[roothost]

Until recently, I had just the one, sitemap.xml. I thought it may be a good idea to have two, one for static non WordPress pages, and one generated by WordPress containing blog posts etc. This seemed the logical thing to do, however, the indexing of my site seems to have slowed down a bit since doing so.

Before I made the change, pages would be indexed within 24 hours, now it seems to be taking longer. Could the multiple sitemaps be a factor in this? Has anybody here used this method?

[justdave]

I often use multiple sitemaps if for example I am integrating a blog for someone with no ill affect.

As long as both sitemaps are submitted to webmaster tools, specified in the robots.txt file, are set up correctly and there is regular fresh content on the site there shouldn't really be an issue. I guess the only answer is that if there is no improvement and the site/blog is regularly updated is to switch back to the old method and see if it improves.

Have you changed anything else such as the regularity of new posts or the blog structure? Does webmaster tools show a change in the crawl stats? I have seen issues in the past where an excessive amount of tags/categories with large amounts of repeated content have caused crawl issues.

Whatever the answer I wish you luck and hope you find the answer soon.

Dave

[roothost]

justdave, on 06 October 2011 - 07:20 AM, said:

I often use multiple sitemaps if for example I am integrating a blog for someone with no ill affect.

As long as both sitemaps are submitted to webmaster tools, specified in the robots.txt file, are set up correctly and there is regular fresh content on the site there shouldn't really be an issue. I guess the only answer is that if there is no improvement and the site/blog is regularly updated is to switch back to the old method and see if it improves.

Have you changed anything else such as the regularity of new posts or the blog structure? Does webmaster tools show a change in the crawl stats? I have seen issues in the past where an excessive amount of tags/categories with large amounts of repeated content have caused crawl issues.

Whatever the answer I wish you luck and hope you find the answer soon.

Dave

Hi Dave, both the sitemaps have been submitted to google, and I have setup a sitemapindex that lists both sitemaps and this has also been submitted. Google has had no problems finding and crawling these sitemaps.

I have been working on another WP site and posts were being indexed within 24 hours. On my current portfolio, static pages were being indexed within 24-36 hours also, so I presumed WP posts would be the same, or slightly quicker.

An example post was created 3rd october at 11.53, published, appeared in sitemap, sitemap pinged to google, msn and yahoo. Google, I know, has recrawled the sitemap but nothing! I have never had issues with pages/posts not being indexed before and am concerned it is the fact I have started to use multiple sitemaps.

[justdave]

If your old method worked fine I guess the only way to see if the change has caused ill effect is to revert back to your old sitemap solution. If indexing regularity improves there has obviously been an issue somewhere. With no knowledge of the site in question that is all I can suggest I'm afraid. I have never bothered with a sitemap index to be honest I normally submit both sitemaps to Webmaster tools.

I hope you get it sorted out soon.

Dave

[kelta]

Google penalize sites for many sitemaps and also if you submit sitemap more oftenly

[roothost]

kelta, on 19 October 2011 - 10:19 AM, said:

Google penalize sites for many sitemaps and also if you submit sitemap more oftenly

where? lol google does not penalise for multiple sitemaps.

[roothost]

Still playing with this and was sent something today by cuddly bear...... http://googlewebmast...-directory.html

Now, for arguments sake let's say I have 2 xml sitemaps, one for static pages (all non wp) and the other for my wordpress blog, all hosted on the same site/server. Now let's call these sitemap1.xml and sitemap2.xml.

My current setup is as follows, both sitemaps are located in the sites root:
roothost.co/sitemap1.xml
roothost.co/sitemap2.xml

Now, my WP blog has been installed to a directory called 'blog', which is located at roothost.co/blog/. Now, is the above link saying that I really should be placing the blog sitemap in the /blog/ folder, and NOT in the actual site root as it currently is? It isn't very clear, or at least I am not quite understanding it.

This does make sense and may explain why my content hasn't been getting indexed as quick lately.

[roothost]

I hate Sundays...

[roothost]

ooops, bump

[roothost]

So no ideas then?