Moved sitemaps to a different subdomain and losing search referrals around the same time. Red herring or correlation?

Posted by er1234 on Pro Webmasters See other posts from Pro Webmasters or by er1234
Published on 2013-12-02T22:48:40Z Indexed on 2014/06/02 21:47 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 213

Filed under:

seo

|

google-webmaster-tools

|

sitemap

We started to lose search referral traffic around the same time that I moved some of our sitemaps to a subdomain. Could this have hurt us?

I followed Google's steps to creating a sitemap under a different subdomain. The new sitemaps.foo.com subdomain is being crawled and indexed well.

Both www.foo.com and sitemaps.foo.com have been verified in Google Webmaster Tools. They appear as distinct sites. Is this correct? I can't find a way in Webmaster Tools to say "Hey, sitemaps.foo.com is really owned by www.foo.com, so show them together and make sure to attribute sitemaps.foo urls to www.foo"

Our www.foo.com/robots.txt

Sitemap: http://www.foo.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: http://sitemaps.foo.com/subdir/sitemap.xml.gz

© Pro Webmasters or respective owner

Related posts about seo

Do i need a full time seo employee? [closed]

as seen on Pro Webmasters - Search for 'Pro Webmasters'
I need seo done for 1 site that's still new. It's a niche listings/ecommerce site. And i need to make a hiring decision for this - whether there's a need for a full time employee dedicated to seo or is part time or a contract sufficient? Here's some info and assumptions : 1)The site's dynamic -… >>> More
1 SEO Article Vs 5 SEO Articles?

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
You've probably clicked on this article because you think it's a interesting article but the answer seems very easy or straight forward. If you think 5 SEO articles wins or is more beneficial to your business, then your like me. >>> More
SEO Training OR SEO Outsourcing

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
There is a lot of focus on outsourcing search optimization work, but this may not always be the best option. This article looks at why SEO Training can often be a better option because it results in more unique content which is better for search engines. >>> More
Get Professional SEO Service From SEO Experts

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
SEO service is imperative to online business. Business today has gone digital. With its power to perform international promotion, almost every brand is on a bid to establish an online presence. However, it's not easy to gain online presence without proper SEO service. >>> More
The Chinese SEO in the Internet SEO Formula

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
Most ecommerce websites are designed in order to drive the Chinese internet users to the website thus delivering a good user experience that converts the users into customers. According to a statistical report on the internet development in China, conducted during the year 2009, the Chinese SEO of… >>> More

Related posts about google-webmaster-tools

Weird entry for robots.txt on a Naked Domain in Google Webmaster Tools

as seen on Pro Webmasters - Search for 'Pro Webmasters'
We own a .co.uk address and use an Internet hosting company that has made mistakes around DNS in the past. Our main site is hosted on www. and their reluctance to allow editing of AAAA records on-line means our naked domain does not resolve. Currently when we attempt to reach the naked version there… >>> More
How to submit sitemap when your website has partial https? - Error: "Not in Domain"

as seen on Pro Webmasters - Search for 'Pro Webmasters'
My website is an ecommerce that is set up to do http for the item browsing portion, but https for things like shopping cart, contact us, etc.. (anything that has forms on it). I've submitted my website a long time ago to google webmaster tools as http://www.mywebsite.com. I also submitted a sitemap… >>> More
Why Use Google Webmaster Tools

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
This article talks about why Google Webmaster Tools is an amazing program for optimizing and debugging your website. It provides many advantages for any website owner who uses it. >>> More
What Are Soft 404s in Google Webmaster Tools

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
There are two types of 404 response codes when a web page cannot be found. Google Webmaster Tools now displays both types. Find out why you do not want to have any soft 404 errors. >>> More
Revamped Google Webmaster Tools

as seen on Get blogged by JoKi - Search for 'Get blogged by JoKi'
With a positive surprise I realized today that Google's Webmaster Tools had some minor overhauling and provide some more details than before. Most obvious are the changes on the dashboard where the Top Search Queries now provide information about impressions and clicktroughs instead of the rankings… >>> More