20 Create a sitemap to have your blog indexed by search engines
June 21, 2007 / Filed under:

Sitemaps are a useful tool in helping get your blog pages indexed by search engines, which gives your blog extra "visibility" online and can drive more traffic to your site. Unfortunately, it can be quite difficult to hand code a sitemap file for a blog, especially if you have a lot of posts! Also, you would need to have your blog's sitemap hosted in the root directory of your hosting account, which makes it impossible for Blogspot bloggers to achieve. There are ways for for bloggers to solve this problem, and create sitemaps which can be indexed by Google and other search engines. Here are some suggestions: Blogger: The easiest way to upload your sitemap to google is to use the atom.xml file which is automatically generated for you. This will be located at: http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml if you have a Blog*spot hosted blog, or at http://www.yourdomain.com/atom.xml if you have a custom domain. I've also found this tool by Stephen Newton, which is a template you can use temporarily (don't publish, whatever you do!) create a sitemap which can be saved as an XML file if you have your own blog hosting (or some free hosting with your custom domain). Full details can be found over at Stephen's site. Moveable Type: Niall Kennedy has created this great template file which you can use to create an XML sitemap of your Moveable Type blog. Copy the code into a new index template and save as "sitemap" or something memorable. Once your sitemap template is saved, you can tell Google and other search engines where it is. TypePad: You can choose to publicise your sitemap in the settings. To add a sitemap to your weblog, go to Weblogs > Configure > Publicity and select Yes under Google Sitemap for your Publicity Preferences. More information can be found here. Wordpress: Arne Brachhold has created a great Wordpress plugin to generate a sitemap for Wordpress blogs, which you can find on this page. There's also a useful PHP file available for Wordpress users in the Social Patterns blog. General/Other blogs: Pingoat have also created a dynamic sitemap generator which uses your blog's address and can alter the priority of your posts to let search engines know which pages are most important. Once you've created and saved your XML file, you'll need to save this in the root of your web directory. Technorati Tags: | | | | | | | | |

Author: Amanda Kennedy

Amanda is a professional blogger and web designer living in Sheffield, United Kingdom.

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20 Comments:

  1. So, how do you get this to work when you are using FeedBurner?!

    ReplyDelete

  2. if your blog is using feedburner redirection,you can do that by using

    http://yourblogname.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false

    http://www.yourdomain.com/atom.xml?redirect=false

    ReplyDelete

  3. By default, atom.xml only contains 25 posts. If you want you increase the number of posts in your atom.xml, change your URL to:

    atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=100

    This will give you 100 posts. I think blogger has a limit on the number of posts in your atom.xml file, but I am not sure what it is.

    If you have more than 100 posts, simply add another URL to get the next batch:

    atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=101&max-results=200

    I hope you get the idea.

    ReplyDelete

  4. That was really helpful. Thanks!
    Here is one blog post that you may find useful: http://blog.stinkyinkshop.co.uk/sitemap-hell.html

    ReplyDelete

  5. Hi,

    I was getting frustrated after repeated failed attempts to submit a sitemap at Webmaster Tools until I read this post and the comment by Fahd Shariff. Thanks Fahd. I'm now really happy at my sitemap @ http://www.evolveever.com being accepted by Google and this is the icing on the cake: "No errors or warnings found." at Google regarding my sitemap. I was getting pages full of errors in the detailed error report earlier. This is so smooth & all bad things about my site & the urls there etc which filled up the report have vanished. Thanks a million again.

    ReplyDelete

  6. how i can make sitemap on my blog, please tell me

    ReplyDelete

  7. My blog sitemap is error. help me

    ReplyDelete

  8. Fahd Shariff, awesome. I was wondering about the atom feed only showing the recent posts. As for months and labels pages, how do you add those to sitemap?

    ReplyDelete

  9. how can i add a sitemap to google for my blog having a custom domain but hosted on blogspot? remember that it's feed is also burnt by feedburner when it was on the blogspot provided domain i.e., (http://zaheeriqbal.blogspot.com)

    offcourse without errors

    ReplyDelete

  10. This works beautifully. Now my blog is indexed! Thank you very much.

    ReplyDelete

  11. I just tried this, hopefully it will work out for me

    ReplyDelete

  12. i just follow your steps and resubmit my blog's sitemap, now waiting the status..., hope this will works, thanks Amanda!

    ReplyDelete

  13. This is realy useful information. Read few more points at
    http://www.globinch.com/2010/04/20/how-to-create-a-sitemap-of-blogger-blogspot-blog/

    ReplyDelete

  14. I am thoroughly convinced in this said post. I am currently searching for ways in which I could enhance my knowledge in this said topic you have posted here. It does help me a lot knowing that you have shared this information here freely. I love the way the people here interact and shared their opinions too. I would love to track your future posts pertaining to the said topic we are able to read.

    ReplyDelete

  15. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about information and love learning more on this. If possible, as you gain expertise, It is extremely helpful for me. would you mind updating your blog with more information

    ReplyDelete

  17. i uploaded my sitemap to webmaster tools and when i search my site on google. the pages link do not appear. Whats happening please help me?

    ReplyDelete

  18. very useful and helpful for blogger.
    Shahabvery useful and helpful for blogger.
    Shahab

    ReplyDelete

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