What Is A Site map ?
"Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found. This is especially important if a site uses a dynamic access to content such as Adobe Flash or JavaScript menus that do not include HTML links.
They also act as a navigation aid by providing an overview of a site's content at a single glance.
Most search engines will only follow a finite number of links from a page, so if the number of links is very large, the site map may be required so that search engines and visitors can access all content on the site"
(source :Wikipedia)
We have 3 sections to complete this tip
"Site maps can improve search engine optimization of a site by making sure that all the pages can be found. This is especially important if a site uses a dynamic access to content such as Adobe Flash or JavaScript menus that do not include HTML links.
They also act as a navigation aid by providing an overview of a site's content at a single glance.
Most search engines will only follow a finite number of links from a page, so if the number of links is very large, the site map may be required so that search engines and visitors can access all content on the site"
(source :Wikipedia)
We have 3 sections to complete this tip
So lets see how its done :
Sitemap 1.
I will show you how this is done for future reference.
Step 1.
Go to your blog and look at your blogs address in the browser at the top of the page it will be :
http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com/
or if you have a custom domain :
http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.com/
Mine is http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/
Step 2.
Add the following to the end of your blogs URL :
robots.txt
So now you have :
http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com/robots.txt
http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.com/robots.txt
Mine is http://www.spiceupyourblog.com/robots.txt
Click enter or go to go to the address
Step 3.
Now once you go to this page it will look like this :
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Disallow:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /search
Sitemap: http://www.YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated
Mine looks like this :
User-agent: Mediapartners-Google
Disallow:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /search
Sitemap: http://www.annoitedtouch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated
Above as i have highlighted in red is your site map address - that's it as far as getting the site map.
Keep this you will need it later.
Sitemap 2.
I will just give you the default 'atom 500' address :
- atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500
Now you can Submit your sitemap to Google.
Step 1.
If you do not already have a webmaster tools account to do this you go to www.google.com/webmasters/tools/ you can log in to webmaster tools with your Google account the same details you log into blogger with.
Webmaster tools is a Great source of information to see exactly how Google sees your blog but that's another days work..
Step 2.
On the homepage if you have not already submitted your site to webmaster tools click 'Submit A Site' .
You can submit your blog URL.Note: just submit your URL here http://YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com we enter the site map address later.
You will have to verify that you own the blog this is straight forward follow the steps provided by Google.
Once you are verified as the owner of the blog we can carry on.
You are now ready to submit your sitemap.Step 1.
Click on your blog address in your webmasters dashboard you will arrive on this page.In the left sidebar click 'optimization'
Now in the drop down click 'sitemaps'
Click 'Submit Sitemap' as circled in red below and enter the site map you generated earlier:
- feeds/posts/default?orderby=updated
Click submit.
Now enter the second sitemap :
- atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500
Click submit.
