XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress
You can use XML Sitemap Generator (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator) right out of the box with very little configuration. After it is installed, you do need to tell the plugin to create your sitemap for the first time. You can accomplish this easy task by following these steps:
- Click the XML Sitemap link in the Settings menu on your Dashboard.
The XML Site Generator for WordPress options page appears in your browser window (see Figure 5-2).
- Locate the top module titled: The sitemap wasn't generated yet.
- Click the link labeled Click Here To Tell the Plugin to Build Your Sitemap.
The XML Site Generator for WordPress page refreshes and the This Sitemap Wasn't Generated Yet module is replaced with the Result of the Last Build Process module, and the date your sitemap was last generated is displayed.
- (Optional) View your sitemap in your browser.
Click the first sitemap link in the top module, or you can visit the following address: http://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml (where yourdomain.com is your actual domain).
You will never need to visit your sitemap, or maintain it. The XML Sitemap Generator maintains the file for you. Every time you publish a new post or page on your Web site, the plugin automatically updates your sitemap with the information and notifies major search engines, like Google, Bing, and Ask.com that you have updated your site with new content. Basically, the plugin sends an invitation to the search engines to come to your site and index your new content in their search engines.
Having a Google Webmaster account is also something you can do to further assist Google in finding and indexing new content on your site. If you don't already have one, you can sign up for one at Google.com (visit http://google.com, click the sign in link at the top right, then click the Create an account now link and follow the steps to create a new Google account). After you sign in to your Google Account, you can set up the Google Webmaster tools and add your sitemap to Google.
In the Basic Options section of the XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress plugin page (see Figure 5-2), select every check box you see there except for Enable Manual Sitemap Building via GET Request, Enable MySQL Standard Mode, and Use This Only If You're Getting MySQL Errors options, as they are not necessary unless you are experiencing errors with the plugin — in which case, you should contact the plugin developer and report the problems you are experiencing (contact information for the plugin developer is available on the plugin page in the WordPress plugin directory; for this plugin, you can find it here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator).
All the other default settings are fine for you to use, so leave those as is. In the Sitemap Content section, select the following check boxes: Include Homepage, Include Posts, Include Static Pages, Include Categories, and Include the Last Mortification Time. Making these selections allows for your site to get crawled by the search engines the most efficient way.
Figure 5-2: XML Sitemap Generator for WordPress settings.
