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    4. How would you create and then segment a large sitemap?

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    How would you create and then segment a large sitemap?

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    • SystemIDBarcodes
      SystemIDBarcodes last edited by

      I have a site with around 17,000 pages and would like to create a sitemap and then segment it into product categories.

      Is it best to create a map and then edit it in something like xmlSpy or is there a way to silo sitemap creation from the outset?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • SystemIDBarcodes
        SystemIDBarcodes @Saijo.George last edited by

        Thanks Saijo,

        We are trying to silo product types/categories and break them into different sitemaps. I'm familiar with SF but I don't think it will create sitemaps with the granularity that we are looking for.

        I'm using XMLSpy but I'm finding it hard to break out blocks of content.

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • SystemIDBarcodes
          SystemIDBarcodes @Saijo.George last edited by

          To my knowledge, Screaming Frog doesn't allow you to create an XML sitemap. Perhaps Excel allows you to format the output from SF but I'm not sure. I did find a utility called XMLSpy which, though pricey, allows me to do some of the sorting I was looking for. Once sorted, I can manually pull out sections to segment my sitemap. It is a pain in the neck because I can determine a silo and do it automatically. That being said, I think I can develop a sitemap template and have our new web programmer to develop a way to auto generate a group of segmented sitemaps.

          Anyone know if there is a canned solution that works with IIS?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Saijo.George
            Saijo.George last edited by

            If you site is structured such that the urls contain the categories you wish to sort , you can use something like Screaming Frog ( http://www.screamingfrog.co.uk/seo-spider/ ) and export all the urls and sort them out via excel in to categories and go that way

            NOTE : the free version has a 500 url limit, so you might want to look at paid ( ask them if it can handle 17,00 urls before getting it ) or look at http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html ( I haven't used it myself , so don't know if you can export stuff to excel from there )

            Good luck mate , sounds like you have a big job ahead of you.

            SystemIDBarcodes 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
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