Few questions re: Google Sitemap

I've successfully installed Google Sitemaps on both of my forums - both of course run vbSEO. They have both generated sitemap reports. I've submitted each to Yahoo once.

I noticed that "google is notified". Do I need to let Google know of these sitemaps or does the plugin/generator already notify Google? I do have Google Sitemaps in my Google account.

Does this affect the rest of my site in any fashion - I don't have Google sitemaps for the rest of my site.

How often do I need to submit my Yahoo sitemaps?

I've used the standard configuration -- anything recommendations or changes to make it more effective.

Thanks in advance and sorry for all the questions. I know this a good thing, but just trying to understand how to best use this tool.

-Chris

Hello Chris,

I noticed that "google is notified". Do I need to let Google know of these sitemaps or does the plugin/generator already notify Google? I do have Google Sitemaps in my Google account.

If you see "Google Notifies" message, that means the generator has been pinged (notified) Google about your sitemap. You can still add sitemap URLs to your Google Account to track parser stats.

Does this affect the rest of my site in any fashion - I don't have Google sitemaps for the rest of my site.

Sitemap submission should not affect other pages of your site.
Here is the quote from Google Sitemaps FAQ:

We don't guarantee that we'll crawl or index all of your URLs. However, we use the data in your Sitemap to learn about your site's structure, which will allow us to improve our crawler schedule and do a better job crawling your site in the future. In most cases, webmasters will benefit from Sitemap submission, and in no case will you be penalized for it.

How often do I need to submit my Yahoo sitemaps?

There is probably no common frequency for sitemap submission - it depends on how fast your site is changing.

I've used the standard configuration -- anything recommendations or changes to make it more effective.

The default settings on the Sitemap Generator should work fine in most cases.

Thanks for the comprehensive reply! Very helpful. I

If I want to add my sitemap to Google, what is the default URL for the sitemap? I noticed in my data folder, there are two gzipped xml files.

Thanks.
Chris

Chris,

Sitemap URLs to submit to Google look like
http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/sitemap_index.xml.gz
http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/sitemap_1.xml.gz
http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/sitemap_2.xml.gz
etc

How about for Yahoo, what should they be exactly?

Thanks.

Exact URL for Yahoo Sitemap:
http://www.yourdomain.com/forums/sitemap.txt.gz

I thought you might say that so I tried it but it didn't work for me. I must have a setting wrong or something in the .htaccess file?

If you've upgraded the Sitemap Generator version, you need .htaccess rewriterule updated to:

RewriteRule ^(sitemap.*\.(xml|txt)(\.gz)?)$ vbseo_sitemap/vbseo_getsitemap.php?sitemap=$1 [L]

Thanks, that's different than what I had. I'll give it a try.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

If you've upgraded the Sitemap Generator version, you need .htaccess rewriterule updated to: