We often make changes to our website, such as adding, removing or combining a few pages. In this situation, some website owners are wondering whether it is necessary for them to update and re-submit sitemap. We may have concern whether Google bots will arrive fast enough to re-index our website. Even if Google bots, can they accurately record all recent changes in our website. XML sitemaps are a tool that supports our SEO campaign. In reality, XML sitemaps are optional. Even if we don’t use them, it doesn’t mean that our website will rank poorly. Eventually, Google will crawl and detect any change in our website. However, by using XML sitemap, you can make sure that your website will be crawled much faster.
If you have made some changes to your website, it’s your choice whether you should update and resubmit your sitemap. You may do this with the Google Search Console. Go to Search Console > Sitemap Details > Crawl > Sitemaps. The next step is to choose the sitemap that you want to submit. If you have a large volume of traffic and you are making a major change in your website, then updating your sitemap could be necessary. You need to make sure that your audience gets the latest information. Based on experience, it appears that new webpages are updated more quickly when you discourage bots to crawl old pages that you don’t change. You can do this by using a modified XML sitemap that contains only newer pages. However, you need to take it down once Google crawls your website.
If it appears that it takes too long for Google to crawl and index your new webpages, you may need to wait a little longer. It should settle out in about two weeks. Many people believe that the <site:(your URL)> command is a good way to determine webpages that have been indexed. So, you may think that if some pages disappear, then it means that they fall out of the Google index. That’s not true, because Google keeps everything in its database. Eventually, they will reappear if these webpages have relevant information that many people need. If you want to see a list of indexed pages in your website, you should use the Google Search Console. There are many tools that can help you to create the latest sitemap for your website.
WordPress has a plugin that can create the latest sitemap easily and you only need to click a button, then the file is downloaded to your computer. You may resubmit this sitemap to Google and other major search engines. In reality, top websites with excellent reputation don’t need to resubmit their sitemap. Just minutes after they release a webpage, it will be shown immediately in Google News and regular search result. So, you need to focus on building your online reputation. Once Google and your audience trust you, it will be much easier for your website to get indexed almost instantly for immediate information distribution.
