Google Search Consultant John Mueller and Analyst Gary Illyes share SEO tips for news publishers during a recent office Q&A session.
Taking turns answering questions, Mueller explains the correct use of the lastmod tag, while Illyes discusses the benefits of separate sitemaps.
When To Use The Lastmod Tag?
In an XML sitemap file, lastmod is a tag that stores information about the last time a web page was modified.
Its intended use is to help search engines track and indicate important changes to web pages.
Google provides guidelines for using the lastmod tag, which can be used to modify search snippets.
The presence of the lastmod tag can cause Googlebot to change the date in the search results, making the content appear more recent and more clickable.
As a result, there may be a desire to use the lastmod tag even for small changes to the article to make it appear as if it was published recently.
A news publisher is asking if they should use the lastmod tag to indicate the date the article was updated or the date of the most recent comment.
Mueller says the date in the lastmod field should reflect the date the page’s content changed enough to require a re-crawl.
However, using the last comment date is acceptable if the comment is an important part of the page.
He also reminded the author to use the planned data and make sure the date matches the lastmod tag.
“Since the sitemap file is about finding the right time to crawl a page based on its changes, the last date should reflect the date the content changed enough to qualify for a cycle.
If comments are an important part of your site, then using this date is fine. Ultimately, this is a decision you can make. For the date of the article itself, I recommend checking out our guidelines on using dates on a page.
In particular, make sure that you use dates on the page regularly and that you format the information, including the time zone, in the tag.
Separate Sitemap For News?
The author is asking about Google’s position on having both a news sitemap and a general sitemap on the same website.
They also ask if it is acceptable for both sitemaps to include duplicate URLs.
Illyes explained that it is possible to have a single sitemap with additional articles added to URLs that require it, but it is easier to have a sitemap for articles and general content. URLs older than 30 days should be removed from the sitemap.
Regarding sitemaps sharing duplicate URLs, it is not recommended, but it will not cause problems.
“You can have a single sitemap, a traditional sitemap as defined by sitemaps.org, and add additional articles to the URLs that require them. Just remember, you need to remove the article extension from the URLs that are older than 30 days. For this reason it is usually easier to have separate sitemaps for news and web.
Simply remove URLs completely from the news site map when they are too old for news. Including the URLs in the two sitemaps, while not very good, won’t cause you any problems.”
These tips from Mueller and Illyes can help news publishers optimize their websites for search engines and increase the visibility and engagement of their articles.
Image Credit: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock
Having an XML sitemap allows search engines to crawl and display a website properly, and allows all search engines to inform the sitemap by including it in their crawlers. txt file. In short, sitemaps increase a website’s ranking in search engine results, thus boosting SEO efforts.
How many pages is a sitemap XML?
How many pages is a sitemap? Sitemaps are limited to 50MB (uncompressed) and 50,000 URLs from Google’s point of view. All plans limit a single sitemap to 50MB (uncompressed) and 50,000 URLs. If you have a large file or more URLs, you must break it into multiple sitemaps.
Does the sitemap include all pages? These sitemaps provide the search engines with the URLs of the website and provide a detailed map of all the pages on the site. This helps search engines prioritize which pages to crawl.
Should the sitemap have 404 pages? URLs in your sitemaps should be clean – ie the sitemap should only include URLs that are HTTP 200 (OK), static, canonical and unique. If search engines find ‘garbage’ in the sitemap, such as 404 pages, they may stop trusting the sitemap for crawling and indexing.
How many URLs are in a Sitemap XML?
Split large sitemaps into smaller sitemaps: a sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs and must not exceed 50MB without compression.
What are sitemap URLs? A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to properly crawl your site.
Which URL structure is used in XML sitemaps?
Keywords Used in Sitemap Tags – This tag contains the full URL, or page identifier. – This contains information about the date the file was modified. It should be in the format YYYY-MM-DD. – This contains information about how often a file changes with it.
What is the most common method used to create a sitemap? A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the important elements of your website.
How many links in sitemaps should I have?
Having only one sitemap is recommended for small to medium sized websites. A sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs. Unless you’re a news or business-level website, you don’t need many sitemaps.
How many XML sitemaps will I get? A single XML sitemap is limited to 50,000 URLs and can have a file size of up to 50MB, so if your website has more than 50,000 posts, you will need two separate ones for the URLs of the site, as should add a second sitemap.
Which sitemap format is best used for SEO?
XML Sitemap Files for Web Pages This is the best web page format for submission. Not all search engines support the sitemaps below, XML sitemaps for web pages can be supported by all search engines that are from sitemaps.org.
What type of sitemap file should be used for SEO? There are two types of sitemaps: HTML and XML. HTML sitemaps direct visitors, mostly. XML sitemaps guide search engine bots, to ensure they get your site’s URLs to index. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each will help with your search engine optimization.
What is the most common method used to create a sitemap? A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the important elements of your website.
Is XML sitemap good for SEO? A good XML sitemap acts as your sitemap that directs Google to all of your important pages. An XML sitemap can be good for SEO, allowing Google to find your important pages faster, even if your internal links are incomplete. This post explains what they are and how they help you rank better.
Is an HTML sitemap good for SEO?
While HTML sitemaps are designed for human users, some SEO experts argue that it can improve your ranking in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). This is because an HTML sitemap contains internal links, which can make it easier for Google to find and crawl all of your website pages.
Should you have an HTML sitemap? HTML sitemaps are intended for the users of your site. Generally, this type of sitemap provides links to pages on your site, and may provide descriptions of those pages. We encourage the use of HTML sitemaps. They make it easier for users to navigate your site.
Does HTML sitemap help SEO?
A sitemap is important for good SEO practices, and SEO is important in bringing traffic and revenue to the website. On the other hand, sitemaps are important to get search engines to crawl and display the site so that its content can be included in the search results.
Does having a sitemap help SEO? A sitemap helps search engines find URLs on your site, but it does not guarantee that all content in your sitemap will be crawled and indexed. However, in most cases, your site will benefit from having a sitemap. You may need a sitemap if: Your website is very large.
What are the disadvantages of HTML sitemap?
Sitemap Disadvantages: If the website is very large, the sitemap can delay the pages from crawling and in fact, you may miss the pages that the crawlers will crawl and you may miss some updates if not update the sitemap regularly, etc.
What are the differences between an HTML sitemap and an XML sitemap? The main difference between the two types is that HTML sitemaps are easier to read and understand for users while XML sitemaps are created for search engines. An XML sitemap is a file intended to be read by a crawler. This file contains many functions behind the scenes of the web page.
Which pages should be included in sitemap?
Include only indexed pages in your XML sitemap. Your XML sitemap should only describe pages that can be displayed. This means that you should leave all URLs pointing to redirects (eg 301 status code) and lost pages (eg 404 status code).
What pages should be included in the sitemap? Which URLs should be placed in the sitemap
- User pages, which are highly needed and useful for users (product reviews, accounts, wish lists, etc.), but are not intended to be landing pages.
- Any conversion (3xx), pages with client (4xx) or server (5xx) error pages.
- URLs with parameters or session ids used.
Which method should not be included in the sitemap? Unacceptable URL Your sitemap contains some URLs that are in a higher position or different region than the sitemap file. Advanced step: If your sitemap is listed under http://www.example.com/mysite/sitemap.xml, the following URLs are not valid for sitemaps: http://www.example .com/ – Higher ranking than sitemap.
What makes a good sitemap?
Characteristics of a Good Sitemap Whether you’re doing it by hand or using a sitemap creator, it’s important to make sure that each link is accompanied by the appropriate information. Doing this ensures that visitors understand the content of the page beforehand and makes it easier to navigate from one page to another.
What should a sitemap contain? A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to properly crawl your site.
What should the sitemap look like? A sitemap is a file that lists all the web pages both crawlers and users need to know. It is similar to the table of contents in a book, except that the sections are connected. There are two main types of sitemaps: HTML and XML sitemaps. An HTML sitemap is a web page that lists links.
What is sitemap Optimization in SEO?
What is a sitemap and what is its importance in SEO? A sitemap lists the most important pages of a website, thus, making sure that search engines can find them and crawl them. Sitemaps also help to understand the structure of your website, making it easier to navigate your website.
What is sitemap optimization? A sitemap is a structure of your website that helps search engines find, crawl and index all the content on your website. Sitemaps also tell search engines which pages on your site are most important.
What are the types of sitemaps in SEO? There are two types of sitemaps: HTML and XML. HTML sitemaps direct visitors, mostly. XML sitemaps guide search engine bots, to ensure they get your site’s URLs to index.
What is the purpose of sitemap in SEO?
A sitemap helps search engines find URLs on your site, but it does not guarantee that all content in your sitemap will be crawled and indexed. However, in most cases, your site will benefit from having a sitemap. You may need a sitemap if: Your website is very large.
What is an XML sitemap file? What is an XML sitemap? An XML sitemap is a file that lists the important pages of a website, ensuring that Google can find them and pull them all. It also helps search engines understand the structure of your website. You want Google to crawl every important page of your website.