Google Sitemap Plug-in for WordPress
Sitemaps are critical to informing Google about the pages on of your website, some of which may not be discovered by their regular crawling process. If you have a blog keeping the sitemap updated can be a tedious process, particularly for the novice and because of the fact that the preferred format is XML. Luckily for WordPress users, there is an easy to use WordPress plug-in that not only creates the sitemap but keeps it updated as new posts are added.
The Google XML Sitemaps plug-in for WordPress has been made available for free courtesy of Arne Brachhold. Like most WordPress plug-ins, this tool is easy to install and configure. After downloading you need to unpack the file and upload the package to the wp-content/plugins directory on your server. Then login, go to “Plugins” and activate the app and proceed to configuration.
The configuration screen is easy to follow and the options provide features that automate procedures that can be terribly time consuming but are necessary to keep your WordPress site content visible. The options include
- Write a normal XML file
- Write a gzipped file
- Rebuild sitemap if you change the content of your blog
- Enable manual sitemap building via GET Request
- Notify Google about updates of your Blog
- Notify Bing about updates o your Blog
- Notify Ask.com about updates of Your Blog
- Notify YAHOO about updates of your Blog
- Add sitemap URL to the virtual robots.txt file
There are additional advanced setting for your consideration. One can only say thanks to Arne Brachhold and offer support to him and the extensive team that contributed to the effort.
