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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Sitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site. Webmaster Tools' Sitemaps feature
gives you feedback on your submitted Sitemaps, such as how many Sitemap URLs have been indexed,
or whether your Sitemaps have any errors. Recently, we've added even more information! Let's check
it out:
The Sitemaps page displays details based on content-type. Now statistics from Web, Videos, Images
and News are featured prominently. This lets you see how many items of each type were submitted
(if any), and for some content types, we also show how many items have been indexed. With these
enhancements, the new Sitemaps page replaces the Video Sitemaps Labs feature, which will be
retired.
Another improvement is the ability to test a Sitemap. Unlike an actual submission, testing does
not submit your Sitemap to Google as it only checks it for errors. Testing requires a live fetch
by Googlebot and usually takes a few seconds to complete. Note that the initial testing is not
exhaustive and may not detect all issues; for example, errors that can only be identified once the
URLs are downloaded are not be caught by the test.
In addition to on-the-spot testing, we've got a new way of displaying errors which better exposes
what types of issues a Sitemap contains. Instead of repeating the same kind of error many times
for one Sitemap, errors and warnings are now grouped, and a few examples are given. Likewise, for
Sitemap index files, we've aggregated errors and warnings from the child Sitemaps that the Sitemap
index encloses. No longer will you need to click through each child Sitemap one by one.
Finally, we've changed the way the "Delete" button works. Now, it removes the Sitemap from
Webmaster Tools, both from your account and the accounts of the other owners of the site. Be aware
that a Sitemap may still be read or processed by Google even if you delete it from Webmaster
Tools. For example if you reference a Sitemap in your robots.txt file search engines may still
attempt to process the Sitemap. To truly prevent a Sitemap from being processed, remove the file
from your server or block it via robots.txt.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eThe updated Sitemaps page in Webmaster Tools provides detailed statistics based on content type, such as Web, Videos, Images, and News, allowing webmasters to track submitted and indexed items.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebmaster Tools now offers a Sitemap testing feature, which checks for errors without submitting it to Google, using a live fetch by Googlebot to identify issues.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eErrors and warnings in Sitemaps are now grouped and aggregated to provide a clearer overview of potential issues, reducing the need to review each child Sitemap individually.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe "Delete" button in Webmaster Tools now removes a Sitemap from all owner accounts, but it's important to note that removing it from Webmaster Tools doesn't necessarily prevent Google from processing it if referenced in robots.txt.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor further information and assistance, users can refer to the documentation about sitemaps and the Webmaster Help Forum.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Webmaster Tools' Sitemaps feature now displays content-type details for Web, Videos, Images, and News, showing submitted and indexed items. A new testing function checks Sitemaps for errors without submitting them, although initial tests may not catch all issues. Errors are now grouped with examples, and index files aggregate child Sitemap issues. The \"Delete\" button removes Sitemaps from all owners' Webmaster Tools accounts, but for complete removal, the file must be deleted from the server or blocked via robots.txt.\n"],null,["# What's new with Sitemaps\n\nThursday, January 26, 2012\n\n\nSitemaps are a way to tell Google about pages on your site. Webmaster Tools' Sitemaps feature\ngives you feedback on your submitted Sitemaps, such as how many Sitemap URLs have been indexed,\nor whether your Sitemaps have any errors. Recently, we've added even more information! Let's check\nit out:\n\n\nThe Sitemaps page displays details based on content-type. Now statistics from Web, Videos, Images\nand News are featured prominently. This lets you see how many items of each type were submitted\n(if any), and for some content types, we also show how many items have been indexed. With these\nenhancements, the new Sitemaps page replaces the Video Sitemaps Labs feature, which will be\nretired.\n\n\nAnother improvement is the ability to test a Sitemap. Unlike an actual submission, testing does\nnot submit your Sitemap to Google as it only checks it for errors. Testing requires a live fetch\nby Googlebot and usually takes a few seconds to complete. Note that the initial testing is not\nexhaustive and may not detect all issues; for example, errors that can only be identified once the\nURLs are downloaded are not be caught by the test.\n\n\nIn addition to on-the-spot testing, we've got a new way of displaying errors which better exposes\nwhat types of issues a Sitemap contains. Instead of repeating the same kind of error many times\nfor one Sitemap, errors and warnings are now grouped, and a few examples are given. Likewise, for\nSitemap index files, we've aggregated errors and warnings from the child Sitemaps that the Sitemap\nindex encloses. No longer will you need to click through each child Sitemap one by one.\n\n\nFinally, we've changed the way the \"Delete\" button works. Now, it removes the Sitemap from\nWebmaster Tools, both from your account and the accounts of the other owners of the site. Be aware\nthat a Sitemap may still be read or processed by Google even if you delete it from Webmaster\nTools. For example if you reference a Sitemap in your robots.txt file search engines may still\nattempt to process the Sitemap. To truly prevent a Sitemap from being processed, remove the file\nfrom your server or block it via robots.txt.\n\n\nFor more information on Sitemaps in Webmaster Tools and how Sitemaps work, visit our\n[documentation about sitemaps](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview). If you have\nany questions, go to\n[Webmaster Help Forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/community).\n\n\nWritten by\n[Kamila Primke](https://plus.google.com/109580420505325614989/about),\nSoftware Engineer, Webmaster Tools"]]
