Penalized for not having sitemap?

[mzadorian]

For years, i never setup a sitemap, because I operated under the context "if it isn't broke don't fix it". My traffic from Google died out since the whole Pandora shuffle. Could not having a sitemap have caused my site to be penalized? I submitted a sitemap just today.

Thanks

[tedster]

No, I can 100% guarantee you that not having a sitemap is not a cause for a penalty.

[topr8]

yes, i haven't made a single sitemap (submitted to G) for any of my sites,

there is no way lack of one causes a penalty.

[chrisv1963]

Could not having a sitemap have caused my site to be penalized?

No, I don't think so.
Only one of my websites got hit by Panda, and it is the only site WITH a sitemap.

[mzadorian]

I crossing my fingers chrisv1963 is right, because we have a lot of unique content...and inbound natural links

[tangor]

Sitemaps are optional... no requirement to have one... and I've never used one.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

I had a site with a sitemap for years and about 2 weeks ago I removed it for performance reasons (big site). I observed absolutely no loss in traffic.