XML Sitemap

Does anybody know how to create a XML sitemap for the site?

I need it for the Google webmaster tools..

thx

Just point google to yoursite.com/sitemapSEO.aspx
job done.

thanks a lot

Make sure you enable the product and category and other pages in your settings to get maximum benefit from the sitemap.  Makes it larger but you get better SEO bang for your buck,

Jared Nielsen
www.FUZION.org

1) what's the use of generating XML ?

2) how it is related with SEO ?

3) what do we do with XML file , we save it somewhere ? export it somewhere in google ?

Please advise

abcd_12345 wrote:

1) It lets google index your site better.
2) If google indexes your site better then also inner pages in the site will appear in google search.
3) Register with google webmaster tools, then submit your sitemap there (I mean provide google the link to the xml file)
see here for more info http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=156184

Keep in mind what Google actually "sells".

Where Yahoo! was first to market, had more money and way more customers, they committed one egregious sin... they blended in paid advertisers into search results... in other words, they put the interests of the advertiser first.

Google however, despite many perceptions, actually tried to put the customer first..  Meaning, they made their search results more relevant to the question, regardless of which advertiser was trying to "buy their way in".

Google sells "relevance".... so.... why do you care?

If you do the work for Google, making your site and your pages more relevant to the keywords and making discovery easier, Google will reward you with top search engine ranking.

In the case of the sitemap there are two targets.  Google will reward your site by posting all of your pages in XML form which is very easy for Google to read, index, sort, alphabetize.... whatever it wants to do with it.  If you didn't upload this, Google would have to "read" your website complete with all of the disorganized pictures, images, broken tags, etc.  You just made Google's job easier so you get a reward (in page rank).

You also get a bonus for "internal links" which means pages that link to each other within the same website.  The sitemap give Google a hint as to which pages may link from one to the other (particularly from this sitemapSEO.aspx url).

Let me know if you have any other questions about how to leverage your sitemap, but for certain Google for "Google Webmaster Tools" and upload your sitemap or you're giving away money.

This article may help you that I'll be presenting at SQL Saturday in Florida:  A website is not a funnel... it's a spiderweb (http://blog.nielsendata.com/post/Mind-Tricks-For-Business-A-Website-is-a-Spiderweb-not-a-Funnel-Jared-Nielsen-FUZION.aspx)

Hope that helps,

Jared Nielsen
www.FUZION.org

Thanks for the detailed explanation:

1) so the conclusion is, it's always better to upload the sitemap with google, so get good ranking , right ?

2) I tried to see my website site map, i entered this url " www.mywebsite.com/sitemapSEO.aspx but nothing came up except "Page Cannot be found", what's the issue ?

3) Do you have any idea about Froogle too ? in nopCommerce we have froogle option that gives us the XML file ? what do we do with that xml file ? that xml also needs to be submitted in google sitemap ?

You want to take advantage of Google Base to manage your froogle feed (renamed to Google Base now)

www.Google.com/base

If you manage many websites, request Google to upgrade you to a multi-client account, otherwise you can manage it right there.

I've found that NOP Commerce is not restrictive enough on the XML sent to Google base (I'll post my code update to this when I complete it) so if you're doing raw text, you should be fine, but if you're doing embedded xhtml in your product descriptions, Google Base will reject your uploads.  The NOP Commerce product detail template doesn't have an elegant way (that I've found) to handle bulleted feature/benefit information other than cramming it into the product description which is what is fed to the Google Base upload (and screws up the XHTML compliance)

Short line... keep your product descriptions simple without fancy xhtml in it and you  should be able to upload with no problem.

Don't forget comparison shop, marketplace feeds, coupon syndication and other channels.  Froogle is just the beginning...

Here is a handy (albeit too brief) article on comparison shopping exploitation:

Comparison Shopping Search Engine Feeds Best Practices (http://blog.nielsendata.com/post/Comparison-Shopping-Search-Engine-Feeds-Best-Practices-for-Web-Product-Catalogs-Part-7.aspx)

Helpful?

Thanks,

Jared Nielsen
www.FUZION.org

yes very helpful, thanks a lot for the explanation, gave me a clear idea what to do

I appreciate it...

sorry to say but still waiting for answer(s)  for questions before #3( Before Fro-ogle Question)