How important is the optional <priority>tag in an XML sitemap of your website? Can this help search engines understand the hierarchy of a website?</priority>
-
Can the <priority>tag be used to tell search engines the hierarchy of a site or should it be used to let search engines know which priority to we want pages to be indexed in?</priority>
-
Hi,
If you would deem all internal pages to be of equal importance, then yes, there is no harm in this. The homepage is always set at 1.0 though.
That said, everyone always has a view of their internal pages and which they class as pass-though to get to something more important, so do keep this in mind when deciding.
-Andy
-
Hi Andy,
Thanks for the response. We are a local listings site and have a number of category/sub-category/business-detail pages (possibly at a city as well as a location level) in the structure of our site. This being the case, what would you suggest the priority to be allocated to the different pages should be? If just an indication to the bots to specify all the important pages on the site to crawl, then should we just maintain the same priority (say 0.8) for all the hierarchies (possibly with the home page as 1.0)?
-
It's a suggestion, and just indicates to Googlebot how often they should come along. It won't do anything in terms of telling them more about the site hierarchy really, but will give them an idea about which pages are most important.
That said, you should try and follow the following structure:
Homepage: 100%
Internal Pages: 60%
Blog Pages: 30%Or something very similar.
I hope this helps.
-Andy
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
When searching for related:katom.com on google, why isn't our website coming up?
A lot of our competitors come up but we aren't coming up. What do we need to do so that google considers us related? Our website is culinarydepotinc.com And I believe not being related to those big competitors affects our SEO, is that correct?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Sammyh2 -
My website has dropped in the rankings drastically. How can I get it back up the SERPs?
I manage a website that I took over 6 months ago - the site was sitting happily on page one of google so I haven't had to do much to keep it there - other than a few onsite improvements. However, last week the site dropped off the SERPs. The site is http://www.pro-techairconditioning.co.uk/content/home.html Could someone please suggest reasons for this and ways to solve the problem? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SWD.Advertising0 -
XML Sitemaps settings for simple websites
We have numerous simple websites that are not updated very often (maybe once every 12-18 months). We are trying to create the perfect XML sitemap for them. Which brings me to my 2 questions:- 1. Should we include the "lastmod" tag in the XML sitemap? 2. What would you set the "changefreq" at? Once a month? Remember these sites are never updated as they are simple sites for industry sectors such as building and property maintenance. Please justify your answer and explain why as we are trying to understand.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
XML sitemaps questions
Hi All, My developer has asked me some questions that I do not know the answer to. We have both searched for an answer but can't find one.... So, I was hoping that the clever folk on Moz can help!!! Here is couple questions that would be nice to clarify on. What is the actual address/name of file for news xml. Can xml site maps be generated on request? Consider following scenario: spider requests http://mypage.com/sitemap.xml which permanently redirects to extensionless MVC 4 page http://mypage.com/sitemapxml/ . This page generates xml. Thank you, Amelia
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CommT0 -
Custom Google Search & Joomla/Wordpress
If you install google custom search on a site - does it record a list of all the searches people type into the search box? Is there a Joomla & Wordpress Search plugin/extension that keeps a track of the search history used on your site(s).
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
Searching for SEO/SEM with eCommerce Experience
I've debated on whether I should ask this on the Q&A forum. Many times I have started to write it, then changed my mind. So today, after sending another round of emails out to potential SEM and SEO consultants and getting zero response, I said what the heck and decided to post it. I will point the finger at myself and say I must be doing something wrong in my approach and the way I am seeking out consultants or maybe what I am not saying. However, I cannot seem to get SEO companies to return my phone calls or emails. Is my company too small? Are most of the companies recommended here too busy with other work to worry about following up? Is my company and brand not sexy enough to deal with? Am I coming across wrong in my emails and phone calls? With that being said, I decided to write a post here and clearly state some basic and general requirements in hope someone interested will respond. I would be more than happy to answer and specific questions about my company, budget, etc. in a PM. I am looking for an SEO firm or consultants who: Will deal with small businesses with revenue under $2M. I have budgeted for this and am ready to start a project immediately. Have experience and a successful track record working with eCommerce sites who sell a large number of products. Interested in a long term relationship that will produce long lasting, durable results. Try to understand my business and what it will take to make grow my ONLINE profitability. I look forward to speaking to anyone interested. Jake
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | jake3720 -
XML Sitemap index within a XML sitemaps index
We have a similar problem to http://www.seomoz.org/q/can-a-xml-sitemap-index-point-to-other-sitemaps-indexes Can a XML sitemap index point to other sitemaps indexes? According to the "Unique Doll Clothing" example on this link, it seems possible http://www.seomoz.org/blog/multiple-xml-sitemaps-increased-indexation-and-traffic Can someone share an XML Sitemap index within a XML sitemaps index example? We are looking for the format to implement the same on our website.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Lakshdeep0 -
Guest posts/article marketing can be considered as paid posts by SEs?
Hi, Guest posting/article Marketing is a major part of our link building strategy. Normally we get one or two links for our site and one or two links to other authority sites(relevant). Some time author bio is not published with article or even not mention that this is a guest post. ( I know that we get just link and missed the other advantages of guest if author bio isn't mention) Is this a good practice especially when some posts are published on low quality blogs? SEs can be considered these as paid posts? What will be the better way to do this? Thanks Alex
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | alexgray0