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How often do you update your sitemap ??

Posted by identikit • 7/15/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: google, sitemap

Do you update the sitemap every day or after posting?

User Comments

7/15/07

cymrusteve

ashamed to say, but yesterday was the first time i ever created a sitemap. used a wordpress plugin that made the task quite painless:

www.dagondesign.com/articles/sitemap-generator-plugin-for-wordpress/

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7/15/07

marksmatter

That is an awesome plugin that I use on every blog (except marksmatter.com because I've yet to load it). However, you do use the Google XML sitemap too, right? The dagondesign plugin will work right alongside it.

Make sure you submit the XML to big G. If unsure how to do it, there's a post on my front page right now.

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1. 7/15/07
  
  cymrusteve
  
  I'll check it out. Thanks Mark..
7/15/07

marksmatter

Back to the topic, I usually load a sitemap on Google about once a week.

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7/15/07

WokeupToday

I'm not doing sitemaps, don't know how, yet I'm in Google web search results...would it improve if I did sitemap?

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7/15/07

marksmatter

I've honestly got little idea how much weight Google gives to the sitemap, but my understanding is that it makes a lot easier for search engines to deep index your site. Google looks very favorably on blogs at the moment which may explain why you are showing up in the search pages. Regardless, googlebot will eventually find you.

However, you can probably improve on those results if you tell Google about your site (i.e. submit a sitemap). Visit this post for an overview on Google's Webmaster Tools and sitemap submission.

marksmatter.com/how-to-use-google%e2%80%99s-webmaster-tools-%e2%80%93-part-...

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7/15/07

WokeupToday

appreciate your information, and you have a very good blog, by the way, but it's just too complicated and technical for tech challenged me...i'm going to just take my chances.

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7/15/07

kudy

After submitting my sitemap to google my entire page was indexed 2 days later - I usually submit a new one after writing 2-3 articles, or immediately after writing something if I want it to be indexed immediately.

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7/15/07

emlegaspi

I try to update our sitemap everytime I write up a new page on our website. Visitors to the website usually look at the sitemap to find out what's on offer. It's like a book's index to a reader.

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7/15/07

PrettyLady

I use the feed as the sitemap, and it is updated each time there's a new post.

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7/15/07

marksmatter

I think the major difference is that pinging notifies mainly blog search engines, while the sitemap notifies Google proper (outside of the normal crawl schedule). That said, I'm not sure how the introduction of Google Blog Search (still in beta) may or may not have leveled the playing field.

Having a separate "page" labeled "sitemap" may help the bots too. No guarantees though - much of the search engine world remains a mystery...

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7/15/07

bnsullivan

Maybe the formal sitemap submission is more important for 'regular' websites than for blogs? (because the blogs have RSS feeds?) I don't know this -- I'm just musing, and wondering.

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7/15/07

marksmatter

I was wondering the same, because I do both. Obviously, there's no RSS feed for most relatively static sites. There may still be some merit in the realm of which search engines are actually notified by your ping, but I may be slightly web 1.0 on this one...

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7/15/07

sanktjohanser

marksmatter: If your running the sitemap generator plugin for wordpress, you might want to also consider this one.

www.arnebrachhold.de/2006/01/07/google-sitemap-generator-for-wordpress-3-be...

It automatically updates your xml sitemap with each post, so that you never have to worry about submitting it again. Also lets you tweak with the settings etc. As you said there are no guarantees, but being google compliant can't hurt.

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7/15/07

marksmatter

Thanks - I'll check into it. By the way, I was just on your My Bikes page. I used to drool over that Record Sprint 12 when I was a kid!

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1. 7/15/07
  
  marksmatter
  
  I spoke (no pun intended) too fast. I just looked at the plugin - it is the same one I recommend using. I've actually got a recent post on it. However, with respect to submittal, I think I am too used to traditional websites.
7/15/07

marksmatter

Sheesh - I'm obviously tired, I see the new sitemap generator is a new version and in beta. I'll upload it tomorrow and check it out (assuming my host gets their server issued fixed). No more blog posts until they do.

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7/15/07

bromoluz

I don't know how to do that

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7/15/07

clioandme

I'm not sure how a site map would help someone use a blog, and I don't see how the extra work would be worth it, at least not for my simple blogs.

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7/15/07

marksmatter

Sitemaps are really not for humans...they should only be read if you have watched all available paint dry. They are really there for search engines.

The XML sitemap takes about 30 seconds to install and activate. The one cymrusteve references takes a couple more minutes. Both are easy.

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7/15/07

bromoluz

I'm going try to do it, thanks for the tip!!

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7/16/07

daabomb2002

i have an xml sitemap for my blog www.techpressnewswire.info

it is updated automatically daily.

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8/27/09

syedyackub

whats the best way to submit site map to google. at present i'm using the latest version of wordpress. does the plugin support in this version. please help
my blog is at www.yackubs.com

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11/13/09

Nitajk

I read all these comments and what I am wondering is that the sitemap I submitted is in the form of a feed so therefore it means that I don't need to update the sitemap right? Not sure.

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