How does a sitemap affect the definition of canonical URLs?
-
We are having some difficulty generating a sitemap that includes our SEO-friendly URLs (the ones we want to set as canonical), and I was wondering if we might be able to simply use the non-SEO-friendly, non-canonical URLs that the sitemap generator has been producing and then use 301 redirects to send them to the canonical. Is there a reason why we should not be doing this? We don't want search engines to think that the sitemap URLs are more important than the pages to which they redirect.
How important is it that the sitemap URLs match the canonical URLs? We would like to find a solution outside of the generation of the sitemap itself as we are locked into using a vendor’s product in order to generate the sitemap.
Thanks!
-
Thank you for your responses.
We use Endeca, but while they have a site map generator, for whatever reason they are unable to produce URLs that match our new SEO-friendly vanity URLs. Right now we've had no site map for months, as we're waiting to try and find a solution to this problem.
From what I'm gathering, this is the right approach? As in, it would do more harm than good to upload a "bad" sitemap. Yes?
Also, there seems to be no way to get around this with a clever redirect scheme. Am I right in this also?
In which case, it may boil down to choosing between an accurate sitemap and SEO'd URLs. Not sure which would be more important.
Website's here, if that's useful: www.pli.edu
-
Bing has said that anything over 1% of bad URLs in a sitemap constitutes a dirty sitemap to them, so yes, it is very important.
Are you able to share the system that you're using? Others may have experience in working around this already.
-
It's extremely important the sitemap URLs match the canonical URLs that people arrive at. If they do not match the search engine will consider the sitemap "dirty" and not valuable as it is not accurate to the actual layout of the website.
Essentially, the search engines consider a sitemap URL that does not return an HTTP 200 status a bad URL and reject the sitemap. This is absolutely something that you should work to correct.
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
-
No structured sitemap
Hello We face this problem that a lot of sitemaps are structurally not good. In this case we used the WP sitemap plugin to generate the website sitemap and Google XML sitemaps to generate the sitemap for Google. We also bought the Yoast premium plugin, but we can read in the backend that the plugin XML sitemaps may cause problems in combination with Yoast. Normally the Google XML sitemap generator improves SEO using sitemaps for the best indexation by search engines, but the structure is not as we want it. Will Yoast be a better solution to generate structured sitemaps? This is a section from the current sitemap of www.rovana.be. Products Reepgordijn Plissé - Dupli gordijn Duo rolgordijn Paneelgordijn Jaloezie - Vlinderjaloezie Poorten Muggenramen Velux accessoires Rolgordijn Vouwgordijn Buitenjaloezie Voorzetrolluik Glasdak Glaswand Vouwdak Pergola Verlichting - Verwarming Automatisering Lamellendak Verandazonwering Screens Koepel zonwering This is how we think the sitemap should look like. We would like more structure in the different product categories. Producten Zonwering Zonnescherm
Technical SEO | | conversal
Screens
Verandazonwering
Koepel zonwering
Automatisering
Verwarming – verlichting Terrasoverkapping Lamellendak
Pergola
VouwdaK
Glasdak
Glaswand Raamdecoratie Rolgorijn
Paneelgordijn
Duo rolgordijn
Vouwgordijn
Plissé – dupli gordijn
Jaloezie – vlinderjaloezie
Reepgordijn
Velux accessoires Rolluiken Voorzetrolluiken
Buitenjaloezie
Velux accessoires Muggenramen Muggenraam
Velux accessoires Poorten Sectionaal poort Is this technically possible to create similar sitemaps in WordPress and how exactly do we proceed here? What is the impact of these changes on SEO? How can we make this work? Thanks!0 -
Sitemap Rules
Hello there, I have some questions pertaining to sitemaps that I would appreciate some guidance on. 1. Can an XML sitemap contain URLs that are blocked by robots.txt? Logically, it makes sense to me to not include pages blocked by robots.txt but would like some clarity on the matter i.e. will having pages blocked by robots.txt in a sitemap, negatively impact the benefit of a sitemap? 2. Can a XML sitemap include URLs from multiple subdomains? For example: http://www.example.com/www-sitemap.xml would include the home page URL of two other subdomains i.e. http://blog.example.com/ & http://blog2.example.com/ Thanks
Technical SEO | | SEONOW1230 -
Automate XML Sitemaps
Quick question, which is the best method that people have for automating sitemaps. We publish around 200 times a day and I would like to make sure as soon as we publish it gets updated in the site map. What is the best method of updating a sitemap so it gets updated immediately after it is published.
Technical SEO | | mattdinbrooklyn0 -
OSE says URL redirects to URL with trailing slash but it doesn't.
Site is www.example.com/folder/us and OSE says this URL redirects to www.example.com/folder/us/, but it does not. When I look at the OSE report for the latter version with the "/" it says "No Data Available For This URL". Why would that be? The original URL is www.example.com and it redirects to www.example.com/folder/us. Is this anything I need to worry about? I thought that the trailing / doesn't really mean much anymore but nonetheless, why does it think it redirects there?
Technical SEO | | rock220 -
Do I have a canonical problem?
Does this site www.davidclick.com have a canonical problem because the home page can be requested via 3 different urls http://www.davidclick.com/
Technical SEO | | Nightwing
http://davidclick.com/
http://www.davidclick.com/index.htm but I'm confused in terms of applying a fix for example all advice here http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=139066#1 says i need to identify the duplicate files and add So my question is please if I do have a canonical problem how can i fix it when I only have one file for my home page, there are no duplicates 😞 Any insights welcome 🙂0 -
I'm redesigning a website which will have a new URL format. What's the best way to redirect all the old URLs to the new ones? Is there an automated, fast way to do this?
For example, the new URL will be: https://oregonoptimalhealth.com/about_us.html while the old one's were like this: http://www.oregonoptimalhealth.com/home/ooh/smartlist_1/services.html I have redirect almost 100 old pages to the correct new page. What's the best and easiest way to do this?
Technical SEO | | PolarisMarketing0 -
Xml Sitemap
Hi mozzers, I am about to submit a sitemap for one of my clients via webmaster tools. The issue is that I have way too many urls that I don't want them to be indexed by Google such as testing pages, auto generated pages... Is there way to remove certain URL from the XML sitemap or is this impossible? If impossible, is the only way to control these urls is to "No index" all these pages that i don't want the search engine to see? Thanks Mozzers,
Technical SEO | | Ideas-Money-Art0 -
Sitemap Creation
Hi I am looking for the best way to generate an XML sitemap for webmaster tools for my website http://www.cheapfindergames.com. I have come across http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ but it only allows up to 500 links. Is there a PHP script that any experts could share that would create the XML map that I could upload please? Many Thanks
Technical SEO | | ocelot0
