Does Your WordPress Blog Have a Sitemap.xml File?
A sitemap is a file that allows for search engines to quickly and easily find newly published content on your web site or blog. The sitemap.xml file has been widely adopted as the industry standard among popular search engines including, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Live.
If you run a self-hosted WordPress blog, creating and maintaining a sitemap can’t be made easier. Arne Brachhold has provided the WordPress community with a wonderful WordPress Plugin called Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin is great because it does everything for you automatically. You don’t need to worry about having to learn how to make your own sitemap.xml file, which quite honestly can be very complicated to create and very difficult to maintain.
Once installed, the Google XML Sitemaps plugin will create a Google compliant XML sitemap and even create a proper robots.txt file which will direct the Googlebot to your sitemap so that it can quickly and easily find your newly published content and also easily check for updates on your existing posts.
In addition to being Goole compliant, The Google XML Sitemaps WordPress plugin is also compliant with Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com. Installing this plugin couldn’t be made any easier and the process involved in to different than installing any other standard WordPress plugin.
Some of the features included with this plugin is as follows:
Google XML Sitemaps Features:
Screen Shot of The Google XML Sitemaps WordPress Plugin:
July 11th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I agree Garry, and use this plugin on any blog I create, it’s too simple implement, why wouldn’t you use it
July 11th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Yup, another one of the wonderful plugins made for wordpress, if you’re not using it you’re not taking full advantage of wordpress, and you’re not making it easier for SEs to crawl your blog, which is what you want.
July 11th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Lol Garry
I came looking for “really wonderful WordPress Theme.”
but I found a Plugin and a really wonderful one as well
And the bonus is that it will keep our bot friends so happy.
Keep up the good work!
PedroG
July 11th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
A tremendous plugin Garry and certainly does automate the process - which has gotta be a good thing!
July 11th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Another great post Garry. Wordpress is already great for SEO. Addition of sitemap.xml makes it killer. Great tip!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Yep, I use this on every blog I create! Great read Gary!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Oh and by the way…I use Hostgator and LOVE IT!
July 11th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Hey Garry, I love this plugin to…. One thing I would like to know though are what settings do you advice for best SEO results?
July 11th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Thanks for sharing Gary.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:26 am
I added that plugin about a month ago and it’s already helped to improve my google rankings.
Wordpress is the best, I’d be lost without plugins.
July 18th, 2008 at 12:18 am
[...] your site for updates. If it takes a longer period of time to index, you may consider setting up a sitemap.xml file. A sitemap.xml file is basically a road map for search engines to quickly find your newly published [...]