Xml Sitemap

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Hi mozzers,

I am about to submit a sitemap for one of my clients via webmaster tools. The issue is that I have way too many urls that I don't want them to be indexed by Google such as testing pages, auto generated pages...

Is there way to remove certain URL from the XML sitemap or is this impossible?

If impossible, is the only way to control these urls is to "No index" all these pages that  i don't want the search engine to see?

Thanks Mozzers,

[VistageSEO]

Like you mentioned, you could either use robots.txt, or submit  a URL removal request through webmaster tools. I've used both methods.

[jenmcardle]

You should absolutely be able to exercise complete control over what URLs are contained in your site map. It is dependent upon your sitemap software. There are hundreds of software solutions available.

Regardless of the site map, you should definitely no index the pages you do not wish to appear in search results. A robots.txt entry is definitely not the best solution.

[CustomMade]

Great question!  You can manually remove all pages from the sitemap, by opening it up in a text editor of your choice, removing offending entries, and saving the file.  Make sure you use a simple text editor like notepad on windows or textwrangler on mac.

It is best to do this before your submission, rather then add pages which you know you don't want indexed and then have to ask google to remove them.

[Ideas-Money-Art]

Hi Greg,

Since I am not an expert into sitemaps yet, once i finish removing URLs I don t want, should I just save the text editor document and then how do I submit this doc into webmaster tool?

Is it just "add sitemap" and put the name of the doc "www.example.com/sitemap.xml"? or is there another manipulation I should be aware of?

Thank you,

[CustomMade]

That is correct, you just submit as you would normally.  There are two ways to submit the file:

1. Via the webmaster tools interface.  Have you created your webmaster tools account yet?  Optimization -> Sitemaps -> Add Sitemap

2. By referencing it in your robots.txt.  Just add the following on a new line: Sitemap: http://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml