In simple terms, An XML Sitemap is a list of a website’s URLs. That’s why it’s called a sitemap. It maps out how the website is structured and what the website includes. (“XML” stands for “Extensible Markup Language,” a way of displaying information on websites.)
An XML (Extensible Markup Language) Sitemap is a text file used to detail all URLs on a website. It can include extra information (metadata) on each URL, with details of when they were last updated, how important they are and whether there are any other versions of the URL created in other languages. All of this is done to help the search engines crawl your website more efficiently, allowing any changes to be fed to them directly, including when a new page is added or an old one removed.
An XML sitemap is a way of organizing a website, identifying the URLs and the data under each section. Previously, the sitemaps were primarily geared for the users of the website. However, Google's XML format was designed for the search engines, allowing them to find the data faster and more efficiently.
How To Create And Submit Blogger Sitemap To Google Search Console?
Step 1: Sign in to your Google Search Console Account.
Step 2:If you have multiple sites, then select the desired blog you wish to submit the sitemap for. Go to the upper left corner of your Google Search Console to select your site. But if you don't have multiple sites, you may escape Step 2 and move to step 3.
Step 3: On the left side of the page, click on Sitemaps under the Index section.
The "Sitemaps" page will appear, now at the very top of the page under "Add a new sitemap" you'll see your URL with a blank text field space following it with the word "SUBMIT" at the end.
Step 4: Add the below code in the provided text field. Here you have the option to choose whether you use an atom.xml or sitemap index file. Note, it is advisable that your sitemap should match the one in the robot.text file.
atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500
Or
sitemap.xml
Step 6: Press the “SUBMIT” button.
Step 7: Refresh the page.
Congratulation! You have finished the process of submitting your blog sitemap.
Note: The above sitemap will work for 500 posts only that is if you choose the atom file, the very first code. If you have more than 500 posts published on your blog, then you have to add one more sitemap following the same steps. The Whole procedure will be the same, but at this time you have to add this code.
atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=501&max-results=1000
That’s it. You are done with submitting your blogger sitemap to Google Search Console otherwise known as Google Webmaster Tools.
Tools To Validate XML Sitemaps
After creating your Sitemaps with all of the right elements and attributes in place, validate them using one of the following tools:
XML Sitemaps
Conclusion On How To Create And Submit XML Sitemap To Googe Search Console
When done right, XML sitemaps help search engines quickly find, crawl and index websites. Make sure you’ve properly formatted, compressed and submitted your XML sitemap to search engines to get the most of their advantages:- You no longer need to rely on links to get your pages crawled.
- Search engines will see new or updated sites and pages more quickly.
- Bots can crawl pages more intelligently thanks to the meta-information available in sitemaps.
- You can make sure that search engines are finding important information about images and videos, which are inaccessible to crawlers.
- Have you created and submitted an XML sitemap for your website? What benefits have you noticed? Did you encounter any challenges?
