Sogou sitemap permission application record: the whole process from review to submission
Recently, my personal blog successfully passed the qualification review of the Sogou webmaster platform. This article records the complete process of my review, finding the missing entrance, finding the official rules, and finally submitting the application.
1. Qualification review has passed
On May 18, I submitted a site verification application. Waiting for about a week, when I logged into the Sogou webmaster platform on May 24, I saw the notice of approval:
‘You have completed the website verification and passed the qualification review, you can view and manage the website data and add website members.’
At that time, I was quite happy, and I felt that it was one step closer to the batch submission of Sitemap. My blog has been in operation since 2012, and it has been more than 13 years. The content is all about programming practical experience and study notes, and has published more than 1,000 original articles, and has updated about 3 per week on average in the past year. Such content volume and update frequency, using Sitemap batch submission is indeed the most efficient way.
2. It is found that Sitemap submission is not supported
After entering the ‘Resource Inclusion’ page, I carefully reviewed the tool description:
‘The resource collection tool provides a link to the webmaster to help Sogou spider crawl your website. You can submit the link you want to be included by Sogou through this tool.’
Just as I was about to upload a sitemap file, a sentence in the notes made me stunned:
‘Only the submission of the link corresponding to the page is supported, and the file submission in the form of Sitemap is not supported.’
Up to 20 links per line, one line per line – this may be ok for a small station with only a few dozen articles, but my blog has more than 1,000 articles, and it is still being updated. This manual submission method is obviously not feasible.
3. Find the official rules: Sitemap is an invitation system
I started to look for the official help documentation of Sogou, and finally found the answer in the Sitemap submission guide of the Sogou help center:
Sogou officially states:
‘Sitemap adopts an invitation system, and will only activate Sitemap permissions when your website has original or irreplaceable content or cannot be correctly crawled by Sogou Spider.’
That is to say, the Sitemap batch submission function is not open to all sites that have passed the qualification review by default, but needs to be actively recognized by Sogou as ‘high-quality content, high originality or difficulty in crawling’. This permission will be obtained.
At the same time, Sogou also clearly stipulates the format of the Sitemap file:
‘Submit Sitemap only supports three format files of TXT, XML, and XML primary index. A single file can contain up to 50,000 networks. address, and should be less than 10MB. The number of files must not exceed 100, that is, the URL to submit Sitemap will not exceed 5000,000.’
This specification is enough to meet the needs of most websites.
More importantly, the official provides the channels for active applications in the rules:
‘If your site meets the above conditions but does not have Sitemap permissions, you can apply to zzpt@tend.com to apply.’
4. Confirmation email application plan
On other pages of the Sogou webmaster platform, I also saw similar information:
‘Sitemap is an invitation system. When Sogou Spider can fully and reasonably crawl your site, we will not activate Sitemap permissions.’
This shows an important logic: Sitemap is essentially asupplementary tools, only when Sogou Spider cannot efficiently crawl your website (such as too large website content, complex structure, etc.), this permission needs to be opened.
This is exactly the same as my situation – more than 1,000 articles, the original programming blog that is constantly updated, which fully meets the official definition of ‘original or irreplaceable content’.
In addition, many webmasters have shared their experience of successfully applying for Sitemap permissions through emails, mainly due to long-term adherence to high-quality original content, and has been recognized as a ‘high-value and irreplaceable’ content source by Sogou.
5. Submit a formal application email
After confirming the rules and application channels, I sorted out an official application email and sent it to zzpt@tencent.com.
The content of the email is as follows:
Email subject: To apply for the permission to submit a Sitemap batch submission – site:www.shuijingwanwq.com
Recipient: zzpt@tencent.com
Mail body:
Hello, the staff of the Sogou webmaster platform!
my website (www.shuijingwanwq.com）已于5月18日通过贵站的“验证站点”审核，现希望申请开通“Sitemap提交”权限。
【Basic information of the website】
- Site field: Original technology blog, articles are programming practical experience and study notes.
- Operating time: It has been operating stably for more than 10 years.
- Content volume: There are currently more than 1000 original technical articles.
- Update frequency: Continue to maintain high-quality content updates, and update about 3 articles per week on average in the past year.
【Reason for application】
The rules of your site clearly state: ‘Sitemap permissions will only be activated when your website has original or irreplaceable content or cannot be correctly crawled by Sogou Spider.’ Considering that the total number of website articles has exceeded 1,000, and the habit of maintaining stable updates, it is very necessary to manually submit one by one. Use the Sitemap protocol to help Sogou Spider grab and update content more comprehensively and efficiently, and achieve the best inclusion effect.【Preparation of sitemap file】
The website is built on WordPress, and has generated the Sitemap file that conforms to the Sitemaps.org 0.9 protocol through the mainstream SEO plug-in. It can be accessed through the following addresses:
- Sitemap address:https://www.shuijingwanwq.com/wp-sitemap.xml
- robots.txt address:https://www.shuijingwanwq.com/robots.txt（已按规范添加Sitemap指令）
Please review and activate my sitemap submission permission, so that high-quality technical content can be included through more efficient channels.
There are three core information highlighted in the email:More than 10 years of operation history, 1000 + original articles, continuous content update. These are key data to support ‘original or irreplaceable content’.
Six, summary
From my current experience, the open logic of Sogou Sitemap function can be summarized as follows:
| Key points | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Qualification review | Submit the site verification normally, and obtain the basic webmaster tool permissions after the review is passed |
| Sitemap permissions | You need to apply through an ‘invitation system’ or active mail to obtain |
| application conditions | The website needs to meet the conditions of ‘original or irreplaceable content’ or ‘grabbing difficulties’ |
| Application channel | Send an email to zzpt@tencent.com |
At present, I have completed the email application and are waiting for a reply. If there is progress in the future, I will continue to update this article and share the final result.
If your website has also encountered a similar situation – the quality of the content has passed the test and the volume is large, but has not received the Sitemap invitation from Sogou, you might as well try to apply by email, and attach a detailed website situation and sitemap address, the success rate should not be too low.
