Is Your Google Sitemap Hurting Your Ranking?

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First off you might not know what a Google Sitemap or a XML sitemap is.

This is a file that you put on your site that is only for the search engine spiders it is not seen by your visitors.

This file can get you indexed very quickly with Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Ask because it lists all the pages on your site and how often they are modified. This makes the search engines happy because they don’t have to work as hard to get all your listings.

This is a great tool in the SEO wars, it lets you get your pages indexed in no time and let’s face it you can’t do well in the search engines unless you are indexed.

There are a couple of free programs that you can use to create your sitemaps, if you have a WordPress blog you can use a plugin called Google XML Sitemap from Arne Brachhold that will automatically create your sitemap and notify the search engines, if your site isn’t on WordPress you can use a program called GSite Crawler to create and upload your XML sitemap.

I do highly recommend that you have a XML sitemap for your site because it WILL help you get your content indexed and move you up the search engines. With that said…

YOUR XML SITEMAP CAN BE HURTING YOUR RANKING!

If you have errors in your sitemap it can actually hurt your rankings with Google, most of the time when people think about errors they figure the code in the sitemap must be the cause but both the programs listed above will create your sitemap with perfect code but you can still have errors as far as Google is concerned.

The reason for this is because Google not only holds your sitemap to the strict XML code but it also holds your site to Google’s policies for indexing, such as 404 error (missing pages) which a lot of people know about but what a lot of people don’t know about is that you will also get errors if you violate their redirect policy on your site.

Google doesn’t like redirects that never become visible to the viewer. Things like cloaked affiliate links and sales links and these will create an error in your sitemap. This only applies if you have the links actually in your sitemap, if they are coming from your site such as www.mysite.com/recommends/buythis.html then they will probably be in your sitemap. This is a common cloaking technique for affiliate links.

Sales links can also create this, for example on one of my sites I use DownLoad Guard to handle the sales and download protection for my products. The script creates a link for the purchase that goes to the script and then redirects the customer to ClickBank to purchase the product. The viewer never sees the page they are clicking on.

While there is nothing nefarious about this link Google still sees it as a violation of their policy and it will create an error in your sitemap file and this can get you knocked down in the listings.

To fix this you can simply put a no follow tag in the link you are using.

HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE ERROR IN YOUR XML SITEMAP?

This is actually pretty easy to do. Just signup at Google Webmaster Tools and register all your sites that have XML sitemaps. If they see an error they will mark it as a warning and even tell you what the problem is.

Once you have verified all your sites wait a couple of days and log in to see if you have any errors. If you see a warning beside any of the sites click on it and it will tell you the error if it is too many redirects start using the no follow tag on those links or remove the links from your sitemap.

If you would be interested in me making a video showing you how to set up your Google Account for sitemaps and how to fix some of the errors let me know by leaving a comment below.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 11:03 am and is filed under SEO, Tools | Services . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “Is Your Google Sitemap Hurting Your Ranking?”

1. Niche Traffic Says:
   May 10th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

   Thanks for the heads up. I checked my webmaster toolkit and I seem to be okayIt’s funny how easy it is to forget to check the webmasters account

   1. Thanks for the comment. People don’t often think of Google as the powerful webmaster tool that it is but it really does have a lot of the tools you need to succeed online. Most them are for free.

      Randy The Hermit

2. Tony Says:
   May 10th, 2008 at 2:48 pm

   Thanks Randy. Excellent post. And yes, if you could produce the video you mentioned, showing how to set up our Google Account for sitemaps and how to fix some of the errors, that would be very helpful too.Keep up the good work. I appreciate your service to our community.Tony Nelson

   1. Hi Tony,

      Thanks for the comments. I have a video on how to get set up and use GSiteCrawler on another site and you can get it free by going to:

      Get Me Indexed Now!

      and use the JV Code freevids

      I also have a video on installing the WordPress plugin so look for a post to that video in the near future.

      I don’t have a video created for checking and debugging you sitemap yet. When I get one done I will let you know.

      Randy The Hermit

3. Chris Says:
   May 10th, 2008 at 3:44 pm

   Randy,i allready am set up with Google,but keep getting errors.I would love it if you did a video that showed us how to get rid of or fix these url warnings.i keep getting them for redirect or temp moved,and on and on.I would like to know how to add a meta tag to these urls to stop google from seing them.My page rank was a two,now google has busted me back down to a one page rank because of this.Thanks.

   1. Hi Chris,

      I don’t have a video done for that yet for finding the bugs but when I get one done I will let you know about it.

      Randy The Hermit

4. Brennan Kingsland Says:
   May 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm

   Randy,For all of us technically-challenged, can you tell us where to go to find out how to DO a site map?Thank you,Brennan

   1. Hi Brennan,

      I have a video on how to get set up and use GSiteCrawler on another site and you can get it free by going to:

      Get Me Indexed Now!

      and use the JV Code freevids

      There will be one coming for the WordPress Plugin too.

      Randy The Hermit

5. Marianne Says:
   May 10th, 2008 at 6:43 pm

   Nice article!! It’s amazing sometimes that what you don’t know really can hurt you in some ways. I’ll have to check mine. I installed it so long ago-who knows!Thanks for some valuable info!

   1. Hi Marianne,

      I also forget to check sometimes and it was just recently when I was setting up a new sitemap that I saw the problem. It seems Google just started enforcing the redirect policy in the last few months. I am sure most other people don’t check and a lot of people that use blogs don’t even have the account set up at Google Webmaster tools because they just added the plugin and will have no idea if there is an error.

      Hopefully, you won’t have any.

      Randy The Hermit

6. Clive Praed Says:
   May 10th, 2008 at 7:50 pm

   Do I need one of these things.
   I have an e-Book site and the only content is e-Books for sale, so the site is never modified.
   I also have another site with one page on it that will never be touched if it sits there for 10 years as it is just a sales page.
   Anyway, the e-Book site is a php site so it cannot be modified or updated unless I can afford a computer programmer to do it.
   I have a Wordpress blog installed on both my sites, but, without the aforementioned computer programmer it cannot be used.
   Nobody except a programmer can do anything to a Wordpress blog after it is installed by Fantastico.
   Both of mine have sat untouched for a year because, without advanced qualifications, I will not be able to install themes or download plugins.

   Another good post - but for very advanced IT experts only.

   1. Hi Clive,

      I am a firm believer in the quote by Henry Ford, “Whether you believe you can or believe you can’t you are correct.”

      Yes, you do need to have some technical skill to do this BUT it is a long, long ways from this to an advanced IT expert. I literally know 100’s of people that have created their own sites edit their own sites that are created with php (like WordPress blogs) and I don’t know a “advanced IT expert” I am surely not an “advanced IT expert” everything I know about the technical aspects of website development and maintenance I taught myself either by doing or by studying online courses.

      This stuff isn’t that hard to learn if you are willing to put in a little time and effort. You don’t need to go to college for it as a matter of fact I personally know a couple of high school drop outs that run their own sites.

      I am going to put your comment in its own post and we will let the people that read this comment and tell you a little about their own story.

      Randy The Hermit

7. Christopher Phillips Says:
   May 11th, 2008 at 7:39 am

   Hi Randy
   Super article that came at the right time.
   I had already downloaded Gsitecrawler but was a bit wary of running it.
   I have done so now and was really impressed with what it was able to do.
   I had previously tried another program that altered some of my site files
   and took ages to put right.
   Your article is really clear but a video would be the icing on an already
   great cake!
   Thanks again
   Regards
   Chris

   1. Hi Chris,

      Thanks for the comment. As far as setting up and using GSiteCrawler you can get to a video on that using the link in the comments above. The WordPress Plugin will be coming soon and a video on how to fix some of the errors.

      Stay tuned to this station for more breaking news

      Randy The Hermit

8. Jack Powell Says:
   May 25th, 2008 at 7:42 pm

   Wow! You are truly amazing. Thanks for all your info and assistance. Yes, the video would help.I can relate to Clive’s predicament and frustration. I’m reminded of the frog trying to get out of the well. He jumps three feet and slides back two (sometimes 3). But he nevers gives up and keeps jumping. One day on a jump he clears the top and is outside on the ground. That’s where I will be one day if you will have the patience to continue to assist me as well as others.You have a trait that is difficult to find. I have followed other marketers for several years and when they become fairly successful, their generosity and assistance to others wanes. Their interest becomes helping themselves only at the expense of others. But you remain steadfast with your concern and willingness to spread your knowledge. THANKS, Randy. Jack

   1. Hi Jack,

      Good to see you hear. Thank you for the kind words.
      But I have to admit that with over 12,000 members at my various sites I do get a little over extended now and then But it is people like you that are actually doing the work that keep me motivated.

      Randy The Hermit

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