Sitemap XML File
The Sitemap protocol provides an automatic way to tell Google and Bing about new or edited pages on your site.
Important Note
Bing provides the results for Yahoo!, which it then customizes for its own results pages.
Solo Build It! (SBI!) creates a sitemap file for your site. This is an XML file, in the Sitemaps.org protocol format, that contains information about the pages and images on your site. This file is updated if you add, edit or delete a page on your site.
SBI! automatically pings Google and Bing once per day (if you've published or edited a page), or immediately if you deleted a page, alerting them to changes on your site. This tells the SE spiders to "come and get" these new and edited pages, and update their indexes with your site's new information.
Note
Before SBI! can start, you need to submit your site to Google and Bing, verify ownership of your site, and then submit your sitemap. If you haven't already verified your ownership, learn more about the verification options.
Why Is the Sitemap Important?
The sooner the search engines know about your pages, the sooner they come and spider them. The sitemap file alone doesn't guarantee that the spiders will come sooner or often, though.
Important
The sitemap file also does not guarantee that the engines will index all your pages. Nor will it influence rankings for your keywords at any of the search engines. High rankings depend on the delivery of great content pages that each focus on one topic related to your niche.
Once you start your site (by building your home page), SBI! creates and installs your sitemap file. The file's name is sitemap.xml.
What do you have to do to get the ball rolling? Let Google and Bing know about it. You don't need to wait until you have a certain number of pages. In fact, the sooner you do it, the sooner the engines will know about your site!
Google also has a video sitemap option. If you use a lot of your own videos on your site, you'll want to create a video sitemap as well. See Google's help regarding this...
Submit Your Sitemap File to Google
- Log into Google Search Console.
- On the home page, click on your domain name. On the Dashboard page, click on the word Sitemaps (on the gray background, next to "No Sitemaps").
- On the next page, click on the red Add/Test Sitemap button in the top right corner.
- Type sitemap.xml into the text box. Click on Submit Sitemap.
Log into Google Search Console. On the home page, click on your domain name in the left column. Click on Sitemaps in the left column.
Type sitemap.xml into the text box.
Click on Submit Sitemap to submit it.
Google will confirm that you submitted your sitemap successfully.
That's it. You're done at Google. SBI! will now take over, letting Google know whenever you make changes to your site.
Submit Your Sitemap File to Bing
You had to add your sitemap's URL when you added your site to your Bing Webmaster Tools account. See the Add Your Site to Bing Webmaster Tools section of the Verify It! help for details on doing that.