How to create an XML sitemap for "Yandex" and Google: step-by-step instruction

A Sitemap is a web page that displays the full information about all the pages of the site that are needed for search robots. Someone will say that it is not needed, because all sections are already displayed. However, the need for such a page exists if the site contains fifty pages or more. For search engines and for users, it will serve as a guide to help you understand where this or that information is contained.

XML and HTML files

Since the site map is used not only for search robots, but for users visiting the site, there are usually two maps: in XML and HTML formats.

To create a Sitemap for search robots, use an XML file. Thanks to him, robots enter new indexed pages into their search base. In the absence of a map on a multipage site, a large number of pages may not be indexed for sometimes very long time.

To create a site map for users, an HTML file is used. The importance of this card lies in the fact that it directly depends on its convenience, whether the user will find the information that interests him or not. Therefore, such a map is created for those Internet projects in which all sections and their sub-sections do not fit in the main menu.

How to create XML Sitemap

There are three ways to solve this problem:

• Buying a generator for a sitemap.

• Create a Sitemap using online services.

• Manually writing a file.

In order to save time, it is proposed to purchase generators. Therefore, if twenty to thirty dollars for buying a license are for a webmaster a shallow waste of money, then buying it, especially for a large Internet resource, still does not hurt, since it will not be necessary then to create a site manually.

For a site containing several hundred pages, online services are recommended, where in order to create a Sitemap, you only need to specify the address of the Internet resource and download the result.

The most correct option is to manually create a map. To do this, you need to know tags such as url, urlset, loc, lastmod, changefreg, and priority. In this case, the first three tags are considered mandatory, and without the last three can and do.

Creating a Sitemap in Joomla

To create a Sitemap on the site, Joomla and Wordpress have special additions, as well as most known administration systems, thanks to which the site map is created manually or automatically. For large Internet projects, which are constantly updated materials, this add-on is very convenient.

In "Jumble" it is called Xmap, in Wordpress - Google XML Sitemaps.

Automatic site map creation

Automatically create a Sitemap help free online servers, if the site pages are no more than five hundred. Here's how to easily generate a site map:

• When you go to one of these online resources, you need to find the "Generating a Sitemap", click on the "Create" button and create a Sitemap automatically.

• Find the "Site URL" and enter there the address of the site for which the map is created.

• Perhaps the system will require the introduction of a verification code. It must also be entered and press "Start".

• A ready-made map is uploaded to the site.

The manual way to create a map

This method is, on the one hand, the most difficult, time-consuming, but on the other hand, it is the most correct method, used in cases where other options are not suitable. So, for example, if there are many pages that are not particularly needed in the site map, but they automatically go there, of course, the manual way will save the card from "overdosing" such pages. Another reason for choosing this method is poor site navigation.

To implement a manual map creation, you must:

• Collect pages to include them in the map.

• In the excel file, insert all the addresses in the third column.

• In the 1st and 2nd columns, insert both url and loc.

• In the 4th and 5th columns, insert the closing url and loc.

• Apply the function "link" to connect five bars.

• In a text editor, do sitemap.xml.

• Add tags and urlset and / urlset to this file.

• Insert a connected column between them.

• Save everything.

The resulting file should be checked. You can do this, for example, in "Yandex", in the webmaster's panel.

How to create a Sitemap for "Yandex" and Google

After the creation of the site, it is added to the site. For this purpose, the file with the site map should be called Sitemap.xml and add it to the root directory. To search engines quickly find it, Google and Yandex have special tools. They are called "Tools for Webmasters" (in Google) and "Yandex-webmaster" (in "Yandex").

Adding a Sitemap to Google

In Google, you need to go through the authorization process in the "Webmaster Tools". Then, after selecting the site, go to the optimization / Sitemap files, click the "Download" button and confirm this operation.

Adding a Sitemap to "Yandex"

So in Yandex-webmaster you must first authorize. Then go to Indexing / Sitemap files, specify the file path there and click the "Add" button.

Tips for creating a sitemap

It is recommended to follow the following tips when creating a site map:

• Search robots today will take only those files that contain no more than fifty thousand url.

• When the card is exceeded, ten megabytes is better to split it into several files. Due to this, the server will not overload.

• To create a Sitemap xml correctly, with multiple files you need to add them all in the index file using the sitemapindex, sitemap, loc and lastmod tags.

• All pages need to be registered either with the prefix "www" or without using it.

• The necessary file encoding is UTF8.

• Also in the file, you need to add the namespace specification for the language.

How to create a site map for users

Since such a map is created for users, it should be as simple and clear as possible. Despite this, it is necessary to convey all the information about the structure of the used site qualitatively.

HTML-cards basically have a custom user structure, consisting of sections and subsections, highlighted in a certain way, for example, CSS styles and graphic elements.

To create a Sitemap for a large Internet project, as in the case of an XML-based map, it is also recommended to break it. In this case, it is implemented in the form of separate tabs, which relieve the card of unwieldiness.

Increase the functionality of the page will allow the language JavaScript, which in this map is allowed to use, as it is created not for search robots, but for users.

Order for site map file

It is desirable that the created file containing the Sitemap always has cleanliness and order, especially if the site has a large number of pages. Since the search robots scan the site maps very quickly, there simply can not be enough time to view the entire file of a large Internet resource.

Therefore, if you are accustomed to add pages to the site map not at the bottom but at the top of it, then, on the one hand, there is no doubt that the search robot will have time to look through the addresses of new pages, and on the other hand it will be much easier to control all pages.