SitemapXML v.2

[schoolboy]

@ schoolboy
Thank you very much for replying!
I've found the "CEON URI MAPPING" link for downloading, but I couldn't find "Berezin's sitemap" link...
Anyway, even if I will download these plug ins, which really look great, I don't have the guts (and the knowledge) installing them , and I am totally dependent on the guy from Fiverr.
Indeed, a freelancer from Australia (found in ZC site...) installed and solved in the past most of my ZC problems.
He is a real "pro" but I cannot afford the price, as the sales are decreased to ZERO. From the first page at Google, I am now within 30th-40th...
From 190,000 results on Google, it dropped to 9000 within a month.
I know that "almost everything cheap is very expensive", but as I cannot afford a "pro", I must use the services from Fiverr
Many thanks again,
petrutech

I know the feeling... I have had times where it seemed I just could not afford the cost of a real expert. I see Andrew has offered to help - you could not be in better hands, He is very knowledgeable.

But looking at the issue of falling ranking... The URL re-write and sitemap.xml are not the main reason you have lost ranking. We have some sites that have never used URL re-write, and on some sites we generate a xml sitemap using one of the many online services that do this for free. (https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/). Our sites get good rankings regardless.

Since 21 April 2015, Google has been giving much more attention to these areas:

1, Mobile Responsiveness - sites that are not compliant with mobile efficiency factors are starting to drop down the rankings - not because Google drops them down, but because your competitors are Improving their sites faster than you are. They are "leap-frogging" you and this is the major cause of steady falls in SE ranking.
2. Pagespeed. The faster your site loads, the better the search engines (and customers) like it. Faster sites will get more favourable ranking than slower sites.
3. Structured data markup. While this is not yet having a major impact on results ranking, the use of structured data makes your content more "understandable" to google and it will know how to place your links into search results that are more relevant to the search terms a person uses. In many cases, it may appear you are climbing the rankings, but the reality is that competitors are falling lower - you are now doing the leap-frogging.

To me, these three issues are amongst the more important, so we focus on getting the site's software to comply with what is now expected by Google.

Sure... get the sitemap and URL issue sorted out - but the real issues with good ranking are in 1, 2, and 3 above.

[Ridgh]

@schoolboy,
Thank you very much again,
Yes, I certainly know that I am in "good hands" if Andrew takes care about this issue :)

 1, Mobile Responsiveness - sites that are not compliant with mobile efficiency factors are starting to drop down the rankings - not because Google drops them down, but because your competitors are Improving their sites faster than you are. They are "leap-frogging" you and this is the major cause of steady falls in SE ranking.
2. Pagespeed. The faster your site loads, the better the search engines (and customers) like it. Faster sites will get more favourable ranking than slower sites.
3. Structured data markup. While this is not yet having a major impact on results ranking, the use of structured data makes your content more "understandable" to google and it will know how to place your links into search results that are more relevant to the search terms a person uses. In many cases, it may appear you are climbing the rankings, but the reality is that competitors are falling lower - you are now doing the leap-frogging.

To me, these three issues are amongst the more important, so we focus on getting the site's software to comply with what is now expected by Google.

1. Mobile Responsiveness: I am checking now every page, (the site is in 6 languages...). It takes some time, but as anyway there are not sales, I have plenty of time.
2. Page speed: I am using a free site, panda, for minimizing the pictures in each page. This is the only thing that I can do. I know that the cache size has influence too, but I assume (?) that it is optimized by the "Fiverr Guy". However, as I suspect, one of the problems is resizing pictures to thumbnails. Most of my pictures are 500px X 500PX. Most thumbnails are 80px X 80px... there are also other sizes. I assume that it influences the page speed too.
3. Structured data markup: here is a problem named... IGNORANCE I read this term several times, googled for it, but it is still unclear to me, especially how to do it in practice, especially in the 6 languages.

BTW, another "Fiverr" tried to insert the "hreflang". Don't even ask what mess it did after inserting it... It took a month or more to "clean" it. Nothing worked, so I gave up using it... even that I know it could help somehow.

One more issue is my main page "animated gif". I have used to use an swf file, but couldn't make it mobile responsive. I tried the "marquee" trick - and it was a total fiasco. However, I know that it is an issue - it is relative big - but I am trying to find a better solution, without any success.

Many thanks again!

[a_berezin]

Hi,

Thank you a_berezin
I just sent the PM :)
Many thanks in advance!

Check now Google Search Console.

[Ridgh]

You guys are GREAT!!!
Within several hours I already "felt" the change!
4 people already found the site, all from Google! Unbelievable!
1000 THANKS!!!

[a_berezin]

You guys are GREAT!!!
Within several hours I already "felt" the change!
4 people already found the site, all from Google! Unbelievable!
1000 THANKS!!!

As I said earlier, there was a bug in the redirect in .htaccess.
Because of this error, the site not only dropped out of the index, but there were errors when you go to him, because of what the visitors just could not get to the site.

[GavinHeron]

Hi, thanks for this contribution. I'm receiving an error: "News Box Manager Sitemap. WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again." when I try rebuild all the sitemap.xml files (admin/tools/sitemap Xml). Using ZC 1.5.5b.

Checked that /sitemap/ has 7777 permissions. Also installed sql patch.

[a_berezin]

Hi,

Since 21 April 2015, Google has been giving much more attention to these areas:

1, Mobile Responsiveness - sites that are not compliant with mobile efficiency factors are starting to drop down the rankings - not because Google drops them down, but because your competitors are Improving their sites faster than you are. They are "leap-frogging" you and this is the major cause of steady falls in SE ranking.
2. Pagespeed. The faster your site loads, the better the search engines (and customers) like it. Faster sites will get more favourable ranking than slower sites.
3. Structured data markup. While this is not yet having a major impact on results ranking, the use of structured data makes your content more "understandable" to google and it will know how to place your links into search results that are more relevant to the search terms a person uses. In many cases, it may appear you are climbing the rankings, but the reality is that competitors are falling lower - you are now doing the leap-frogging.

To me, these three issues are amongst the more important, so we focus on getting the site's software to comply with what is now expected by Google.

Sure... get the sitemap and URL issue sorted out - but the real issues with good ranking are in 1, 2, and 3 above.

Yes, it's true. But first we must get tired of all the errors on the site, remove all duplicates, all broken links, all unnecessary redirects, build unique meta tags, etc. etc. etc. And then we can think about fine-tuning.

[a_berezin]

Hi,

Hi, thanks for this contribution. I'm receiving an error: "News Box Manager Sitemap. WARNING: An Error occurred, please refresh the page and try again." when I try rebuild all the sitemap.xml files (admin/tools/sitemap Xml). Using ZC 1.5.5b.

Checked that /sitemap/ has 7777 permissions. Also installed sql patch.

Module "News Box Manager" is the last time I had seen more than 10 years ago. It is better to disable it in the sitemapxml plugins settings.

[Ridgh]

Hi Andrew,
Please check your PM...
Thank you!

[hflsales]

I am on zencart v1.5.5a. Just downloaded & installed the newest sitemap plugin. The site works fine. When I try to log into admin, the login screen is blank. No way to log into admin. I have deleted all the sitemap files from my admin folder and I can now log in again. Anybody know what is up?