CODEWITHSUNDEEP
seositemaprobots.txt
Easyrider
Easyrider

Reputation: 3269

Can a relative sitemap url be used in a robots.txt?

In robots.txt can I write the following relative URL for the sitemap file?

sitemap: /sitemap.ashx

Or do I have to use the complete (absolute) URL for the sitemap file, like:

sitemap: http://subdomain.domain.com/sitemap.ashx

Why I wonder:

In blog.domain.com I put the robots.txt to let search engines find the sitemap. But, due to the wildcards, all user account share the same robots.txt file.Thats why I can't use the second alternative. And for now I can't use url rewrite for txt files. (I guess that later versions of IIS can handle this?)

Upvotes: 223

Views: 154703

Answers (3)

cstpl123
cstpl123

Reputation: 21

Good technical & logical question my dear friend. No in robots.txt file you can't go with relative URL of the sitemap; you need to go with the complete URL of the sitemap.

It's better to go with "sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml"

In the above URL after the colon gives space. I also like to support Deepak.

Upvotes: -5

Deepak Mathur
Deepak Mathur

Reputation: 311

Google crawlers are not smart enough, they can't crawl relative URLs, that's why it's always recommended to use absolute URL's for better crawlability and indexability.

Therefore, you can not use this variation

> sitemap: /sitemap.xml

Recommended syntax is

Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

Note:

  • Don't forgot to capitalise the first letter in "sitemap"
  • Don't forgot to put space after "Sitemap:"

Upvotes: 8

unor
unor

Reputation: 96737

According to the official documentation on sitemaps.org it needs to be a full URL:

You can specify the location of the Sitemap using a robots.txt file. To do this, simply add the following line including the full URL to the sitemap:

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml

Upvotes: 350

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