How to write a XML Site Map

It is important for web sites to have a site map for Search Engine Optimization. The most widely used and accepted type of site map is the XML sitemap.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• a computer
• access to the internet

1. First, you will need to gather information: the site for which you are creating the Sitemap, your ftp information to upload the Sitemap. So, for example, let's say you are creating a site map for the website http://uniquechicjewelry.com .

2. Second,find a XML site map generator. This is the easiest way. There are many free tools on the web that will generate this xml file for you. One of these xml site map generators can be found here: http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

3. Follow the directions specified by the xml generator site. For this site, I just need to enter the domain uniquechicjewelry.com and click START.

4. After the xml sitemap has been generated, upload this xml file to the root of your domain folder using your ftp credentials.

5. Next, go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/siteoverview and add in the path to the xml sitemap in your domain folder. So, the path for my domain would be http://www.uniquechicjewelry.com/sitemap.xml

Tips & Warnings

• If you want the search engines to see your webpages, a XML sitemap is the appropriate choice. It will not negatively impact your site or site's rankings to have a Google sitemap (xml sitemap) and standard sitemap (html) running side by side.
• There are many tutorials on generating an xml sitemap on youtube.

Resources

• site map generator