This article will show you how to create a sitemap in 20 minutes or less. It’s easy and it can have a huge impact on your SEO rankings.
The dynamic sitemap generator is a tool that allows users to create an XML Sitemap in 20 minutes or less.
I like fast and simple victories when it comes to SEO and marketing.
I’d rather press a few buttons and pull a few levers to attract more visitors, even though I’m dedicated to the long road of blogging (10+ years and counting).
It takes very little effort. Big victories. That’s where I’d rather be.
And, fortunately, there are certain SEO methods that provide a lot of value for a little amount of work.
One of those methods is building an XML sitemap, which I’d like to share with you.
Let me offer you some good news before you run away after reading the phrase “XML sitemap.”
Even though an XML sitemap falls under the “technical” category of SEO, it is simple to create. It’s also not all that “technical” either.
In fact, a decent XML sitemap may be created in only a few minutes. You don’t need to know how to code to participate. All you need to know is how to click.
It’s completely free. It’s simple. It’s easy to do, and it may help you boost your SEO.
Are you ready to give it a shot?
What Is an XML Sitemap, Exactly?
What is an XML sitemap, and how does it work?
It’s a list of a website’s URLs in simple words.
It’s called a sitemap for a reason. It shows how the website is organized and what pages are available.
(XML stands for “Extensible Markup Language,” which is a method of presenting data on webpages.)
An XML sitemap is just that, but why should you have one? What is the goal?
What is an XML Sitemap’s Purpose?
Crawlers are used by search engines to arrange and index content on the internet.
These crawlers are capable of reading a wide range of data. An XML sitemap, on the other hand, makes it simple for the crawler to view and index what’s on your website.
Your website will have a better chance of rapidly increasing its ranking if it accomplishes this.
In essence, an XML sitemap acts as a table of contents for your website, enabling the crawler to gather the necessary information and index your site appropriately.
However, a well-structured sitemap may do much more.
Sitemaps inform search engines about when a page was last updated, how often it was changed, the relative significance of pages within a website, and how to locate and index information hidden deep inside the site’s structure.
The information in a sitemap looks like this:
- http://www.example.com/mypage is the URL for the page on the website.
- The last time this page was updated was on October 10, 2013.
- The page is updated on a monthly basis.
- What is the page’s priority in respect to other pages on the site? 1
These capabilities are critical, particularly given the quantity of illegal material dissemination that occurs nowadays.
If you don’t use a sitemap, your website may be considered to have duplicate material, which is bad for SEO.
A sitemap, on the other hand, is a quick method for Google to index your website.
You may tell Google, “Look, here is my site, and here are the pages I want you to index,” using a sitemap.
Google will scan your site and index your content within minutes (typically).
What Are the Advantages of Having an XML Sitemap?
If you’re thinking, “Hmm. Is a sitemap really necessary? Is it worth it to go through all that trouble?” I’d want to convince you to go ahead and do it. It just takes a few minutes, yet the rewards are immeasurable.
Consider the following advantages of an XML sitemap:
- It informs Google that your website should be crawled and indexed.
- It instructs Google on what pages to crawl on your site.
- The XML sitemap informs Google about the content on your website.
- The XML sitemap informs Google when your material has been updated (resulting in more favorable or “fresh” results).
- It informs Google how often you update your material and how essential it is.
- The XML sitemap aids in the indexation of dynamically produced pages on your website.
- It aids you in overcoming the drawbacks of a website with insufficient internal connection.
- It aids your site in overcoming the problem of a weak external link profile.
- It aids in the better and more structured indexation of large websites.
- The XML sitemap aids Google in better crawling your website.
- It displays Google all of your website’s pages, even if they’re deep inside the architecture and wouldn’t be crawled as fast otherwise.
If you’re ready to get started on your own XML sitemap, we’ll go through the following steps:
- Make an XML sitemap for your website.
- Your XML sitemap should be added to your website.
- Google should get your XML sitemap.
(In addition, I’ll teach you how to submit your Sitemap to Bing and Yandex.)
The rest of this post will go through each of those items, as well as a last step that involves utilizing Ubersuggest to look for possible sitemap issues.
Using Screaming Frog, create an XML Sitemap (for any Website)
Any website may benefit from an XML sitemap created using Screaming Frog. It makes no difference what CMS you’re using, how big your website is, or how old it is.
To build a sitemap, you don’t even need to own the website or have login access to it.
Is there a price tag attached to this? The program we’ll use, Screaming Frog, offers free crawling for up to 500 pages. A Screaming Frog license is required to crawl websites with more than 500 pages.
Concerning Screaming Frog
You must first install Screaming Frog if you do not already have it. You may do so right now.
Screaming Frog is a robust desktop software application that aids in a variety of SEO tasks.
The basic version is available for free. The complete version (with license purchase) costs £149.00 (about $180 USD or €170 euro) per year.
In this part, I’ll show you how to use the free version of Screaming Frog to generate an XML sitemap for any website.
Open Screaming Frog first.
Then, in the box at the top, enter your URL.
Start by pressing the “Start” button.
Crawling your website may take anything from a few minutes to many hours, depending on its size.
It takes a while to crawl a site like NeilPatel.com (6,600+ pages), but not too long. I’ve worked on e-commerce sites with millions of URLs. Crawling these takes hours.
The status bar will read “100” after the site has completed crawling.
Now, in the menu bar, choose “Sitemaps.”
Select “Create XML Sitemap” from the drop-down menu.
The next step is to decide which parts of your website should be included in the XML sitemap.
This may seem perplexing at first sight, particularly if you’re unfamiliar with the terms “Noindex” and “canonicalized.”
Here’s a quick rundown of each one:
- Include Noindex Pages: Noindex pages include HTML code in the header that tells search engines that the page should not be indexed. If your developer has designated some pages as “Noindex,” it’s most likely for good reason. If in doubt, leave this box unchecked.
- Include Canonicalized: There may be many URLs referring to the same content page. When you instruct the crawl tool to “include canonicalized,” you’re asking it to include variants of URLs that lead to the same page. If you’re unsure, uncheck this box.
- Include Paginated URLs: To browse through a sequence of material on a website, use rel= attributes (rel=“prev” and “next”). Pagination may be a little risky for SEO if you don’t use it carefully. This box should not be checked, in my opinion.
- Include PDFs: You have the option of including or excluding PDFs from your XML sitemap. Google indexes a wide range of material, including PDFs. I suggest include PDFs in your XML sitemap if the PDFs on your website are essential and relevant to visitors who may be looking for your material.
Keep this fundamental concept in mind. A sitemap is useful for search engine optimization. Include the page in the sitemap if you want someone to locate it on your website.
I’m going to provide PDFs for my purposes.
The sections “Last Modified,” “Priority,” and “Change Frequency” deal with when and how website pages were changed, as well as the settings.
Please keep these settings as they are by default unless you know what you’re doing.
I believe that include pictures in a sitemap is a fantastic idea, therefore I’ll include them in mine.
Go to the “Images” tab.
Then choose “Include Images” from the drop-down menu. The third option will be ticked automatically (“Include only relevant Images with up to 10 inlinks”).
Then press the “Next” button.
Your XML sitemap will be asked to be saved to your computer. Choose a suitable location to store it, then click “Save.”
Congratulations! You’ve made a sitemap in XML format!
You must now use FTP to upload this file to your website. It’s possible that you already know how to accomplish this.
If you’re not sure how to upload the XML sitemap to your website, consult a developer to figure out the best method for your server and/or CMS.
However, building a sitemap is just the beginning. A sitemap is useless unless it is submitted to search engines.
To discover how to accomplish it, scroll down to the section titled “Submit your XML sitemap to Google.”
Using Yoast, create an XML Sitemap (WordPress Only)
Yoast is one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins. Yoast makes creating and submitting an XML sitemap a breeze.
I’ll walk you through the process step by step, but first, here’s what you’ll need:
- It’s safe to assume you’re utilizing a WordPress.org site.
- The Yoast plugin must be installed. (It’s completely free.)
- Google Search Console must be linked to your website.
Those three elements are already present on most websites. Let’s get started if you’re ready.
Go to your WordPress dashboard and log in.
Note that my WordPress admin may vary somewhat from yours in the screenshots below. That shouldn’t prevent you from following each step.
The first thing we’ll do is make sure the Yoast plugin is ready to generate a sitemap for you. We’ll need to enable Yoast’s advanced options to do so.
Select the Yoast Plugin.
It has a “Y” symbol with the word “SEO” on it. It should be in the left-hand sidebar.
Select “Dashboard” from the drop-down menu.
Click “Features” from the Dashboard.
Look for “XML sitemaps” on the Features tab and make sure it is toggled to “On.”
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save Changes.”
Learn how to modify your sitemap by clicking here. You may wish to omit pages that aren’t public, for example.
However, the sitemaps Yoast produces are often very good.
It’s now time to send this to Google.
How to Get Your XML Sitemap Submitted to Google
Now it’s time to put your sitemap to good use by submitting it to Google.
You’ll need Google Search Console linked to your website to accomplish this. For details on how to do so, see this Google tutorial.
To begin, go to Google Search Console and pick your website from the drop-down menu.
Click “Sitemaps” from the dashboard.
To create a new sitemap, click “Add a new Sitemap.”
Enter the URL of the sitemap you’ve saved. Because it’s an XML file, it should finish with “.xml.”
Click the “Submit” button.
Then, using the Sitemaps report, double-check for problems. (I’ll go through another technique further down.)
After then, Google will take care of the rest. Your sitemap enables Google to crawl your site fast and easily, which may help you improve your rankings.
Bing & Yandex: How to Submit Your XML Sitemap
Although Google is the most popular search engine, it is not the only one. I recommend uploading your XML sitemap to Bing and Yandex to get the maximum mileage out of it. Here’s how to do it:
Bing Sitemap Submission
Microsoft’s response to Google is Bing. It has a considerably lower proportion of the market (just over 6 percent ). Bing, on the other hand, receives over 900 million unique visitors each month. It’s easy to submit a sitemap to Bing, therefore it’s worth the few minutes it takes to reach their audience.
Log in to your Webmaster Tools Dashboard to submit your sitemap to Bing. Click “Submit a Sitemap” in the Sitemaps widget.
Click “Submit” after entering the URL for your file. That concludes our discussion.
Yandex requires a Sitemap.
Yandex is the Russian equivalent of Google. Yandex controls more than 55 percent of the Russian search market. It also offers email, music streaming, and online payment options. Submitting a sitemap, like Bing, takes just a few minutes, so it’s well worth the effort to reach a larger audience.
Here’s how to send Yandex your sitemap:
Go to the Sitemaps Files page and choose your site from the drop-down menu.
Include the sitemap’s URL.
Add a new item to your cart.
Your sitemap will take approximately two weeks to load. You’ll want to double-check that it’s uploaded correctly; if it reads “OK,” you’re ready to go. If “Redirect” appears, try uploading the file again.
You’ll need to troubleshoot if you notice “error” or “not indexed.” To find out what’s going on, see Yandex’s instructions.
Check Your XML Sitemap Errors using Ubersuggest
There should be no sitemap issues if you follow the instructions above. However, just because you shouldn’t do something doesn’t mean you won’t.
Here’s how to use Ubersuggest to look for problems in your sitemap:
Step 1: Type in your domain name and hit the “Search” button.
Step 2: In the left sidebar, choose site audit.
Step 3: Examine the outcomes.
Examine the data connected with the health check, major problems, warnings, and suggestions to identify issues with your sitemap.
For example, here’s what you’ll see for my website if you click on Critical Errors:
There aren’t any problems with my sitemap, but if there were, you’d find more information here. Aside from the problems themselves, there’s a learn more button that leads to:
After that, you may follow the instructions for additional information on how to correct the problem.
Regularly monitor the health of your sitemap using Ubersuggest. It will only take a few minutes out of your schedule once or twice a month, but it will go a long way toward boosting your website’s SEO.
Conclusion
When the word “XML sitemap” is spoken, many small company owners and online entrepreneurs get nervous.
It has a jargony, code-like quality to it. How do you build and publish an XML sitemap if you’re neither an SEO expert or a technical wizard?
It turns out that it isn’t all that difficult.
It takes 10 minutes or less to create a sitemap using a software like Screaming Frog or Yoast.
No issue if you’re new to sitemaps and need to go through the whole procedure for the first time. It should take no more than twenty minutes to go through the whole procedure from beginning to end.
The SEO advantages, on the other hand, will be significant.
If you haven’t yet built an XML sitemap for your website, my suggestion is to do it right now.
Then do a technical SEO audit to check if there are any additional problems on your site.
You’ve got this. I’ve got you covered.
How did you go about generating an XML sitemap? How has it aided the SEO of your website?
- Unlock huge quantities of SEO traffic using SEO. Take a look at the outcomes.
- Content Marketing – Our team produces incredible content that is shared, linked to, and drives traffic.
- Paid Media – successful paid tactics with a measurable return on investment.
The sitemap generator more than 500 pages is a website that allows users to create an XML sitemap in 20 minutes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does an XML sitemap generator boost SEO?
An XML sitemap generator is a program that generates an XML file with the list of all the pages on your website. The XML sitemap generator then sends that to search engines, which will index it and make it easier for people to find your website.
Does XML sitemap help SEO?
No, it is not a good idea to use XML sitemap.
How do I make a sitemap automatically?
The best way to make a sitemap automatically is to use the Google Search Console.
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