue with traffic from Google. Currently I have 1.3 million pages indexed by Google while Bing has dropped to 715K (it was at 755K last week and was on par with Google several months ago). I know that no major changes have been made to the site in the past year so I can't point to anything other than the sitemap issue to explain this. If this is indeed the only issue, how long should I expect to wait for Bing to re-index the pages? In the interim I have been manually submitting important pages that aren't currently in the index. Any insights or suggestions would be very much appreciated!
Technical SEO | | tdawson090 -
Using images from one domain on another?
I run a travel photography business where I sell fine art prints. I've been toying with the idea of creating a few new websites about some of the places I've traveled to. This is for a few reasons. First, because I love talking about my travels. But second, because I feel like it might be a good way to bring in more print sales from those places. The question I have, if I were to use the images from my main photography sales domain on a different domain, how does this affect SEO? These images filenames for the photographs are already optimized well for searching. Thanks!
Technical SEO | | shannmg10 -
Sitemap indexed pages dropping
About a month ago I noticed my pages indexed from my sitemap are dropping.There are 134 pages in my sitemap and only 11 are indexed. It used to be 117 pages and just died off quickly. I still seem to be getting consistant search traffic but I'm just not sure whats causing this. There are no warnings or manual actions required in GWT that I can find.
Technical SEO | | zenstorageunits0 -
Should the date be included in news URLs
My website is not a news or magazine site, but we do have a news section updated 2-3 times a week with industry related news. We are working on a new structure for the URLs.
Technical SEO | | theLotter
Should the date be included in the URL? From this article from Google I understand that as long as we submit a news sitemap it doesnt matter whether or not numbers are included in the URL, correct? https://support.google.com/news/publisher/answer/68323?topic=116650 -
Image map crawlability
Hey Mozzer's, I'm reviewing a moving site which utilizes an image map for their service areas. As I'm new to image mapping how should I diagnose them for crawlability, effectiveness, code (which appears correct using HTML & alt text tag), what should I be looking for, etc? I'm trying to determine the effectiveness of the image map links compared to including some regular lateral links on the page. Page: http://bit.ly/KOOtgN Thanks in advance for all advice and insights.
Technical SEO | | Bragg0 -
Keywords in file names vs folder names
We understand the value of a keyword phrase included in the URL. Is there more value to having that phrase in the folder name of the URL or the file name or does it matter? Example: http://www.biztoolsone.com/website-design.php or http://www.biztoolsone.com/website-design/ Which is best? Thanks, Wick Smith
Technical SEO | | wcksmith0