How to Create a Sitemap

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

The easy way to create a Google Sitemap and enhance your websites rank.

Steps

1. Sign in to Google webmaster tools with your google account at www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps . If you don't have a google account, you will need to create one.
   
2. Add your site to your webmaster tools account.
   
3. Verify your site, either by creating a blank html file with a certain name (generated by google), or by inserting a specific meta tag in you site index.
   
4. Go to http://www.auditmypc.com/web-master-tools.asp .
   
5. Click on the Webmaster Tool button.
   
6. Enter you site name and url.
   
7. Hit the play button in the bottom-left corner.
   
8. Click on the Sitemap tab.
   
9. Wait until all the files have finished loading, then select the one which location is the root of your website.
   
10. Click on the Save Sitemap button, then on the pop-up menu that comes up, click on Google Sitemap.
    
11. Save the file to you sites directory (or just anywhere if you don't have one).
    
12. Upload the file to your web server at the highest publicly available directory (normally "www" or "public_html").
    
13. Go back to Google's webmaster tools, and click on the Sitemaps tab.
    
14. Click "Add a Sitemap".
    
15. Select General Web Sitemap on the drop down list.
    
16. Enter the url of you sitemap. Eg. http://www.mysite.com/sitemap.xml
    
17. Click on Add Web Sitemap.
    
18. That's it! It can take up to a couple of days for Google to download your new sitemap.
    

Tips

• It's a good idea to check your site for broken link before you make a sitemap. You can do this online here: http://validator.w3.org/checklink
  

Warnings

• Make sure you haven't linked to any admin or password protected pages in your site. If you have, they will be included in the sitemap, so make sure you get rid of them first.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Google Sitemaps Made Easy
  
• How to Create a Howpage
  
• How to Create an Illusion
  
• How to Create a Rainbow
  
• How to Create a Website
  

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