Is the site map working?

Forum Moderators: open

Message Too Old, No Replies

Is the site map working?

problems with getting google to index most of the URLs

Admaster

10:36 pm on Sep 1, 2008 (gmt 0)

Our site was getting decent traffic until a server problem slowed things down and it had an issue extracting from a database. This was causing google to experience time outs and they would not index fully. We have added an XML site map through google webmaster tools and we have 4900 URLs - it has indexed 48 URLs in two weeks and hasn't got back to decent traffic levels for two months. COuld it be the site map generation itself? How long does it take google to index fuly. We have checked and there seem to be no further issues with the URLs to worry about. Cheers, Admaster

httpwebwitch

9:03 pm on Sep 2, 2008 (gmt 0)

Hi Admaster,

An XML sitemap is a mere pleasantry. Google will index your site with or without it, provided that every page is accessible via normal hyperlinks.

Google crawl behaviour is not predictable. But it makes sense that if Google has trouble visiting your site, it may not see+follow its links, and may not achieve a full crawl. Repeated server problems may result in Googlebot not bothering to come back.

And it has been recently noted that slow download times DO affect your ranking.

Concentrate on fixing the server problem and abolishing those timeouts. That is your #1 priority - don't worry about XML sitemaps until you have that problem licked.