[MSU Sitemaps] Questions

[Burningbarricade]

Hi Jiri,

I have a question about sitemaps. I use a bit of software called G-Site Crawler to create a sitemap for Google and Yahoo. Having read through your forums and the zencart forum etc I've come to the conclusion that it might be doing more harm than good.

I have your MSU_Sitemaps files and I was going to install it but again I'm a little confused. I used to get that G-Site Crawler program to crawl my site, it would take maybe an hour. Then I would get it to generate a sitemap.xml for Google and urllist.txt for Yahoo. I would then go into my google and yahoo accounts and notify them that those files were present.

The way I read the instructions you give is that I simply copy the files over to my installation of zencart as per instructions (I've installed mods b4 so thats ok). Then instead of notifying google and yahoo about the sitemap.xml and urllist.txt files respectively I should notify them about sitemap.php (from MSU_sitemaps)?

Is that right? If so how does that work? And is there somewhere I can actually see a list of urls?

Also does MSU_Sitemaps stop duplicate content?

Thanks

[inveo]

Is that right? If so how does that work? And is there somewhere I can actually see a list of urls?

1. Yes, it is right.
2. sitemaps.php is Sitemaps Index file
3. urllist.txt file is not created because Sitemaps protocol does not specify anything like this.

Also does MSU_Sitemaps stop duplicate content?

Here I don't know what do you exactly mean. All possible duplicate content is removed/redirected already by MSU.

[Burningbarricade]

So then instead of notifying google and yahoo about the sitemap.xml and urllist.txt files respectively I should notify them about sitemap.php (from MSU_sitemaps)?

[Burningbarricade]

In the instructions, where you say: " Submit sitemaps.php file to your favorite web crawler". Does that mean after you install MSU Sitemaps you are meant to get a third party crawler to create an xml file? Or does that mean - Submit sitemaps.php file to your favorite web crawler (ie Google)?

[Burningbarricade]

Sorry to keep hassling you Jiri, but I'm a bit new to this.

As I've said, I've created and submitted a sitemap.xml file to google before no problem, but never this way.

From what I've read i think I need to do one of two things, either:
1: Go to a web crawling website such as http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ and enter my url as: http://www.traditionalirishgifts.com/sitemaps.php. It crawls my site and creates a sitemap.xml file which I upload to my Google webmaster account.
2: Go into my Google webmaster account and submit the sitemap as sitemaps.php. In which case it somehow generates a sitemap.xml file for my site on the fly somehow?

Are either of these two approaches right? (I suspect not!)

Thanks
David

[inveo]

So then instead of notifying google and yahoo about the sitemap.xml and urllist.txt files respectively I should notify them about sitemap.php (from MSU_sitemaps)?

Yes, you should.

Or does that mean - Submit sitemaps.php file to your favorite web crawler (ie Google)?

It means add sitemaps.php in the Google Webmaster Tools or use traditional ping method.

Are either of these two approaches right? (I suspect not!)

You only need to go into your Google Webmaster Account and submit the sitemap as sitemaps.php (you can imagine sitemaps.php as your old sitemaps.xml).

[msdesmarais]

You can also add this line to your robots.txt fie and ALL search engines that support this method will find your sitemap:

Code: Select all

Sitemap: http://www.YOUR_DOMAIN_HERE.com/sitemap.php

So far ASK, GOOGLE, LIVE and YAHOO! support this method...