GoogleSitemap - incidental waste of html space ?

[shags38]

I have been having all sorts of problems getting Google SiteMap onto 5 of my 6 sites using WebMaster Tools - the html is correct bla bla bla ..... have put a post in the Google WebMaster Tools Forum for some help - did some surfing whilst there and found this - it fits in with something I read a while back - maybe you guys are aware of it - essentially having a Google SiteMap on your site has no effect whatsoever on your indexing or ranking ......

Google Employee
8/13/09

Best answer - Academy666 (Asker)
FYI deleting a Sitemap would have no effect on your indexing or ranking, so you can look elsewhere for the cause of any shift in indexing or ranking.

any comments?

cheers,
Mike the 3D Guy

 

[FirstPageResults]

Its good for telling googlebot which pages of your site should have priority, its not supposed to increase your rankings rather it makes the site more accessable

AFAIK if you have duplicate pages and you put one in the sitemap, than that one will appear in the SERP etc

 

[soj]

FYI deleting a Sitemap would have no effect on your indexing or ranking, so you can look elsewhere for the cause of any shift in indexing or ranking.

Mike, I think you have misunderstood what was said here. If a sitemap was used and the pages then indexed, then deleting that sitemap isnt going to de-index your pages, or affect your ranking. So to say that a sitemap would have no effect on indexing is not true. it has no effect being deleted after pages have been indexed.

 

[shags38]

sorry but I beg to differ

 

[James]

Are you refering to a HTML site map or a XML site map,

Yes they both play a part in indexing your website, XML's for example give google the number 1 guide to what pages to exactly optimize and using frequency rates you can also alter crawl data.

If you delete a XML or do not update it, it can leave specific pages non indexed. From personal experience XML site maps are not something you want to add then delete as problems can happen.