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How important is a sitemap?

redlotus
 
Posts: 26
Joined: 18 Sep 09
Location: United States

How important is a sitemap?

I am following the Blogging Bootcamp. How important is it that I get a sitemap on my site? Is it just as easy as uploading the Word Press plug in? Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks!
 

PremiumMember
sybiantex
 
Posts: 26
Joined: 21 Dec 09
Location: United States

A sitemap is very important as it helps Google to crawl your site. My plugin of choice for building a sitemap automatically is Google XML SItemaps generator.

After you activate the plugin, go to the plugin settings and click the link to go to Google Webmaster Tools. Log into Webmaster Tools, add your site...and then your sitemap.
 

PremiumMember
anthony69
 
Posts: 2
Joined: 13 Oct 09

I have been told to wait until you have all your settings correct before building your sitemap so when Google appears then it hopefully sees your links in place, the correct format for permalinks, SEO etc. so it looks at you favourably rather than a blank site without any structure,

cheers

Anthony
 

redlotus
 
Posts: 26
Joined: 18 Sep 09
Location: United States

Excellent. Thank for the feedback. Last question (maybe!) My site is "finished" but I still have pages & blogs I plan to add. Does the sitemap update automatically?
 

Site Admin
michellerana
 
Posts: 2046
Joined: 05 May 09
Location: Philippines

The plugin automatically updates your sitemap when you make changes to your site :)
 

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redlotus
 
Posts: 26
Joined: 18 Sep 09
Location: United States

Thanks. Man, I love Word Press!
 

mack45
 
Posts: 286
Joined: 29 Nov 09
Location: Canada

Hi great thread I just did mine only I used the simple site map and it also seems to work fine the only trouble I had was I did not put the code snippet in the HTML editor first try and then check so it took a few trys. I am sure it updates it self I did not have to enter anything.
 

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