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Understanding Google My Business & Local Search

Mike Blumenthal in Google Places (Maps & Local)
  13 Comments

Google Still Supporting KML Files but NOT the Use of Geo Sitemaps

In a followup to SMX West questions,  noted on Google Plus the effective demise of GeoSitemaps:

Q: Why are my Geo Sitemaps throwing errors in Webmaster Tools?

A: Google has retired support for the Geo Sitemaps format. You can continue to submit your Geo content to us using the standard Sitemaps format (just listing the URL of the file(s), without-specific tags).

Kurt Maine  –  Susan, can you tell me exactly what you mean by “Google has retired support for the Geo Sitemaps format”?

Does this mean that KML files as a whole are no longer supported in any fashion, or are speaking to a completely different subject?
Yesterday 8:52 PM

Susan Moskwa  –  We still support KML files.

We previously supported an extension to the Sitemaps protocol where you could include tags in your XML Sitemaps that contained geo-specific information in addition to the URL of your KML file. We no longer support those geo-specific XML tags in Sitemaps, but you can still submit the URLs of your KML files in a standard Sitemap format.
Yesterday 9:05 PM (edited)

Written By
Mike Blumenthal
Comments

13 Comments

Eric Christopher (36 comments)

That’s good to know! thanks Mike!

Stever (206 comments)

I’d noticed that geo-sitemaps were throwing errors in Webmaster Tools but just let them be till I heard what was up, and now I’ve heard 🙂

e.panko (4 comments)

Easy fix for the errors and a quick question:

Just erase the 3 lines with tags (keep the kml link intact) and resubmit the xml to webmaster tool.

e.panko (4 comments)

And the question:

KML files = trust

But is there any direct relation between KMLs to ranking higher?

Tiggerito (17 comments)

Thanks for the heads up.

I just removed the geo tag from my sitemap file and all is now warning free.

Aaron Bird (3 comments)

Thanks for the heads up, this is good to know.

Phil Rozek (260 comments)

Ah, that solves that infuriating mystery from the other day…glad it wasn’t just me (this time). Too bad the “help” section in GWT didn’t contain one sentence that told us that…

Thanks, Mike!

Mark Barrera (4 comments)

Super easy fix. Time to go fix this and get in the good graces of Google 🙂

Orli Osh (1 comments)

Hi Mike, I’ve been trying to create a KML sitemap with http://www.geositemapgenerator.com (I believe you mentioned this in the past) but it doesn’t seem to work for UK addresses. Is that right or is it me being dumb?

Chris Farr (1 comments)

What are the 3 lines with tags mentioned?

Sean Pearse (9 comments)

@Orli Osh… I’ve used that tool before for a UK address and it worked fine (as far as I can recall at least).

Hi Mike, Thanks again for another helpful post. This is rapidly becoming my local seo resource bible! I’m currently getting my head round microformats and geo markup. Considering this latest update, are we better to just focus on developing location trust with Google entirely via microformats? It seems to be moving that direction

Shannon (3 comments)

Mike,

Thanks for the heads up. I’ve removed geo tags as well, thanks again!
Love your blog!

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Tracy (4 comments)

Is anyone still creating/uploading KML files and “geo” sitemaps? This issue seems to have died down since last spring, so I’m wondering if webmasters are still using this technique.

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