Two forums -> two sitemaps

[RolandCP]

Hi,

I have two forums on one domain. Each of them running vBSEO and the sitemap generator.

Do I have to report both sitemaps to google or is it possible to combine them automatically?

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

RolandCP,

a single sitemap cannot contain URLs from different domains, so you shouldn't combine them into one.

It's ok to submit both sitemaps individually.

[RolandCP]

No, I have two forums on ONE domain. A english and a german forum and some other php pages.

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

The sitemap can contain URLs that point to the same folder or below.

For instance, if you have two forums like:
http://domain/forum1/
http://domain/forum2/

then you can't include forum2/ pages into forum1/ sitemap.

And also there no reason to join two sitemaps into one - the separate sitemaps work just fine.

[RolandCP]

So I have to report two sitemap index files to Google?

[Oleg Ignatiuk]

It is NOT required to submit sitemap to Google - if you have "Notify Google" option enabled in admincp->Sitemap Generator Options, then sitemap is submitted automatically by the script itself.

However, it is a good idea to submit ALL (both index and data) files also manually to your Google account to track its parse state.

[Michael]

By submitting both sitemaps individually this can also allow Google to understand that the two forums are indeed different and not merely duplicate information or URLs. I myself submit all the generated sitemaps to give Google no reason to miss any content or URLs