How should I choose which URLs I want indexed to include in my sitemap?

Question

I am working on a sitemap. I have read it should contain the URLs that you want indexed by Google. But which pages do I want indexed?

It seems to me that makes sense to index pages such as the root and pages like blog, about, contact, but no internal page, such as /blog/post-1. Is this thought correct?

Answer 1

The pages you most want indexed are your post pages such as /blog/post-1. Those text-heavy pages with article-like content on them are the most attractive to search engines. Collectively, those pages are going to account for the majority of search engine visitors to your site. Users will typically find them when searching for some specific query about something you have written about.

You also want the other pages you mentioned to be indexed. Your home page, blog, about, and contact pages are likely to show up in searches for your name or brand.

Pages that you don't want indexed are ones that search engines wouldn't like. Things like:

• URLs without content
  • Error pages
  • Redirects
  • Blank pages
• Thin content
  • Stub pages
  • Tag or category pages that contain very few links
  • User profile pages with little info filled out by the user
• Poor quality content
  • Auto generated text
  • Machine translated text
  • Bad spelling
  • Bad grammar
  • Broken links
  • Spam
• Duplicate content
  • Internal duplication, URLs that duplicate another page on your site
  • Scraped content
  • Syndicated content
• Infinite (or very large) URL spaces. Such as pages for:
  • Site search
  • Each number
  • Every person on earth
  • Every phone number of IP address
  • Large combinations (like how to get from here to there for every combination of locations).
• Temporary content
  • Pages that will go away shortly
  • Pages only useful when they are first viewed
• Private content
  • Pages requiring users to log in
  • Admin pages
  • Pages with sensitive data