Does Sitemap help Google Rankings?

Do you all have a sitemap uploaded? Does it help with your rankings? I am trying to figure out how to change the structure of my site when it is searched. It shows the homepage with 4 subforums mapped below.

That would be really cool (it's eye catching), except the subforums are messed up. One no longer exists, one is the FAQ, and one is a category (no one ever clicks categories, they just go directly to the forum). Is there any way to set these manually? I'd love for one to go to our CMS!

Thanks

 

Of course it does, when your site has a sitemap, not only is it easier for your visitors to easily navigate through your site but also the Google bots that visit it too. A site that is easy to navigate is regarded as user friendly and you get extra marks for it. A site map can be the difference between your site being ranked on top or below of your competitors site. So I would suggest that you get a site map for your website in case you have not already done so.

 

At least it helps to discover your website contents.

 

No it doesn't affect rankings. It simply helps search engines spider your site more efficiently.

 

I use Google XML Sitemap plugin in all my Wordpress sites and it automatically pings the search engines when I have and update so it helps in the sense that my site is ready for another crawl.

It must work since sites that needed some TLC got a few updates and traffic increased? Was this a friendly nudge? I don't know, maybe just a coincidence but sites that are in dire need of assistance with some more fresh content will receive new traffic once given that content boost and crawls.

As far as rankings or page authority I believe good site structure, good content (all original) and frequent updating gets you ranked in the long-term but you should have a sitemap. Also I register my sitemaps at Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools as well.

 

So then it helps your rankings... When a search engine visits your pages more frequently, your pages get indexed faster, and it improves your rankings.

Sitemaps are very helpful, especially for forums that are always getting new content, because you want your posts to be indexed as fast as possible.

 

Yes they are useful. No they are not a ranking factor.

 

It allows easy access for the crawlers to detect any changes in your site so that the index will be updated with the latest cached version of your page. It's very easy to do and even if it doesn't help with the ranking, it's a no brainer to include because of how efficiently you can set one up