Don't link sitemap in robots.txt

[azerbaijan]

Hello,

I don't want to link my sitemap in the robots.txt file, cause I dont want my competitors to see all the pages.

Will this have a negative impact on my site? I would submit we sitemap manually over GSC

Thanks

 

[jamie3000]

As long as you submit it in gsc you should be fine. Which pages do you want to hide and why?

 

[éxorcist]

Your competitors will see those pages once Google index them.

 

[Roger Marquez]

As long as you submit it in gsc you should be fine. Which pages do you want to hide and why?

This is true.

And if you include the subfolder as your permalink structure is even easier for anybody to scrape your index pages.

Like /services/ or /blog/

 

[sageshark]

I don't want to link my sitemap in the robots.txt file, cause I dont want my competitors to see all the pages.

The sitemap of your site can anyways be accessed by your competitors by typing -

yoursitename.com/sitemap, or
yoursitename.com/sitemap_index.xml, or
yoursitename.com/sitemap.xml

Am I missing anything here?

 

[jamie3000]

The sitemap of your site can anyways be accessed by your competitors by typing -

yoursitename.com/sitemap, or
yoursitename.com/sitemap_index.xml, or
yoursitename.com/sitemap.xml

Am I missing anything here?

I don't think you have to name it sitemap.xml, could be /chicken-nuggets.xml as long as you submit it in gsc.

 

[sageshark]

I don't think you have to name it sitemap.xml, could be /chicken-nuggets.xml as long as you submit it in gsc.

No mate, I am not talking in context of submitting to GSC. I was talking regarding OP's concern to hide the sitemap from his competitors eyes.

Honestly, I am hearing it for the first time to rename the sitemap file. But if that can be done then obviously his competitors can not find that.

By the way, how do you rename the sitemap.xml file? SEO plugins generate the sitemap, but do they provide the renaming facility? I never heard that.

 

[Growerse]

If you prefer not to include your sitemap in the robots.txt file to keep it from competitors, that's perfectly fine. You can manually submit your sitemap through Google Search Console, and it won't impact your site negatively. Your competitors won't have access to it that way.

Cheers!

 

[jamie3000]

No mate, I am not talking in context of submitting to GSC. I was talking regarding OP's concern to hide the sitemap from his competitors eyes.

Honestly, I am hearing it for the first time to rename the sitemap file. But if that can be done then obviously his competitors can not find that.

By the way, how do you rename the sitemap.xml file? SEO plugins generate the sitemap, but do they provide the renaming facility? I never heard that.

Ah I've never generated it through a plugin. I've always manually built it with a scanner or had the PHP website I coded generate it. You may be right though, maybe SEO plugins don't generally allow you to rename it.

 

[l0cke]

Hello,

I don't want to link my sitemap in the robots.txt file, cause I dont want my competitors to see all the pages.

Will this have a negative impact on my site? I would submit we sitemap manually over GSC

Thanks

According to my knowledge, excluding your sitemap from robots.txt won't affect your site's SEO, instead I would suggest you to focus on quality of content and also other methods to gain a competitive advantage

 

[BlackShield]

It is safe to skip linking your sitemap in robots.txt; manual submission via Google Search Console is fine and won't hurt your site's SEO.

 

[Panther28]

I dont know HOW much of a difference it makes but it wont stop you from ranking and earning as I had a site that for years didn't have a robots.txt sitemap, and it was still ok, until finally I noticed it. I'm not sure if I still have the site, but I can't recall rankings suddenly going through the roof or the floor or anything, I'm sure I remember it as just staying the same. Been so long, and I didn't write down as much nonsense that I tried then as now! lol