How do we handle sitemaps in robots.txt when multiple domains point to same physical location?
-
we have www.mysite.net, www.mysite.se, www.mysite.fi and so on. all of these domains point to the same physical location on our webserver, and we replace texts given back to client depending on which domain he/she requested.
My problem is this: How do i configure sitemaps in robots.txt when robots.txt is used by multiple domains? If I for instance put the rows
Sitemap: http://www.mysite.net/sitemapNet.xml
Sitemap: http://www.mysite.net/sitemapSe.xmlin robots.txt, would that result in some cross submission error?
-
Thanks for your help René!
-
yup
-
Yes, I mean GTW of course :).
A folder for each site would definitely make some things easier, but it would also mean more work every time we need to republish the site or make configurations.
Did I understand that googlelink correctly in that if we have verified ownership in GWT for all involved domains cross-site submission in robots.txt was okay? I guess google will think its okay anyway.
-
actually google has the answer, right here: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=75712
I always try to do what google recommends even though something might work just as well.. just to be on the safe side
-
you can't submit a sitemap in GA so I'm guessing you mean GWT
Whether or not you put it in the robots.txt shouldn't be a problem. since in each sitemap, the urls would look something like this:
Sitemap 1:<url><loc>http:/yoursite.coim/somepage.html</loc></url>
Sitemap 2:<url><loc>http:/yoursite.dk/somepage.html</loc></url>
I see no need to filter what sitemap is shown to the crawler. If your .htaccess is set-up to redirect traffic from the TLD (top level domain eg .dk .com ex.) to the correct pages. Then the sitemaps shouldn't be a problem.
The best solution would be: to have a web in web. (a folder for each site on the server) and then have the htaccess redirect to the right folder. in this folder you have a robots.txt and a sitemap for that specific site. that way all your problems will be gone in a jiffy. It will be just like managing different 3 sites. even though it isn't.
I am no ninja with .htaccess files but I understand the technology behind it and know what you can do in them. for a how to do it guide, ask google thats what I allways do when I need to goof around in the htaccess. I hope it made sense.
-
Thanks for your response René!
Thing is we already submit the sitemaps in google analytics, but this SEO company we hired wants us to put the sitemaps in robots.txt as well.
The .htaccess idea sounds good, as long as google or someone else dont think we are doing some cross-site submission error (as described here http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php#submit_robots)
-
I see no need to use robots.txt for that. use Google and Bings webmaster tools. Here you have each domain registered and can submit sitemaps to them for each domain.
If you want to make sure that your sitemaps are not crawled by a bot for a wrong language. I would set it up in the .htaccess to test for the entrance domain and make sure to redirect to the right file. Any bot will enter a site just like a browser so it needs to obey the server. so if the server tells it to go somewhere it will.
the robots.txt can't by it self, do what you want. The server can however. But in my opinion using bing and google webmaster tools should do the trick.
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
-
Meta Robots information
Hi, I have a question about the Meta Robots information Accoarding to the Moz bar, our page uses the meta robots noodp and noydir. Our competitor uses
On-Page Optimization | | AdoBike
INDEX,FOLLOW I read that noodp and noydir are dated and not used anymore. Is it wise to use INDEX FOLLOW instead for better SEO? Thanks in advance!1 -
Robot.txt file issue on wordpress site.
I m facing the issue with robot.txt file on my blog. Two weeks ago i done some development work on my blog. I just added few pages in robot file. Now my complete site seems to be blocked. I have checked and update the file and still having issue. The search result shows that "A description for this result is not available because of this site's robots.txt – learn more." Any suggestion to over come with this issue
On-Page Optimization | | Mustansar0 -
Repetition of Location on A Page
I was wondering if there was a certain number of times you had to repeat a location to help your page rank well. Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | OOMDODigital0 -
Subdomain vs. Root Domain design
I know that there are penalties if you have a navigation item in your categories that links to another site (root domain) that yields the same design as the original link. Is there any negative SEO implications with having a subdomain with the same design as the root domain i.e. root.com vs. store.root.com And the navigation functionality within will have links to both store.root.com as well as root.com directories? Thanks in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | customerparadigm.com0 -
Handling a Huge Amount of Crawl Errors
HI all, I am faced with a crawl errors issue of a huge site (>1MiO pages) for which I am doing On-page Audit. 404 Erorrs: >80'000 Soft 404 Errors: 300 500 Errors: 1600 All of the above reported in GWT. Many of the error links are simply not present on the pages "linked from". I investigated a sample of pages (and their source) looking for the error links footprints and yet nothing. What would be the right way to address this issue from SEO perspective, anyway? Clearly. I am not able to investigate the reasons since I am seeing what is generated as HTML and NOT seeing what's behind. So my question is: Generally, what is the appropriate way of handling this? Telling the client that he has to investigate that (I gave my best to at least report the errors) Engaging my firm further and get a developer from my side to investigate? Thanks in advance!!
On-Page Optimization | | spiderz0 -
What does this mean on first step up setting up a campaign? "Having two "twin" domains that both resolve forces them to battle for SERP positions, making your SEO efforts less effective. We suggest redirecting one, then entering the other here."
I am BRAND new to this, and setting up my first campaign. I choose subdomain, and entered www.pdsaz.com. This is the message I receive: We have detected that the domain www.pdsaz.com and the domain pdsaz.com both respond to web requests and do not redirect. Having two "twin" domains that both resolve forces them to battle for SERP positions, making your SEO efforts less effective. We suggest redirecting one, then entering the other here.
On-Page Optimization | | cschwartzel0 -
Advice needed form seo point of view
We have a client whose website is http://www.indigenaskincare.com/ There are frames in the site and will they hurm seo efforts. Also, what metrics are missing so that we can give advice to the client.
On-Page Optimization | | seoug_20050 -
Blog On Domain Or Off?
Hi, Which do you think is more powerful ito SEO rankings for my domain? Should I make the blog part of my domain or should I create a blog on a seperate domain? Zane
On-Page Optimization | | Springboks0