Google XML Sitemaps Plugins

Name of Plugins: Google XML Sitemaps
Author: Arne Brachhold

Description and functionality: This plugin will create a Google sitemaps compliant XML-Sitemap of your WordPress blog. It supports all of the WordPress generated pages as well as custom ones. Everytime you edit or create a post, your sitemap is updated and all major search engines that support the sitemap protocol, like ASK.com, Google, Bing (formerly, MSN Search) and YAHOO, are notified about the update.

Version: 3.2.4 (the latest, compatible with WordPress upto 3.0)

Download: Download the plugins here.

How to Install:

I. How to install the easy way (recommended). If you’re using this method, after successful installation, jump to step #6 to configure

II. Intall manually using Filezilla FTP Client:

1. Upload the folder into plugins directory i.e. ../public_html/wp-content/plugins/–puthere–

2. Create two blank files in notepad. First save it as: sitemap.xml. The second save it as: sitemap.xml.gz.

3. Upload the two blank files into wordpress directory where index.php is. For example, in this blog, I put both files in ../public_html/-puthere-

4. Using FTP (preferably Filezilla), righ-click the two files one by one –> File Attributes –> make it 666 -> Click OK.

5. Activate the plugin at the wordpress plugin administration page (you need to login to your wordpress admin) Plugins -> Sitemap XML -> Activate ->click.

6. Open the plugin configuration page, which is located under Settings (for WP 2.7+) -> XML-Sitemap and build the sitemap the first time. The quickest way is just click the “Click here” links at the top of sitemap admin setting (see picture #1) and let all default settings. Do the changes later if you are not satisfied with the default ones.

If activation goes well, there’ll be a message like

“Result of the last build process, started on (example) September 7, 2009 7:18 pm.
Google was successfully notified about the changes…” (see screenshot #2)

7. Done.

Notes: your sitemap is successfully built if you can see the file in websiteurl.com/sitemap.xml. Example, you can see the sitemap of this blog here: http://www.fatihsyuhud.com/sitemap.xml

Screenshot 1 Sitemap plugins activated, but it has not been built

Screenshot 2: Sitemap has been built

Further reading: Blogging Tips and Tutorials