HOWTO: Generate an XML Sitemap

1 March, 2010 - HOWTO

Generating an xml sitemap is an important, if basic, step in getting your site thoroughly crawled. If you use CMS, there are usually plugins available that will generate the sitemap for you. On this site, for example, which runs on WordPress, I use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, which automatically updates the sitemap when I add new posts or pages. There are similar plugins for Drupal, Joomla and many other platforms.

If your site runs on a system with out these kinds of plugins, or your site is built from static HTML, there are two options available:

The first, and most basic is to use a third-party sitemap generator, like xml-sitemaps.com. Many of these services are free for small sites (up to 500 posts and pages). Simply enter your site’s url and download the resulting file. Upload the file to the root directory of your site. While this is an extremely easy option, it should really only be used for sites that do not change frequently. The sitemap is static, meaning that it is only generated once. Any time you add content to a the site, you will have to generate and upload a new sitemap.

The second option is to use a server side program, like the one offered by Google. There are both paid and free versions of these. Most of them offer dynamic sitemap generation, which means that the map is updated when the site is changed. The drawback is that you need to have a website running on Perl/Python/PHP and you or someone on your team has to be familiar dealing with those languages.

Once you create a sitemap (and upload it to your server if you need to), the next step is to let the search engines know about it. While there isn’t a formal submission process for Ask.com, you can ping it by pasting the following into your browser’s address bar:

http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http%3A//www.the URL of your sitemap here.xml.

If you have already registered your site with Google and Bing, log in to their webmaster sites to see if the sitemap is there. You may need to submit it manually.

Here is a pretty comprehensive list of sitemap resources from Google:

Server-side Programs

Enarion phpSitemapsNG (PHP)
Google Sitemap Generator (Linux/Windows, 32/64bit, open-source)
Outil en PHP (French, PHP)
Perl Sitemap Generator (Perl)
Python Sitemap Generator (Python)
Simple Sitemaps (PHP)
SiteMap XML Dynamic Sitemap Generator (PHP) $
XML Sitemap Generator (PHP) $

CMS and Other Plugins

Downloadable Tools

Expression Web Sitemap Builder (Windows) $
GSiteCrawler (Windows)
GWebCrawler & Sitemap Creator (Windows)
G-Mapper (Windows)
Inspyder Sitemap Creator (Windows) $
IntelliMapper (Windows) $
KeyLimeTie Sitemap Generator (Windows) $
Microsys A1 Sitemap Generator (Windows) $
Rage Google Sitemap Automator $ (OS-X)
Site Map Pro (Windows) $
Sitemap Writer (Windows) $
Sitemap Generator by DevIntelligence (Windows)
Sitemapper by CoffeeCup (Windows) $
Sorrowmans Sitemap Tools (Windows)
TheSiteMapper (Windows) $
Vigos Gsitemap (Windows)
WebDesignPros Sitemap Generator (Java Webstart Application)

Online Generators/Services

Google News Sitemap Generators

The following plugins allow publishers to update Google News Sitemap files, a variant of the sitemaps.org protocol that we describe in our Help Center. In addition to the normal properties of Sitemap files, Google News Sitemaps allow publishers to describe the types of content they publish, along with specifying levels of access for individual articles. More information about Google News can be found in our Help Center and Help Forums.

WordPress Google News plugin

Comments

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