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Ror.xml vs sitemap.xml
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Hey Mozzers,
So I've been reading somethings lately and some are saying that the top search engines do not use ror.xml sitemap but focus just on the sitemap.xml. Is that true?
Do you use ror? if so, for what purpose, products, "special articles", other uses? Can sitemap be sufficient for all of those?
Thank you,
Vadim
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ok so yes its the standard, but does google look at ror? or other key niche news content aggregators? for which it might be important any thoughts?
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Hi Vjay,
The sitemaps protocol was adopted as a standard by the three major search engines back in 2007.
This is not to say that other methods of submitting a sitemap don't work, but if you follow the sitemap protocol as described at sitemaps.org then you know that you are working within the standard recognized by Google, Bing & Yahoo.
Hope that helps,
Sha
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