SITEMAP.XML with DYNAMIC content

[ncwdavid]

Hey, I just read a little information about the sitemap.xml thing for search engines and I have one question. You are supposed to put all your websites pages into the sitemap.xml but what if your site has dynamic content and new pages are added every day? You are hardly supposed to edit the sitemap.xml everytime a new page is added.

I know that you don't have to do that because its just too much work but I am confused that if you only have 10 pages in your sitemap.xml will google only index them 10 pages? Or will it do its normal job and follow link after link on your site and index them all?

What is the point of the sitemap.xml when you can just have a normal sitemap.php which loads every page from the database automatically and updates automatically? Thanks.

 

[Peter]

Google will index your site regardless of whether you have a sitemap or not. Sitemaps are designed to help search engines find pages especially if you needed to use unorthodox links.

To get around the issue you are having you could do either of the following:-

1) Create a script that will dynamically generate the sitemap every time it is requested (could be a PHP or a perl script for example). Sitemaps are not required to have the .xml extension (although if you really wanted too you could mod rewrite the url)

2) Create a script that is executed by cron that automatically generates your sitemap once a day. The advantage of this is that it will not be server intensive as it only runs once (if you process it as per option 1 if Google or any other search engine gets over zealous it will just keep regenerating wasting CPU power).

 

[Keral_Patel]

Yes Option 2 is great

Also there is another option that you can generate a sitemap on every update. i.e. whenever a page is created or removed.

Thanks.

 

[~ServerPoint~]

Well. Do you think that once a day that would be enough (not enough but effective)?

 

[ncwdavid]

Thanks for the replies. I think I'll go with option 2.

 

[Peter]

Well. Do you think that once a day that would be enough (not enough but effective)?

Well that really depends on how often Google is coming to the site to fetch the sitemap. If you find it is more frequent you could always set the cron to run more often.

 

[angilina]

There are plugins/add-ons available that can automatically create sitemaps. For example: in wordpress, MyBB forum, plugins automatically create sitemaps.

I suggest you find one for the script that you are using for your site.

 

[ncwdavid]

There are plugins/add-ons available that can automatically create sitemaps. For example: in wordpress, MyBB forum, plugins automatically create sitemaps.

I suggest you find one for the script that you are using for your site.

The site I want this for is not the site in the my signature. It's a very professional looking and working site with a custom script so i can't find one. Thanks though.

 

[laukpauk]

I do not understand about how to work site map. Because I use wordpress with xml sitemap generator. I am not confused to create sitemap.xml, because this sitemap will automatic update daily.