Prioritize Quality Over Quantity in Indexing

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Achieving comprehensive indexing on Google has required focused efforts, particularly after a migration that initially obscured specific content. Recent algorithm changes have positively impacted visibility, even without adhering to best practices. It’s crucial to recognize that while priority and change frequency tags exist, Google's algorithm may not prioritize them. It's advisable to exclude certain pages from sitemaps, specifically dynamic user pages and URLs with parameters, to avoid indexing pages that do not provide value and are often inaccessible, such as account pages behind login walls.

Scott and Wes break down the importance of sitemaps for SEO. They dive into the different file formats, essential fields, and common pitfalls to avoid when creating and submitting your sitemap to search engines.

Show Notes

00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- New Swag Coming Soon.
- Tolin.ski.
02:09 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
02:39 Sitemaps.
04:36 Why do you need a sitemap?
06:34 Sitemap file formats.
- 08:31 Choosing a file format.
- 09:17 Site map file size limits.
- 10:32 Fully-qualified URLs.
10:50 Fields and metadata.
- 10:58 What fields matter for SEO?
14:20 What to avoid in your sitemap?
- 14:23 Dynamic user pages and account pages.
- 14:43 Parameter-based URLs.
- 16:01 Redirects, duplicates or disallowed pages.
- 16:11 Unlisted pages.
17:07 How do you make a sitemap?
20:06 What to do once you have a sitemap.
- 20:08 Validation.
- 20:20 Submit to search engine.
  - Bing Webmaster Tools.
  - Google Search Console.
- 22:11 Cache them!