I am using xmlsitemap_term module. It works great. The features to give priority to each vocabulory as well as making a category not go in sitemap.xml is really great.

The module generates proper records in sitemap.xml - one for each term - putting the url_alias for each category's taxonomy/term link, last update time, interval and priority.

Right now, the last update time and interval are for the category itself. The link points to taxonomy/term - which is a view. Usually, while the vocabulory and terms of a developed site are static and do not change much, the content of the views will be ever changing.

In this case, since the link is to a view and sitemap.xml users care about the output of the view, the line in the sitemap.xml should have last-update time and interval that is not linked to category's last-update-time.

Ideally, the xmlsitemap_term module can leave last-update-time blank and ask user input at each category level for the update interval.

That will make this module super usable for feeding to google bots - right now Googlebots consider the term links as non-changing and do not show up high in the SERP pages.

Thanks

Comments

darren oh’s picture

darren oh
Primary language English
Location Lakeland, Florida
commented
Status: Active » Postponed (maintainer needs more info)

I see that the last update time is taken from the term when the module is initially enabled. However, when a node is updated, the update times for its terms should be updated as well. Could you check and see if this is happening?

rkarajgi’s picture

rkarajgi commented

Darren:

The taxonomy/term is a view that will produces list of nodes in a teaser mode - the latest nodes posted at top of the list. So, technically the "last update time" for this url should be the last update time of the first node that will appear in that view. That will be the perfect solution - the "ranking in SERP" of the taxonomy/term url will be higher. Publisher is happy - google bot will be happy.

For now, I have patched one line where to give current time as last update time in resulting sitemap.xml file. It is working fine. The sitemap.xml prints the current time in the resulting sitemap.xml - the taxonomy/term url is considered by googlebot as changed.

If anyone wants the one line patch, I can post it here.

Thanks to this module, I can see immediate changes in the Google webmaster tools as well. However, Google webmaster tools may not not quite appreciate that all taxonomy/term urls have exact same timestamp. It is not flagged yet - but it may be checking and if "last update time" is faked in sitemap.xml, then may drop from SERP pages.

The long term solution (feature request) would be :
- simulate the logic of taxonomy/term view, find the last mod time of the underlying node
- use that time as the last mod time of the taxonomy/term url.

Thanks.

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented
Status: Postponed (maintainer needs more info) » Fixed

Taxonomy terms are different from the view which show a list of posts which have a taxonomy term in common.
Therefore, the term update time is not related with the view you are talking of.

Not having informations more about this, I will change the status of the report to fixed.

avpaderno’s picture

avpaderno
he/him
Primary language Italian
Location Brescia, 🇮🇹 🇪🇺
commented
Title: The last-update date generated in sitemap.xml » Last update time for taxonomy terms

Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)

Automatically closed -- issue fixed for two weeks with no activity.