Generate and Submit your Sitemap
You've set up your accounts for your webmaster tools, now you need to put them to work.
Check our other videos on this channel. :o)
This is step one.
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Video Script:
A sitemap is an index of your site.
This helps search engines find all the content on your website.
There are also parts of your site you’ll want to stop the crawlers looking at. Preventing the wasting of your crawl budget on elements and pages that aren’t relevant will become more important as your website grows.
This is more important if your site is older, more established, has lots of services and content.
Although XML is used for most sitemaps, there is still an argument to be had for using HMTL sitemaps.
An HTML sitemap helps users to navigate your website which is useful for bigger sites with lots of content.
Generating an XML sitemap is fairly simple.
WordPress Users
The SEO Plug-in we use for our WordPress site is Yoast.
If you’re a Yoast user, follow these instructions:
https://yoast.com/help/xml-sitemaps-i...
and Toggle the ‘XML Sitemaps’ switch.
Yoast will update your sitemap automatically – it’s set and forget.
If your SEO plugin doesn’t have a sitemap feature (unlikely) there are other plug-ins that will help you generate sitemaps in WordPress, just do a quick search and see which takes your fancy.
For HTML Sitemaps, there are various plug-ins that will handle this for you.
You can have both XML & HTML sitemaps for your website.
XML is better for the crawlers, HTML is better for your visitors.
Non-WordPress Users
The first thing to do is check with your website host and see if this is a service that you already have and can utilise.
Automation for your sitemaps will save quite a bit of time and reduce the possibility of errors creeping in and messing things up for the crawlers.
XML Sitemap Generator
If not, this is a good tool to generate your XML sitemap, although WordPress users can use it too 😊
https://xmlsitemapgenerator.org
Decide whether you want to use the Windows App or the online version.
Note:
While this is a free tool and payment is not required – if you are able to spare £5 (online) or £10 (windows) to help with maintaining this tool – you’ll have a lovely feel-good moment 😍
HTML Sitemap Generator
Again, first check to see you don’t already have a tool for this included somewhere.
If you don’t have a tool available, there are various options available.
This is one I like the look of but I
Got Your Sitemap?
Sitemap Code
Once you have your sitemap, upload it to the root of your website.
Depending on who hosts your website, this might be done using a
File Manager
FTP tool
A Console.
Check your web hosts support pages to find out how to upload yours.
Webmaster Tools
When your sitemap.xml has been generated and uploaded, add it to the Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
The Google Search Console – Sitemap Tool
https://search.google.com/search-cons...
If required – select a property (top left dropdown – pick your website)
Add the name of your sitemap.xml and submit.
For example, where Google shows:
https://www.2waydigital.com/Enter Sitemap URL Submit
our sitemap name is generated by Yoast and is called sitemap_index.xml and that is what we’d type in the “Enter Sitemap URL” space and then click submit.
Bing Webmaster Tool
To add a sitemap in Bing, go here:
https://www.bing.com/webmasters/sitemaps
Click on the ‘Submit sitemap’ button (top right) and type in the full URL of your sitemap.
Example: ours is https://www.2waydigital.com/sitemap_i...
Patience is a Virtue
Once you have entered the location of your sitemap into the webmaster tools, you may have to wait for a little.
Sometimes, the indexing happens very quickly.
Maybe it could be a few hours.
Occasionally, a day may pass.
Check for Errors
For most sitemaps, you should get a status of Success.
If it’s anything else, check what the sitemap error is and follow the instructions to resolve it here:
https://support.google.com/webmasters...
Scroll to the bottom of the document and expand the complete error list: