Sitemap question

[Bagi Zoltán]

Hey Guys,
i have a very nice question. So i have a sitemap.xml file uploaded to mydomain.com/sitemap.xml URL. I don't want to submit it to GWT or Yahoo! Site Explorer so i decide to add this line to my robots.txt

Sitemap: <http://mydomain.com/sitemap.xml>

Theoritically this must substitute submitting the site into the different webmaster services.
What do you think could it be effective solution?
Thank you

[temi]

Zoli,
Where did this idea that the above code o robots.txt will substitute adding site map to Google webmaster tool?

[Bagi Zoltán]

Temi, i faced a technical problem during testing the xml sitemap builder script so i tried to find out the cause of the issue at sitemaps.org - Home website. I accidenatally find this guide about the mentioned solution.
I was very happy because it would make shopkeeper's life easier if she/he don't need to deal with website verification, and sitemap submission.

[temi]

Its an interesting resource, I see your point about making shopkeeper's life easier. Once Google found the site map via robots.txt file, I take it it will update the site map option in GWT?

[Bagi Zoltán]

Temi, Google MSN and Yahoo! have agreed to use a certain sitemap protocol, which is published at sitemap.org. At google webmaster faq page i read this

Google adheres to Sitemap Protocol 0.9 as dictated by sitemaps.org. Sitemaps created for Google using Sitemap Protocol 0.9 are therefore compatible with other search engines that adopt the standards of sitemaps.org

This suggest me that google accept robots.txt as compass concerning the location of sitemap. I guess one of the main advantages of submitting sitemap, the feedback about possible crawling or network error will be lost, but it must improve the visibility of a certain website. I have thinking this further and faceed another problem. If the script is installed into a subfolder there will be some programming issue, because the sitamap will be accessible at mydomain.com/subfolder/sitemap.xml, but the robots.txt must be placed to mydomain.com/robots.txt. Yes, it is still not a huge problem, but if the robots.txt already exist the script should only modify that with an additional line, but if the mydomain.com/sitemap.xml or mydomain.com/sitemap.xml.gz already exist the script must modify the robots.txt listing the two sitemaps

Sitemap: <http://mydomain.com/subfolder/sitemap.xml>
Sitemap: <http://mydomain.com/sitemap.xml>

.
The main question is in my mind now is the following:
Would a shopkeeper in the age of 30-50 spend any minute to verify the site and get acquainted with WT or we should solve this providing the maximal benefit, but automatically.
What do you think Temi?

[johnafrankllin]

i have added a line in robots.txt like :
Sitemap: http://www.theseoservicesindia.com/sitemap.xml

It works fine. Google has crawled all my pages

[temi]

Zoli,
I think we should just provide site map, verify it using GWT to make sure it has been programmed very well. We will list it as part of the features, its up to shop keeper to take advantage of it or ignore it. The google site map is an advanced feature for Boss Cart premium owners who are SEO savvvy or their webmasters.

I will not worry too much about the complicated issues you raised, we can just put all this in the documentation and if any user have issue with it, he or she can contact us and we will guide him through.

Originally Posted by Bagi Zoltán

Temi, Google MSN and Yahoo! have agreed to use a certain sitemap protocol, which is published at sitemap.org. At google webmaster faq page i read this

This suggest me that google accept robots.txt as compass concerning the location of sitemap. I guess one of the main advantages of submitting sitemap, the feedback about possible crawling or network error will be lost, but it must improve the visibility of a certain website. I have thinking this further and faceed another problem. If the script is installed into a subfolder there will be some programming issue, because the sitamap will be accessible at mydomain.com/subfolder/sitemap.xml, but the robots.txt must be placed to mydomain.com/robots.txt. Yes, it is still not a huge problem, but if the robots.txt already exist the script should only modify that with an additional line, but if the mydomain.com/sitemap.xml or mydomain.com/sitemap.xml.gz already exist the script must modify the robots.txt listing the two sitemaps
.
The main question is in my mind now is the following:
Would a shopkeeper in the age of 30-50 spend any minute to verify the site and get acquainted with WT or we should solve this providing the maximal benefit, but automatically.
What do you think Temi?

[Gorkfu]

I think it's best to include it in your robots.txt file and also keep update on google webmaster and yahoo, msn etc... It's good to have it in the robots.txt for search engines that don't have webmaster back ends yet like Ask.

[LinkPopularity]

well, if you're site's structure is well done and you have enough links, you don't need a sitemap ...

[temi]

well it depends... if you have a simple site, you don't need a site map but if its a large complex site, you certainly need it to get all the pages crawled.

Originally Posted by LinkPopularity

well, if you're site's structure is well done and you have enough links, you don't need a sitemap ...