Web Marketing Tip #3: Submit an XML Sitemap to Google
Web Markting Tip #2 told you how to use the free XML Sitemap Generator service to create an XML Sitemap of your website. Once you have your sitemap file, you need to create a Google Webmaster Account, then add your website to that account, and submit the XML Sitemap file. Google makes this process pretty easy.
1. Go here to create a Google account.
2. Login to your account.
3. Click on the Webmaster Tools link under Services.
4. You will see the Webmaster Tools Dashboard. It looks like this (below - click for full size image), without all the sites listed, of course. You will add your first one.
5. Put the address of your site in the Add Site box and click OK.
6. Now click Add a Sitemap for that site.
7. You will see the following (click for full size image).
8. Choose Add General Web Sitemap.
9. Now you need to upload your XML Sitemap file to the “root directory” of your website. (”Root directory” just means the location of your homepage file.) Most website hosting services allow you to do this using the “Control Panel” for your account. If you need any help with this, just add a comment at the end of this post. Be sure to tell me who your hosting service is (for example: GoDaddy or Network Solutions or whatever the case may be).
10. Once the file is uploaded to your website’s root directory, enter that location into the “My Sitemap URL is” box. As noted, this will be http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml where “example.com” is the name of your domain.
11. Click the Add Web Sitemap button.
12. Done!
Let me know if you have any questions.
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July 17th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
ouch, i’m lame. i can’t follow the directions to be added to the google site map.
welcome to seattle (from bellevue)
July 18th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
Dorothy,
Thanks for the welcome!
I doubt your self-assessment. More likely, the directions are in need of improvement.
Feel free to give me a description of where you are having trouble using the comments here on the blog - which would be helpful to other readers, as well, I’m sure - or give me a call at 800-209-2919 (absolutely no obligation) - or send an email to McBuzz using the link in the address at the top of the page explaining where you are getting hung up.
We’ll have things straightened out in no time.
The good news is, if you google site:www.kingcountyresidential.com , most of the pages in your site are indexed. Still, it would be a good idea to get all of them indexed, and submitting an xml sitemap is the way to do it. So don’t give up!
Also, the kingcountyresidential.com site would benefit from some simple search engine optimization techniques. Here’s a PDF of an issue of Dynamic Business magazine with an article I wrote called “Achieving Basic Web Site Success May Be Easier Than You Think”: http://www.smc.org/Pdfs/DB-Pdfs/September06Reduced.pdf
The article is on page 20 of the actual publication (page 26 if you are looking at the thumbnail numbers in Acrobat Reader).