Hi there,

Having your XML Sitemap listed in both the robots.txt file and the global footer serves slightly different purposes, and both can be beneficial depending on your goals. Here's a breakdown of the SEO implications:

Robots.txt File Listing your sitemap in the robots.txt file is a common and recommended SEO practice. It serves as a signal to search engines, helping crawlers easily discover your sitemap and efficiently index your site's content. This is especially useful if search engine bots rely on the robots.txt file as an entry point to your site structure.

Global Footer Including a link to your sitemap in the global footer is more user-focused. While it doesn’t directly improve SEO rankings, it can:

Help users (especially web admins or developers) locate your sitemap easily. Build trust with search engines by showing transparency in your site structure. Should You Use Both? Yes, having the sitemap in both areas can be advantageous.

The robots.txt file ensures search engines find your sitemap quickly and crawl your site effectively. The global footer serves as a user-friendly element that also signals to search engines that you value accessibility. When to Choose One Over the Other If you need to prioritize:

Robots.txt File: Focus on this if you want to streamline crawling and indexing. Global Footer: Include this only if it aligns with your user experience or design strategy. If not, it can be omitted without impacting SEO significantly. Conclusion There's no harm in having the sitemap listed in both places, and it might even enhance your overall strategy by covering both SEO and user experience bases. However, if you want to reduce redundancy, prioritize listing the sitemap in the robots.txt file for direct SEO benefits.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have further questions.

@justinandrew,

Thanks so much for the clarification. Very informative. I have had a link to our XML sitemap listed in our footer for years (opens up into a new window). XML sitemap is in the robots file as well. I will probably leave it "as is" so it does not disrupt anything unless it could be holding up back. I appreciate your thoroughness in the explanation.

@binayjha, thanks so much.

Okay great. Thanks so much for the reply.

Hi there,

With the growth of AI search, would it be recommended to "allow" the "OAI-SearchBot" and "ChatGPT-User" in your robots.txt file? If so, what would be the proper syntax? I've read mixed opinions on this. We have a local service-based business. I currently see our brand come up in .ai searches (if that matters). Any suggestions would be great. Thanks so much.

Here is the syntax I found:

User-agent: OAI-SearchBot Allow: /

User-agent: ChatGPT-User Allow: /

@binayjha,

I appreciate the feedback. Would it be okay to just have the sitemap listed in the robots file and removed from the footer? Or for SEO purposes, do you feel it's better to have an HTML Sitemap down there? If you lean towards having an HTML sitemap in the footer, is there a recommended permalink naming convention that works best? ie. mydomain .com / sitemap.html

Hi @JonyK,

Thanks for the reply. Instead of linking to the XML sitemap in the FOOTER, do you feel it would be better to generate an "HTML" sitemap and link? My thought is it could be more user-friendly which could help with SEO. Also, the link currently opens up in a new window. Would it be better to target "_self"? Appreciate your assistance on this.

Hi there,

Our robots.txt file currently lists the path to our XML Sitemap. We also have a link to the sitemap listed in our global footer.

QUESTION: Is there any SEO benefit, one way or another, in having this sitemap listed in both areas? Is it better to list in one place only? If so, which one?

Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you

Hello,

My client has owned two companies using the same address for more than a decade. Each company is separately licensed.

[COMPANY 1 - RP Companies Inc](not GBP verified): is in the UTILITY CONSTRUCTION industry with an emphasis on commercial electric, NATURAL GAS, telecommunication, and general project management.

[COMPANY 2 - RP Gas Piping Inc](GBP verified) is in the Commercial/Residential NATURAL GAS Industry.

To improve visibility and populate with correct information, I would like to verify [COMPANY 1 - RP Companies Inc]. Due to a slight overlap in services (NATURAL GAS), I am somewhat reluctant out of concern it may cause confusion with Google and affect [COMPANY 2 - RP Gas Piping Inc] current GBP success.

I was hoping to get some input on this. If there is a chance it could cause issues, we will leave things as is. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much

IF you wish to get rid of it quickly, throw 410 status code for those urls. Else, keep it as it is. overtime, google will understand and stop it.

Thank you for all of the feedback. Good information.

A paginated page is a web design technique used to divide content across multiple pages rather than presenting it all at once. This approach enhances user experience by reducing load times and making navigation easier. Paginated pages are common in search results, forums, and long lists where displaying all content at once would be overwhelming. Each page in the pagination includes a set number of items, and users can navigate between pages using links or buttons. This method not only improves performance but also helps in organizing content more effectively, making it accessible and manageable for users.

If they are gone on purpose, you should not do anything about it. It is supposed to 404, when the content does not exist.

If you get more products in the future, then it would be a bad idea to redirect the page. You should only redirect the pages if they have link-value AND the structure will not be used in the future.

This is good question and a scenario I haven't been dealing with yet.

Thinking from user perspective, when looking to hit a page #3 but the page doesn't exist anymore and products that used to be on that page are now on page #2, I'd probably 301 redirect to page #2.

Another option that comes to mind in a scenario you now have lazy load on your main page (the one that used to be paginated) is to redirect any page # to the main page (without page attribute). I'd apply this sort of fix only when all the products are reachable from the main page (most likely lazy loaded).

@ms...thanks for the reply. I spoke with Google and they said the proper way is to let it 404. I do like your redirect idea though. Would be good for smaller blogs where you can use lazy load. Larger one's most likely would need to have page2, page3 etc. available if you have a limit on # of articles per page. Just an initial thought. Thanks again.

Hi there,

I was hoping to get some insight on 404 paginated pages. I recently raised my product count per page and now I have 404s for the indexed pages (/page/2/, /page/3/, etc.). Just looking for SEO advice on how to handle this. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks so much

I tried to understand your query many times and concluding, empty tags you meant empty pages.

Yes, those pages can be deleted. If those URLs have been crawled by search engines like Google then using Google Search Console those URLs can be removed.

Hi there, I was referring to the tags listed in the WordPress admin. Apologies for the confusion. There were a bunch of tags with no products attached to them. So in turn, they were tag pages created. Thanks

Hi there, was wondering what thoughts are on empty tags that have been on a website for a while. Is it safe for your overall website to simply delete without redirecting? Look forward to some opinions. Thanks

This is not spamming. As long as those filenames are accurate, it's all good.

Okay, thanks so much.

Hi there,

I'm working on an e-commerce shop and have a general question...

Most of the products contain between 8-10 images (various angles and looks). Would it be best to AVOID naming the images with kephrases due to potentially being labeled as spammy? (ie. brand-name-model-side-view.jpg, brand-name-model-back-view.jpg, brand-name-model-front-view.jpg, brand-name-model-side-view-2.jpg)?? Or would it be best to leave phrases out entirely (use model/SKU numbers etc.)?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Okay, thanks.

Hi there,

Generally speaking, is it good SEO practice to naturally link back to your homepage from the body of a contact page or estimate page? Does it matter either way? I'm curious about any thoughts on this. Thanks so much.

Okay, thanks. I just thought directing to this page instead would be more relative and more service-related. I appreciate the reply.

Hi there,

I was hoping for some opinions on improving our GBP visibility…

We offer services primarily throughout our city area (Phoenix). Although not as frequent, we also offer services for the entire state (Arizona). Our company is a home-based business located in Phoenix (address not displayed on our GBP).

Our homepage is built around key phrases related to our "Company Name" and "Arizona". It fulfills a variety of “general” needs for current and prospective clients.

Some topics on our homepage include:

• Brief company description (1 paragraph) • Links to our 3 primary services • Blurb/link to secondary-level services • Quote Form • Blurb/Links to further info services for specific upcoming Events (often changes) • Recent Blog articles (changes monthly) • Customer Reviews

We also have a page that lists our primary services and targets "Phoenix" related “service” searches. This page ranks well organically (non-GBP) and also links to primary sub-services. I feel this page would be a great landing page for those searching locally (Phoenix).

For years, we have been struggling to rank decent on GBP for "Phoenix" related searches. I understand a hidden address (which we have) can be a contributing factor to competitiveness, but since the homepage does not primarily target the city we are based in (in this case Phoenix) I wonder if this could be holding us back.

Since our primary service page targets phrases related to our location (Phoenix), my thought was it might help to direct the GBP profile link to this page instead.

Note: We also have other pages explaining benefits for other nearby cities as well. These are only accessible from the main menu nav and not through the primary service page.

Question:

I was curious if it would be okay to experiment without risking any chances of getting delisted on GBP. If it didn't perform as well, my thought was to revert back to the home URL.

Any suggestions or input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

It is not required in terms of SEO.

Okay, thanks so much for the feedback.

Hello,

Is it a good idea to link from your website to your Google Business Profile for SEO?

Thanks

Hello everyone,

I was looking for a few opinions... A client of mine is in the limousine service industry and is a long time member of a reputable, local tourism information company. We have a digital badge available for us to use mentioning our affiliation. Since both companies are related to travel and hospitality, I am considering displaying this badge and linking out from our homepage to their website. I feel it would benefit his clients who are arriving in town looking for additional travel resources.

With this said, would linking out from our homepage be considered safe in terms of SEO? If so, any suggestions on nofollow or follow?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Okay, thanks. If that happened to be the case, GOOGLE would definetely be taking away a big chunk of companies ability to advertise.

Appreciate the reply.

Honestly, this happens on the Seoforum too. Some people try to take advantage of reputable websites by publishing their content there and driving traffic away to their money page... That's why you can't link from posts, so there is little motivation to do that.

Back to your question though. I don't think niche directory listings qualify. It's actually valid way of let people know about their options and choose from them. Unless you're exploiting third party platform authority to gain traffic from unrelated websites by spamming, we're likely not talking about parasite SEO.

Hello,

I'm sure most already know, but the word in the SEO world is that Google is cracking down on what they call "parasite SEO". This term is new to me so I'm not sure if I grasp exactly what it is. We are members of local travel companies that also have a business directory with the option to add your business description and a link to our website. Some of our descriptions are 900 words or so long. These are very solid, reputable, and relatable companies.

Is this something that could be considered parasite seo? No underlying intentions on anything...just wanted to describe our company.

Any input or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Linking the homepage is desirable.

Hi @binayjha,

Great, thanks.

Hello,

I was hoping to get a few opinions on this...

Our company is a member of a local organization/association and I want to link out to their website for validation/trustworthiness purposes. Would it be more desirable to link to the organization's homepage or the member directory page (where other competitors are listed)?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hey @binayjha,

Guess I'm not the only one getting hit by Poland spam. Just thought I'd share. Thanks

https://www.seroundtable.com/polish-google-analytics-referral-spam-36953.html?utm_source=search_engine_roundtable&utm_campaign=ser_newsletter_2024-02-26&utm_medium=email

Okay, will do. Thanks for your suggestions. Appreciate it.

Hi @binayjh,

Thanks for the reply. So if I find the bad actor, simply block the IP via robots.txt?

Hi there,

A year or so ago, we acquired a company and joined the site by redirecting the majority of the pages to a post on our primary website explaining the merge. Over the past few weeks via Analytics, I have noticed it is getting blasted with traffic by someone in Warsaw. The time on site is zero seconds, which leads me to believe we could be getting attacked by spam. What would be the best way to find out the website IP causing this? Sounds fishy to me.

Thanks

Hi @binayjha,

Okay, good deal. Thanks for the reply. Appreciate it.

Hi @binayjha,

Appreciate the reply. So you would consider this safe to test and revert if necessary?

Thank you

Hi @jaap,

Thanks for the reply. I currently link out to a national organization/association(which we are a member of) which is set to "nofollow". I guess either way, it would still be user-friendly. It's on a major service page, so I'm not sure if I'm up for testing out removing the relevancy. If I do, I'll let you know. Thanks

Hi there,

I have a general question regarding external linking (in 2024)...if I suggest SERPS "follow" an external link (dofollow), I understand a certain percentage of value is passed over to the linked website. If I were to update the link relevancy to "nofollow", would I regain this value, or would some value be permanently lost?

My reason for asking...

I am considering removing the "nofollow" relevancy on one of my external links for testing purposes (SEO). Just curious if some SEOs would consider this risky.

Any opinion on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Okay, that makes sense. Just wondering...do you feel it would be more beneficial to include this information and link on our "About Us" page or the primary limousine service page? Appreciate any suggestions.

Okay great. Thanks for the reply.

Thanks for the reply. Okay, nofollow is what I was thinking as well. In general though, do you feel linking out to certification sites is beneficial? Appreciate your input.

Hi there,

I primarily work in the local service industry. A client of mine (limo service) belongs to the National Limousine Association (NLA) and the Arizona Limo Association (ALA). These certifications are mentioned on both the "About" page and the primary "Service" page. I am considering linking to their corresponding home pages using another targeted window. Was looking for other SEO specialist's thoughts on this. If you would recommend it, would it be best to follow/nofollow?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Hi @ms,

Okay, that is what I was thinking too. Just wanted to get another opinion before doing so. Appreciate the reply. Thanks so much

Hello, in an attempt to lower the amount of similar content, I am working on consolidating /removing pages from our website. I have an article (please see the link below) that is similar to one of our primary service pages (link below). Our primary service page has good performance and the article in question is poor to average (it does have a backlink or two directed to it). Would it be safe to delete this article and redirect it to our primary service page, or better to just remove it without redirecting? I'd prefer to remove and redirect rather than just dump it, but if it would be somewhat of a risk, I'll just remove it. Any opinions or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much

Here are the pages:

Service page: allvalleytransportation .com / phoenix-sky-harbor-airport-phx/

Page to remove, or remove and redirect: allvalleytransportation .com / how-to-get-to-phoenix-sky-harbor-airport/

Hi there,

Okay, great. Thanks for the reply. Appreciate your opinion on this!

Hi there,

My name is Jon DuVall and I am new to the community. Glad to be here! I have a general question related to homepage meta titles and SEO. In this case, I am working on service based, Natural Gas business.

A few things..

1) There are pages for each service offered. 2) The homepage copy briefly describes each service with a link to the appropriate page for further explanation.

My question: Is it better to incorporate "unique" phrases for the homepage meta title or include the key phrases that are used on the priority service pages? I always seem to struggle with this because the homepage is top priority.

For example and in this case:

OPTION 1: Homepage Meta Title: (Company Name | Gas Line Installation & Gas Pipe Repair) Priority Service Page 1 Meta Title: (Gas Line Installation | Gas Line Installer) Priority Service Page 2 Meta Title: (Gas Pipe Repair | We Repair your Gas Pipe Leak)

OPTION 2: Homepage Meta Title: (Company Name | Unique Information) Priority Service Page 1 Meta Title: (Gas Line Installation | Gas Line Installer) Priority Service Page 2 Meta Title: (Gas Pipe Repair | We Repair your Gas Pipe Leak)

Hopefully this makes sense. Any opinions on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!