milesaaway
New Member
Some of big portals hide their sitemaps. I've been cooperation with other guy at tourist guide which few hundreds unique pages. He is afraid of having sitemap.xml straight after domain ( domainname.com/sitemap.xml ). Are there any threats of having sitemap in this location ? I don't see any problem in showing your sitemap.xml in your home page. Its OK and many websites do it and maybe some websites don't do this for some reasons but i am almost sure it has no bad effect on ranking of your website. Sitemaps are using for telling search engines the structure of your links better and showing or not showing them can't make ranking problem for your links on Google or other search engines IMO. My buddy was rather thinking about possibility of easy copying of entire website. Most of pages are loaded with use of AJAX. And that was actually the main reason of using sitemap. This is the only info for searchers about existing pages. Traditional crawler wouldn't reach most of pages. And that solution works fine by the way.
Well, let's assume that is very easy to copy entire website and store it on disc. Is there any danger that someone who copy it can make a use of it in a way which could impair us ? The website is a tourist guide. ( sorry for my english. If I'm not clear let me know so I can explain it in different way ) Usually Google crawlers searches for the main directory only.So it is best to keep our file in that folder or main directory. You are right guys. The main directory seems to be the best place. I was just curious why some bigger portals hide it. Anyway the majority have sitemaps.xml in main directory. I just checked bbc.co.uk and tomshardware.com . Interesting thing that tomshardware has in sitemap only urls to fresh pages. That was to be actually my next question - It is ok for searchers if I leave in sitemap only urls that where created/modified within last month ? Or maybe should I keep uploading full index of all existing URLs ? I generate sitemap.xml dynamically and it doesn't matter which option I go with. The question is what is more healthy for searchers ? I don't see any problem with it at all. In fact, I think it's a bit silly to hide it. All it is a file to tell google what pages to crawl. Even if a user accesses it, all they are going to get are your site links... who cares? You want them to visit them anyways Well, my colleague is a bit "sensitive" if I might say so... He told me a story about the service that storaged big amount of emails among the content and someone just parsed the website to collect all those emails and then used it for own purposes. I guess we don't have a data which could be a subject of further sell and I think we don't have to care about protection of the content that much. But as you can see there are situations where hiding sitemap makes good sense. Moreover, it is better to be in the main directory. Most search engines try to find it exactly there // So, this is NOT a problem! Quote: Originally Posted by the_michael_77 Some of big portals hide their sitemaps. I've been cooperation with other guy at tourist guide which few hundreds unique pages. He is afraid of having sitemap.xml straight after domain ( domainname.com/sitemap.xml ). Are there any threats of having sitemap in this location ? According to me there is no harm to keep XML Sitemap in root directory. As we know that it is for search engine and robots always try to find it in rood directory. There will be no problem, if we place sitemap in the root directory or other. Sitemap just shows the information of website's pages (which are publicly published in the web). So, no threats! what's the prob with any place
it's an xml file
don't be afraid put it any where That's right. It doesn't matter where you leave sitemap file as long as you specify the path to it. The point is whether to leave full sitemap or partial sitemap ( new pages only from last month for example ) or completely hide it. As I mentioned in case of my website there is no danger having access to sitemap, but there are circumstances while hiding it could be desired. For example when website contains straggled data that could be a subject of further sell when one collect them and organise. Sitemap will make such task way easier.
Sample of website that has no public sitemap : onet.pl
I don't know why they hide it, but there must be some reason. As far as i know that there is no problem with it. My site's sitemap is also in the root directory. If you want to put it somewhere else you cant do this just you have to "http://www.examples.com/<new directory>/sitemap.xml" add it to your webmaster account. like google webmaster acc.
Its just for search engine can recognize it Quote: Originally Posted by android45 Usually Google crawlers searches for the main directory only.So it is best to keep our file in that folder or main directory. yes, you are right... mainly crawlers searches for the main directory only or you can place sitemap path here also(no sure but, we can). You can place it anywhere you want as long as you tell the bots where it is. I have never worried about it since you can go online and have one made of just about any site that you want just by inputting the information. The other thing is that I not only use the xml, but also a link site map on my site. I know they are two different things, but if you are really wanting to copy my site you can. If someone is taking the time to copy me, that just means that I am doing something right. Quote: Originally Posted by sam789 If you want to put it somewhere else you cant do this just you have to "http://www.examples.com/<new directory>/sitemap.xml" add it to your webmaster account. like google webmaster acc.
Its just for search engine can recognize it This will only work for Google (or Bing is you do the same thing), not the other search engines that support the Sitemap protocol who don't have a Webmaster Tools type interface. They can't see your instructions to Google in the Google Webmaster Tools. Quote: Originally Posted by HTMLBasicTutor This will only work for Google (or Bing is you do the same thing), not the other search engines that support the Sitemap protocol who don't have a Webmaster Tools type interface. They can't see your instructions to Google in the Google Webmaster Tools. I think focusing on Google is enough @HTMLBasicTutor because Google control over 80% search engine market. Bing and other search engine provides little bit traffic. So to me focusing on them just waste of time ........ Quote: Originally Posted by sam789 I think focusing on Google is enough @HTMLBasicTutor because Google control over 80% search engine market. Bing and other search engine provides little bit traffic. So to me focusing on them just waste of time ........ Do as you wish but some day Google could not be at the top of the heap and then you will be scrambling to move up in the "other" search engines. Yes it's fine.. there is no penalty as far as I know that says you can't have a sitemap in the root directory. In fact, all of my websites do this and my sitemap has 99% of it's links indexed. So I wouldn't worry about it.
Well, let's assume that is very easy to copy entire website and store it on disc. Is there any danger that someone who copy it can make a use of it in a way which could impair us ? The website is a tourist guide. ( sorry for my english. If I'm not clear let me know so I can explain it in different way ) Usually Google crawlers searches for the main directory only.So it is best to keep our file in that folder or main directory. You are right guys. The main directory seems to be the best place. I was just curious why some bigger portals hide it. Anyway the majority have sitemaps.xml in main directory. I just checked bbc.co.uk and tomshardware.com . Interesting thing that tomshardware has in sitemap only urls to fresh pages. That was to be actually my next question - It is ok for searchers if I leave in sitemap only urls that where created/modified within last month ? Or maybe should I keep uploading full index of all existing URLs ? I generate sitemap.xml dynamically and it doesn't matter which option I go with. The question is what is more healthy for searchers ? I don't see any problem with it at all. In fact, I think it's a bit silly to hide it. All it is a file to tell google what pages to crawl. Even if a user accesses it, all they are going to get are your site links... who cares? You want them to visit them anyways Well, my colleague is a bit "sensitive" if I might say so... He told me a story about the service that storaged big amount of emails among the content and someone just parsed the website to collect all those emails and then used it for own purposes. I guess we don't have a data which could be a subject of further sell and I think we don't have to care about protection of the content that much. But as you can see there are situations where hiding sitemap makes good sense. Moreover, it is better to be in the main directory. Most search engines try to find it exactly there // So, this is NOT a problem! Quote: Originally Posted by the_michael_77 Some of big portals hide their sitemaps. I've been cooperation with other guy at tourist guide which few hundreds unique pages. He is afraid of having sitemap.xml straight after domain ( domainname.com/sitemap.xml ). Are there any threats of having sitemap in this location ? According to me there is no harm to keep XML Sitemap in root directory. As we know that it is for search engine and robots always try to find it in rood directory. There will be no problem, if we place sitemap in the root directory or other. Sitemap just shows the information of website's pages (which are publicly published in the web). So, no threats! what's the prob with any place
it's an xml file
don't be afraid put it any where That's right. It doesn't matter where you leave sitemap file as long as you specify the path to it. The point is whether to leave full sitemap or partial sitemap ( new pages only from last month for example ) or completely hide it. As I mentioned in case of my website there is no danger having access to sitemap, but there are circumstances while hiding it could be desired. For example when website contains straggled data that could be a subject of further sell when one collect them and organise. Sitemap will make such task way easier.
Sample of website that has no public sitemap : onet.pl
I don't know why they hide it, but there must be some reason. As far as i know that there is no problem with it. My site's sitemap is also in the root directory. If you want to put it somewhere else you cant do this just you have to "http://www.examples.com/<new directory>/sitemap.xml" add it to your webmaster account. like google webmaster acc.
Its just for search engine can recognize it Quote: Originally Posted by android45 Usually Google crawlers searches for the main directory only.So it is best to keep our file in that folder or main directory. yes, you are right... mainly crawlers searches for the main directory only or you can place sitemap path here also(no sure but, we can). You can place it anywhere you want as long as you tell the bots where it is. I have never worried about it since you can go online and have one made of just about any site that you want just by inputting the information. The other thing is that I not only use the xml, but also a link site map on my site. I know they are two different things, but if you are really wanting to copy my site you can. If someone is taking the time to copy me, that just means that I am doing something right. Quote: Originally Posted by sam789 If you want to put it somewhere else you cant do this just you have to "http://www.examples.com/<new directory>/sitemap.xml" add it to your webmaster account. like google webmaster acc.
Its just for search engine can recognize it This will only work for Google (or Bing is you do the same thing), not the other search engines that support the Sitemap protocol who don't have a Webmaster Tools type interface. They can't see your instructions to Google in the Google Webmaster Tools. Quote: Originally Posted by HTMLBasicTutor This will only work for Google (or Bing is you do the same thing), not the other search engines that support the Sitemap protocol who don't have a Webmaster Tools type interface. They can't see your instructions to Google in the Google Webmaster Tools. I think focusing on Google is enough @HTMLBasicTutor because Google control over 80% search engine market. Bing and other search engine provides little bit traffic. So to me focusing on them just waste of time ........ Quote: Originally Posted by sam789 I think focusing on Google is enough @HTMLBasicTutor because Google control over 80% search engine market. Bing and other search engine provides little bit traffic. So to me focusing on them just waste of time ........ Do as you wish but some day Google could not be at the top of the heap and then you will be scrambling to move up in the "other" search engines. Yes it's fine.. there is no penalty as far as I know that says you can't have a sitemap in the root directory. In fact, all of my websites do this and my sitemap has 99% of it's links indexed. So I wouldn't worry about it.