The Moz Q&A Forum

    • Forum
    • Questions
    • My Q&A
    • Users
    • Ask the Community

    Welcome to the Q&A Forum

    Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

    1. SEO and Digital Marketing Q&A Forum
    2. Categories
    3. Inbound Marketing Industry
    4. XML Sitemap Leads to loss in ranking and traffic in Google.

    XML Sitemap Leads to loss in ranking and traffic in Google.

    Inbound Marketing Industry
    7 4 1.9k
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as question
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • seosogo
      seosogo last edited by

      I have submitted XML sitemap in Google's webmaster tools for some of the categories of my website. after submitting the sitemap i have seen the drop in traffic and ranking of keywords for the categories tof which sitemap was submitted.

      The other categories for which i  have  not submitted the sitemap the ranks have not changed.

      my sites alexa rank is approx 3000

      Please help me out should i remove the site or change the priority of the urls which i have fixed in the sitemap?

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • Martijn_Scheijbeler
        Martijn_Scheijbeler last edited by

        I've seen such behavior before, but I'm also pretty sure that it's not related to just uploading the site maps itself as it's just a signal to Google to where they can find the (new) pages. Are the category pages of low quality or is there something else which could cause this?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • DennisSeymour
          DennisSeymour last edited by

          if it was indeed caused by submitting the sitemap, its too late for you to worry about it. My vote, another coincidence. Ive actually experienced this twice and i got my rankings back by analysing where i went wrong with the tech/structure.

          With an alexa like that, you probably have a big site. Try to find a "main" problem and fix that first rather than going for different changes all at one time.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • seosogo
            seosogo last edited by

            Hi Mrtijn

            the categories are  the top  performing categories from the websites. i have done the keyword tracking the keywords from the categories having the sitemap have gone down. whereas the keywords from the non-sitemap categories have remained stagnant or move up.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • seosogo
              seosogo last edited by

              hi Dennis

              so what do you suggest should i remove the sitemap or  leave the  sitemap as it.

              umerseo DennisSeymour 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • umerseo
                umerseo @seosogo last edited by

                I believe you should leave the sitemap as it is for now. and Work on improving the quality of your website; The Pages, Design, Link Structure, URLs, Content... I mean everything

                Improve the quality score of your pages and your rankings will surely rise again

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                • DennisSeymour
                  DennisSeymour @seosogo last edited by

                  just leave it. Double check for errors on it.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • 1 / 1
                  • First post
                    Last post
                  • Why Google not showing all search result even Google index more than 14k.. its showing 120 only
                    DirkC
                    DirkC
                    0
                    2
                    2.3k

                  • Traffic, rankings and own manual note in one interface, please :)
                    MikeTek
                    MikeTek
                    0
                    3
                    112

                  • If I have a Google+ Business page, do I need a Google Places page as well?
                    jonnyholt
                    jonnyholt
                    1
                    8
                    338

                  • Penguin 2.0 Update - Just Hit - Google Messes up again, can anyone on SEOMOZ please tell me why or how some of these websites are ranking?
                    MarketingOfAmerica
                    MarketingOfAmerica
                    0
                    10
                    884

                  • Google Algorithm Update .. Author-rank finally kicking in ?
                    NikolasNikolaou
                    NikolasNikolaou
                    0
                    4
                    473

                  • Hello, Actually I have bit of doubt. If I create Google plus business page. Will it helpful or effects for my website ranking?
                    Francisco_Meza
                    Francisco_Meza
                    0
                    2
                    477

                  • Google Products / Google Shopping
                    GrouchyKids
                    GrouchyKids
                    0
                    5
                    791

                  • My blog is Not at all ranking in google search,what could be the problem?
                    kemalhousein
                    kemalhousein
                    0
                    9
                    1.1k

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  • Digital Marketers
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2026 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy