How to Create XML Mapping File
An XML sitemap is a document built in XML that lets search engines know what pages or URLs on a site are available to crawl or index. It also lets search engines know of updated content to a site based on frequency settings. The use of XML sitemaps is crucial to having good search engine optimization, as they are the first or second thing a search engine looks for to direct its spiders when crawling a site (the other being a robot.txt file). They aid in faster and better indexing, and help get new content indexed quickly.
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Instructions
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Visit the link in "Additional Resources," below, labeled XML-SiteMaps.com, to go to the Google Sitemap Creator on XML-Sitemaps.com. You will need to have your full site accessible to the public on the web.
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Enter your full URL in the space provided on the XML Sitemaps site.
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Choose the change frequency you estimate your site will change in the drop-down menu. If your site is a blog or other content-driven site where new content is being uploaded daily, select hourly so that your new content will be added to your sitemap the same day. Otherwise, daily should be sufficient.
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Select "Use server's response" for the last modification date and time.
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Set the priority level to automatic in the drop-down menu.
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Click "Start" at the bottom of the page.
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Click the link for the uncompressed version of your new sitemap, select "Save" when asked and save it to your desktop when asked where to save it. You can select your desktop as the location from the left-hand menu of the save window.
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Click the link for the compressed version of your new sitemap, select "save" when asked and save it to your desktop when asked where to save it.
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Upload both the compressed and uncompressed versions of your sitemap to your /public_html folder on your ftp account using your FTP client software. If you do not have any, you can get free software called FileZilla (see "Additional Resources," below).
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Tips & Warnings
Never try to put your sitemap files anywhere but in the main public access folder on your ftp account. This may confuse search engines and cause you problems.
