Exclude sitemap.xml in robots.txt

[detlev]

I would like to exclude the sitemap.xml in the robots.txt. It has been indexed by google and in the webmaster tool. Whould it do any harm by excluding the sitemap in robots.txt? I would like to do that because is has a real low SEO score. 

 

Thanks in advance.

[El Patron]

in your robots.txt file:

User-agent: *Disallow: /sitemap.xml

learn more here

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/156449?hl=en

 

NOTE: for 'good' bots, your shop may not longer be indexed using the sitemap.xml as their guide.

[Ciseur]

Whould it do any harm by excluding the sitemap in robots.txt?

 

Of course it does.

XML Sitemaps is used by robots to find your pages easily (it's more efficient to get a full list in a XML format instead of crawling and parsing all pages one by one to find all your URL).

If you block access to your XML sitemap(s), robots will not be able to use this useful file(s).

 

Your XML sitemap is indexed ? So what ? Many websites got their sitemap indexed and have a high ranking. This is not a problem for your website.

Just try : https://www.google.fr/search?q=inurl%3Asitemap.xml

 

Do not block access to your XML sitemap.

 

Hope it helps, if you have any further question you can contact me,

Best regards,

Ciseur