Sitemaps

What is a sitemap

A sitemap is a simple computer file that enables a webmaster to tell the search engine about the pages on the site that are available for indexing. This helps search engines to more intelligently crawl a website and keep their results up to date. Sitemaps are fairly simple XML files that can be written with any word processors.

Here are instructions on how to create a site map manually. However, there are many simple programs available that will help automate the construction of a sitemap.

Drupal and Sitemaps

If you are using Drupal, you need to install the XML Site map module. Once installed and configured correctly, XML Site Maps will automatically keep the sitemap up to date and inform the search engines every time you change your sites content.

Submitting your sitemap to search engines

Having created a sitemap you need to submit it to the various search engines this will increase the speed and likely-hood of the search engines indexing your site.

If you are using Drupal, then for all the following search engines, you need to go to Administer -> Site Config -> XML Sitemap and select the Search Engine tab.

How to submit a sitemap to Bing

  1. Login to your Windows Live account and go to Bing Webmaster Center.
  2. Add your site to Bing by filling in your URL and the URL of your sitemap. Click add a site.
  3. Bing then gives you instructions on how to verify your ownership of the site. If you are using Drupal, cut and paste the Bing "Meta Tag Authentication" number into the associated field on the "Search Engines" tab and then click on "save configuration".
  4. Bing will check the sitemap and begin indexing your site as soon as it's determined that the sitemap has no errors.

How to submit a sitemap to Yahoo!

  1. Login to your Yahoo! account and go to Yahoo! Site Explorer.
  2. Add your site to Yahoo! by filling in your URL and clicking on Add My Site. Be sure to validate that you are the owner. If you are using Drupal, cut and paste the Meta Tag content field into the associated field on the "Search Engines" tab and then click on "save configuration".
  3. You then need to validate the site in order to submit a sitemap.
  4. Click on your site URL and then on the feeds link in the right column.
  5. Type in the URL of your sitemap, and leave the drop-down as "Web Site Feed". Click Add Feed.
  6. Yahoo! will check the sitemap and begin indexing your site as soon as it's determined the sitemap has no errors.

How to submit a sitemap to Google

  1. Login to your Google account and go to Google webmaster tools.
  2. Add your site to Google by clicking on the "Add a Site" button. You don't need to verify the site in order to submit a sitemap for it. However, if you are using Drupal it is a good idea to verify now. Copy the long key in the content field of the Meta tag into the corresponding field on the "Search Engines" tab and then click on "save configuration".
  3. Click on your site URL and then click on the plus-sign next to Site configuration. When it appears, click on the Sitemaps link.
  4. Click on the Submit a Sitemap button and fill in the URL of your sitemap XML file. It must be stored on the site that it's mapping.
  5. Google will check the sitemap and begin indexing your site as soon as it's determined the sitemap has no errors.