How to Make a Sitemap: A DIY Sitemap for SEO Results
Did you know a great way to push your SEO results is by creating a sitemap optimized for SEO? Here’s how to make a sitemap, completely easy and DIY!
93% of web traffic comes from search engines. Of those searches, 92% of search engine traffic was to Google.
This means if you want to attract readers to your blog your website has to be search engine friendly. And more importantly, Google friendly.
But how do you create and plan a website that’ll improve your SEO rankings, especially on google? It all starts with the sitemap.
Now you may be wondering what is a sitemap and how do I make a one?
The good news is, making an XML sitemap is simple and easy — even if you don’t know how to code! We’ve created the perfect tutorial to teach you how to make a sitemap to improve your SEO rankings.
Check it out below!
What is an XML Sitemap?
When you hear the term “sitemap,” you may be thinking of long complex charts and detailed graphs with tons of information.
In reality, an XML sitemap is a list of all URLs on your website that you submit to google.
The XML refers to eXtensible Markup Language. This language is a way of communicating information that will get displayed online to humans and machines.
Why Do You Need an XML Sitemap?
Now you may be asking yourself, “If an XML sitemap is just a list of URLs, then why is it so important?”
The answer lies in how search engines work.
Search engines use crawlers. These are robots that search or crawl through the internet to index web pages. An XML sitemap makes it easy for the crawlers to know what is on each page and so it’s easier to index.
Think of an XML sitemap as a table of contents for your webpage. The crawler refers back to the table of contents to figure out what’s on each page so that it knows where to index the information.
The sitemap tells the search engine how important the page is to the site. As well as how often the page is updated and when it was last updated. And it allows the crawler to find pages buried within the site.
There’re more benefits to an XML sitemaps than telling crawlers what is on your website.
Because XML sitemaps tell crawlers when the webpage was created, it helps search engines know where the content is originally from. If other people have copied your content, Google may think that your original content its duplicate content. This is important for SEO rankings because search engines like original content and often punish duplicates.
Luckily, sitemaps can provide simple proof that your content is original, which helps improve your SEO rankings.
Let’s Start Making an XML Sitemap
Now that we know what an XML site is and why it’s important, let’s learn how to create an XML sitemap!
Because Google is the most popular search engine in the world, we’re going to learn how to create a sitemap for Google by using xml-sitemaps.com.
The process is easy. Just paste in your website’s URL into the correct field and press start. In a couple of seconds, the site should generate an XML sitemap.
Next, download and save the sitemap.
The last step is to submit your sitemap to Google. We’ll get more into detail with this process later. But first, we’re going to create an XML sitemap for WordPress.
Make an XML Sitemap For WordPress
Creating an XML sitemap for WordPress can be simple and easy as long as you use Yoast. It’s a free plugin for WordPress that helps improve SEO rankings.
First login into your admin account for your WordPress site and open the Yoast plugin. Next, select the “Dashboard” option and click “features.”
Then click “Advanced settings pages” and make sure that it is enabled. After that, save changes.
Next, go back to your dashboard and when you click on the Yoast icon you should see a feature labeled “XML sitemap”. Once you click this, you can customize your sitemap.
In the “general” tab under “Your Sitemap” click “XML sitemap.” This should allow you to see your XML sitemap. Then copy the last portion of your sitemap’s URL sitemap_index.xml.
The final step is to submit to Google. No matter which method you’re using to create a sitemap the method for submitting to Google is the same.
Making Sure Your Sitemap is Google-Friendly
According to Google, using a sitemap can improve your site’s visibility in their index. This is important if you want to improve your SEO rankings.
Since we’ve already learned how to create a sitemap for Google, we’re going to learn how to submit your sitemap to Google using Google Search Console.
Google Search Console is a free web service provided by Google. It allows webmasters to index and to check the visibility of their website.
Google Search Console contains other features like statistics about how often your site is being crawled by Google Bots. It will also tell you the keywords that are leading people to you.
The first step is to sign into Google Search Console. Then choose your website from the sidebar.
Click “index” and choose “Sitemaps.” If there’re any outdated sitemaps remove them and the type sitemap_index.xml in the field. The last step is to submit your sitemap.
You should see a report from Google telling you how your sitemap is working.
Now That You Know How to Make a Sitemap, Wanna Learn More?
Knowing how to make a sitemap is one of the most important parts of improving your SEO rankings. But it’s only the beginning.
There’s a lot of other factors involved that make successful blogs work. If you want to know how to launch an awesome blog or how to make money by blogging, contact us.
We’ll help you start blogging like a ninja!
