Can a relative sitemap url be used in a robots txt

Question

In robots txt can I write the following relative URL for the sitemap file   sitemap   sitemap ashx   Or do I have to use the complete  absolute  URL for the sitemap file  like   sitemap  http   subdomain domain com sitemap ashx   Why I wonder    I own a new blog service  www domain com  that allow users to blog on accountname domain com  I use wildcards  so all subdomains  accounts  point to   blog domain com     In blog domain com I put the robots txt to let search engines find the sitemap  But  due to the wildcards  all user account share the same robots txt file Thats why I can t use the second alternative  And for now I can t use url rewrite for txt files   I guess that later versions of IIS can handle this

User · Answer

Google crawlers are not smart enough  they can t crawl relative URLs  that s why it s always recommended to use absolute URL s for better crawlability and indexability   Therefore  you can not use this variation   gt  sitemap   sitemap xml   Recommended syntax is  Sitemap  https   www yourdomain com sitemap xml   Note    Don t forgot to capitalise the first letter in  sitemap  Don t forgot to put space after  Sitemap

User · Answer

Good technical  amp  logical question my dear friend  No in robots txt file you can t go with relative URL of the sitemap  you need to go with the complete URL of the sitemap   It s better to go with  sitemap  https   www example com sitemap index xml   In the above URL after the colon gives space  I also like to support Deepak

User · Answer

According to the official documentation on sitemaps org it needs to be a full URL      You can specify the location of the Sitemap using a robots txt file  To do this  simply add the following line including the full URL to the sitemap   Sitemap  http   www example com sitemap xml

[seo] Can a relative sitemap url be used in a robots.txt?

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