Google Sitemaps - does it really help your site?

[F_Rose]

Ever since we have uploaded Google sitemap we are having trouble.

At this point we have only 24 pages indexed on our site for the past two weeks nothing has changed.

I was wondering if anyone has ever removed the sitemap and actually noticed better results.. More pages indexed..

It may seem ironic being that the sitemap is for indexing purposes but I came to the conclusion that maybe it's hurting our site rather than doing us any good..

Suggestions please..

[heisje]

.

your question is a valid one - (sorry I do not have the answer).

the mere existence of this question in your mind (as well as in many webmasters' minds as evidenced in many other posts in webmasterworld, concerning sitemaps but also other matters) confirms the dark suspicion of a lot of people that Google is gradually turning into a very questionable setup, if not downright evil.

there is a pattern, that has made an increasing number of people wonder, and raise such questions. everybody hopes this is not the case, but . . . . . .

heisje

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[dmorison]

If you've only ever had 24, and you've added the sitemap in the hope of getting better coverage i'm not sure you can blame the sitemap just because you still haven't.

The sitemap scheme is certainly not a license to get indexed as that would be open to way too much abuse. It is simply a mechanism that Google can use to discover URLs for indexing when other parts of their system / algorthms have concluded that your website is now worthy of certain crawl depth.

[F_Rose]

I have had all my pages indexed once upon a time..

The past three weeks we are down to 24..

Has anyone experimented, removing the sitemap and got better results?

[Play_Bach]

> Has anyone experimented, removing the sitemap and got better results?

see [webmasterworld.com ]

[Asia_Expat]

I removed my sitemap around six months ago, feeling it had harmed my site. I've now put it back because Big Daddy ruined me. I'm hoping the cache will be emptied and a fresh start will happen. A forum site I have monitored for years (not mine) uses a sitemap on their IPB installation and they are very well indexed indeed and seem to have bypassed all the BD problems completely.

IMO, it's just a lottery at this time.

[MJunge]

We dropped a little over 10 rankings with Big Daddy. When we realized that we had dropped, we updated our sitemap and we returned to our original ranking the next day.

[F_Rose]

What have you updated within the site map?
Perhaps something is wrong with our site map and that's the reason Google is indexing only 24 pages of our site?

I've never thought that something is wrong being that Google validates our sitemap OK.

[otech]

F_Rose, whats your pagerank?

[F_Rose]

For our keywords?

[F_Rose]

Please help me make a decision..

Should I try to remove Google Sitemap and see if our indexing will get any better?

[Asia_Expat]

Here's my take...

As I mentioned, a site I've been watching has done very well with sitemaps on their IPB installation. I have added a sitemap because I have nothing to lose by doing so and it would seem, neither have you.

[Asia_Expat]

Send me a private mail because I'm curious to have a look at your sitemap.

[Asia_Expat]

I had a quick look at your sitemap and it does indeed differ slightly from my own but I think it looks good. If you're not recieving any error notifications on Google Sitemaps control panel, I'm guessing all is OK. Perhaps someone can confirm that? I'm certainly no sitemaps expert. I'd leave it in place if I were you and sit and wait.

[F_Rose]

Thanks..

What does it differ from your sitemap, could you explain, drop me an e-mail.

Anyone an expert that would want to take a look on our sitemap?

[Stefan]

Using Google sitemaps not only doesn't help, it can do damage to your site. Since they first started the thing, I have seen many hundreds of posts that indicated problems as a result of submitting to it. (These problems never included me, because I've avoided it.)

My advice: have nothing to do with it.

Added: Of course, if you've already done it, it's too late. Whatever canonical problems it causes (this seems to be what's going on), once G has sucked it back, it's lodged in their giant dodgy index and they won't let go. The thing is to not do it in the first place.