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This is my first question on here so let me know if I have not followed any rules.

I run a website Audibase that has the usernames in the URLs for example:

  • https://audibase.com/grungecake
  • https://audibase.com/audibase

What is the best practise to apply SEO for these to show up in the search engine for their username?

So if someone searched for any username it would say.

Username | Audibase

Similar to how it works with LinkedIn.

I have very basic SEO knowledge, I have built the website with code ignitor which is fine but it means custom SEO which I would like to learn and understand best practises. With my WordPress websites I just install Yoast and leave everything to that.

Do I add all the usernames to my sitemap.xml will this help them rank the problem is I have hundreds and which one take priority?

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2 Answers 2

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To make it scalable, you should use multiple sitemaps. In Google Webmaster tools, you can specify multiple sitemaps, which means that you can create one that is specific to user profiles.

Bearing that in mind, you should stick to following requirements:

A sitemap file can't contain more than 50,000 URLs and must be no larger than 50 MB uncompressed.

The requirements are listed here. Google recommends that you split larger sitemaps up into smaller ones.

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  • Ah right thanks Wexford didnt even know that was possible having a sitemap per user, going to do some research on how to implement this with code ignitor ;)
    – user1868788
    Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 13:29
  • Hi wexford so if i had a sitemap like this audibase.com/grungecake/sitemap.xml for each individual user i would need to add each one through google webmasters?
    – user1868788
    Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 14:26
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    Sorry i think i get it you create a central sitemap that links to others
    – user1868788
    Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 14:33
  • The question seems to be about getting usernames to appear in the SERPs - sitemaps are not necessarily going to help in this respect. Sitemaps simply help hard-to-find pages to be found in the first place. How they are then indexed and appear in the SERPs is then dependent on other on-page factors such as page TITLE, META description and page content.
    – MrWhite
    Commented Jan 24, 2015 at 0:26
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What is the best practise to apply SEO for these to show up in the search engine for their username?

You would need to include the username as part of the page title element. Also link to these pages using the username as the anchor text. Including the username (naturally) in the page content will also help. LinkedIn includes the user's name as the first text in the page title.

Do I add all the usernames to my sitemap.xml will this help them rank the problem is I have hundreds and which one take priority?

You can include all the URLs in your XML sitemap, however, the XML sitemap does not help with ranking. The XML sitemap simply helps (hard to find / poorly linked) pages to be found by the search engines in the first place.

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