Demystifying XML Sitemaps

by Herb Firestone
Marketing Coordinator

Creating an XML Sitemap has been a piece of cake for quite some time now. Most everyone knows by now that all you have to do is go to XML-Sitemaps, enter your full URL in the box, and follow the instructions that appear on the page.

Upon completion, upload your XML Sitemap to the root directory on your server.

The next steps, however are not quite as obvious. You need to make Google, Yahoo, and MSN aware that your XML Sitemap exists.

To submit your XML Sitemap to Google first go to Google Webmaster Tools and follow the site verification instructions,

To submit your XML sitemap to Yahoo, go to Yahoo Site Explorer, log into your Yahoo account, and repeat the verification process.

And finally, to submit your XML Sitemap to MSN, go to MSN Webmaster Tools, log in and repeat the verification process again.

It goes without saying that if you don’t already have an account for any one of the three, you’ll need to sign up for one in order to be able to log in to submit your XML Sitemap.