I have seen many questions regarding adding a Sitemap to Google’s Webmaster Tools for a Blogger blog. Many people don’t know that you already have a Sitemap-ready file created for you by Blogger, and that all you need to do is use that one in Webmaster Tools.
In this post I will look at adding your Blogger blog’s Sitemap to the Webmaster Tools so you can keep track of your pages using those tools.
Sitemap
A Sitemap is an XML file that contains specific information about the various pages that make up your web site or blog. Various online tools use Sitemaps to collect additional information about your web site.
Google’s Webmaster Tools uses your Sitemap to collection information about how often the pages on your site change, the modified date of each page, and the relative importance of the pages. While most of the information about your site is retrieved when Google crawls your web site, a Sitemap will complement this information with the additional information provided by your Sitemap.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that submitting a Sitemap will not influence the location of your pages in Google’s results pages, nor is it a guarantee that the pages listed in your Sitemap will be indexed by Google.
Your Blogger Blog’s Sitemap
By default, Blogger creates to feeds for you blog: an RSS and Atom feed. As you publish a post on your blog, the two feeds are updated with the new post’s information. This is great because Google’s Webmaster Tools can accept an Atom feed as a Sitemap.
There are currently two ways that you can add a Sitemap from your Blogger blog to Google’s webmaster Tools:
- By clicking a link and having Blogger do it for you.
- Manually adding one yourself.
Let’s look at both methods, and you can choose which one you prefer.
Having Blogger Add a Sitemap
Recently Blogger provided the ability to add a Sitemap for you. You can do this by using the following steps:
- Login to Blogger.
- From you dashboard, scroll down to the bottom of the page.
- Under Tools and Resources, click the Webmaster Tools link.
This should add all your blogger blogs to Webmaster Tools. If you are having trouble with this method, you can try adding it manually yourself.
Adding a Sitemap Manually
Sign up with Google’s Webmaster Tools and the log in. Add your site to the tool so it is displayed on your dashboard and perform any site verification. Once this is done, you can then add a sitemap.
- From the Webmaster Tools dashboard, click the Add link beside your blog URL.
- From the type dropdown list, select Add General Web Sitemap.
- In the text box (beside the domain name), enter in atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=50000. This will use your atom feed as your Sitemap and use the information for the first 50,000 pages listed in that file. Chances are you won’t have nearly 50,000 pages, but this is to ensure that all your pages are included.
- Once you have added your Sitemap location, click the Add General Web Sitemap button at the bottom.
After a little while Google will indicate if it managed to find and download your Sitemap, which you can see from your dashboard, or from the Sitemaps section with the Webmaster Tools.
Tags: Blogger
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on November 26, 2008 at 1:15 pm
This one looks so incomplete…
I know up to this much now. What next?
Is it suffice just to add sitemap and sitback?
NEED MORE ON THIS…
Thanks!
on November 26, 2008 at 1:46 pm
You don’t need to do much with your Sitemap once it has been added. Just ensure that Google can read your Sitemap by logging into Webmaster Tools once in a while.
The Tools contain much more information than just allowing you to add a Sitemap.
on November 29, 2008 at 7:44 pm
Thanks for sharing. I did have to submit mine manually, but it was easy. I haven’t been getting much traffic from Google, so hope this helps.
on December 3, 2008 at 3:06 am
It’s not recommended to use 50000 as max-results. You should use a number from 100-500. As far as I know, 500 is the current limit of posts in your blogger feed.
So it’s better to create multiple sitemaps in chunks of 500 rather than having one sitemap with 50000 results.
on December 8, 2008 at 3:15 pm
thanks a lot ……… i going to add site map .
on December 12, 2008 at 4:33 pm
thanks works real gr8
on February 1, 2009 at 2:00 am
Phew…, after long hours searching up and down the net on how to submit a sitemap for my blog I finally did it!. Thanks a lot !!!:)
on June 2, 2009 at 5:00 pm
finally i found how to put my google webmasters sitemap without showing warnings!!
on June 26, 2009 at 4:32 am
Thanks! that was really helpful
on July 25, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Adding a sitemap is not necessary and could lead to stale sitemaps – I explain why on my blog.
on August 1, 2009 at 2:02 am
Thanks! You were the first one with a straight answer on how blogger user’s should add SiteMap to the blog. All other blogs I’ve searched told me to add it manually and, it wasn’t working!!!!
on December 14, 2009 at 11:53 am
This is what i looking for my blog http://www.digitdiary.blogspot.com 2-3 days ..good work
on January 3, 2010 at 7:31 pm
Thank you! You have the easiest and most clear instructions on adding sitemap to Blogger blogs.
on January 7, 2010 at 3:27 am
Great post!! I was actually searching for it!! thanks for clearing all my doubts in regards to submitting sitemap for blogs
on January 31, 2010 at 9:11 am
Thank you for the Great post…
on March 23, 2010 at 12:51 pm
I’ve just spent the last hour trying to do this. I’ve read over a dozen sites but by far yours is the best and works. Thank you so much. Fantastic…
on May 5, 2010 at 9:36 am
I was searching on the web were I can submit my sitemap for blogger blog and I saw you site in Google. I spend more time in reading some of your posts and honestly speaking I gain some knowledge from it. Very informative.
on June 29, 2010 at 11:47 pm
i have submitted my blog sitemap in this way but google in not indexing my page. how many days google takes to index page?
on July 12, 2010 at 7:13 am
thanks its great
on July 21, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Thanks, this was very helpful.
on July 21, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Glad it was helpful.
on July 21, 2010 at 3:38 pm
It is helpful but can u guide how to agg stand alone page (not blog posts ) to sitemap ?
pls
on August 22, 2010 at 6:30 pm
I’ve had my blogspot blog for three years and had no clue how to add a sitemap.
WordPress has a plugin for it but Blogger provide any info to create a sitemap.
thanks
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on August 22, 2010 at 8:51 pm
The good news if you have a Blogger blog is that sites such as Google’s Webmaster tools will automatically pick up your Blogger blog’s sitemap. The reason is because the sitemap is listed in your blog’s robots.txt file.
on October 26, 2010 at 8:10 am
I was searching this type of post and finally found it. I have created a new blog and wanted to submit sitemap. I have successfully submitted my sitemap to Google. Thanks !!!
on October 26, 2010 at 9:36 am
No problem. With Blogger blogs, because the sitemap is listed in the robots.txt file, Google’s Webmaster tools will automatically pick it up anyway.
on May 30, 2011 at 9:47 am
thankyou for your advice on this matter it was very usefull and saved a lot of head ache lol….
on July 11, 2011 at 11:43 am
I have used the sitemaps as provided by you, but I needed to ask you one little thing: my submitted URLs show a total of 184; does it automatically include the new posts that I may write in the future?
And thanks for this post!
on July 11, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Since you are using the blog’s feed as a sitemap, it is automatically updated when you publish a new post.
on July 17, 2011 at 1:33 pm
Thanks, this really help me.
Even i’m so late to found this post but now i successfully submitted my sitemap to Google.
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on July 22, 2011 at 1:29 pm
Thanks paul..u have done a good job here..i heard about your posts from my friend..anyway..nw i became a fan of you..bookmarked you..thanks alot..hope things will work fine on my blogs..
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on August 31, 2011 at 9:28 am
Thanks VERY MUCH…
i just try it and it work very well on my blog, thanks…
on September 9, 2011 at 3:55 am
Thanks for help. I will add xml site map on my website.
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on October 23, 2011 at 1:19 pm
hi., i have added atom.xml sitemap to webmaster, but when i check my blog on pearanalytics site, i get no sitemap.xml error, what i do?
i have my sitemap.xml file on my pc, how do i upload the file to root directory,
as a blogger, is it possible to submit
on October 24, 2011 at 8:15 am
If you have a sitemap, then it should be located on the root of your web site. Both the atom and RSS feeds can also be used as sitemaps.
on October 24, 2011 at 8:55 am
Thank you very much if not the info inyour site, I wasnt able to add site map to my blog. Thank you very much and God bless
on November 6, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I did this for my site and it helped me alot.
Was searching for this kind of information.
Thanks a lot.
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on November 6, 2011 at 3:14 pm
You’re welcome.