How to Add an XML Sitemap to Blogger?

Sitemaps are an essential element in SEO that helps search engines discover pages on your website.

But with the different types of sitemaps today, and the different ways to create ones, it has become confusing for so many to create and add their sitemaps, especially Blogger users.

With other CMS like WordPress, this could be done in a blink of an eye using plugins like Yoast SEO or Auctollo. 

Adding it manually to Blogger may seem like a complicated task, but it's not, I promise!

What Is a Sitemap?

As its name may suggest, a sitemap is a map.

It's a map for the whole website, created primarily for search engines to make it easier for them to discover new pages. 

Sitemaps come in two main formats: XML and HTML.

• XML sitemaps are directed to search engines. 
• HTML sitemaps are intended for users. 

Do You Need One?

According to Google, a sitemap is a must in 4 cases:

1. HUGE websites
2. New websites
3. Websites with a big number of images or/and videos
4. Websites with dynamic content

If you fall in any of the categories above, then adding a sitemap is crucial!

If you don't, it can still be a good thing to add. Sitemaps have proven helpful in search engine optimization as well as UX.

In this blog, we will see how to simply add an XML sitemap to Blogger.

Add an XML Sitemap to Blogger

Step 1:Generate an XML Sitemap

An XML sitemap is generally automatically generated by CMSs like Blogger. You can find it by searching site.com/sitemap.xml.

For example, you can access our sitemap via: themarketingrecipe.net/sitemap.xml. This sitemap was generated automatically by Blogger, and it constantly updates whenever a new blog is posted.

If, for some reason, the sitemap appears to have errors, you can either contact Blogger support or generate your own:

1. Head to a sitemap generator 
2. Enter your website URL
3. Click on "Generate XML Sitemap"
4. Once the process is completed, click on "View sitemap details"
5. You will get a code that looks like this:

# Blogger Sitemap created on Sun, 25 Jun 2023 16:21:06 GMT
# Sitemap built with https://www.labnol.org/blogger/sitemap

User-agent: *
Disallow: /search
Allow: /

Sitemap: https://www.themarketingrecipe.net/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500

Congratulations, you just generated your sitemap!

What Does This Code Mean?

Copying and pasting the code above is fine, but understanding it is even better.

When tools include "additional" elements, you won't have any idea what they mean if you don't know what to look for!

• The first two lines starting with "#" are comments; remove those as they serve no benefit.
• User-agent: *: specifies the user-agent, which is "*", indicating that the directives follow apply to all web crawlers and search engine bots.
• Disallow: /search: instructs web crawlers not to index any URLs containing "/search" in their URLs. To prevent duplicate content and focus crawling on more valuable pages, search pages are typically disallowed from being indexed.
• Allow: /: allows web crawlers to crawl and index all other pages on your website.

These lines of code are designed for your Robots.txt file. You should add them if you don't already have one.

• Sitemap: specifies the location of the XML sitemap for your blog. 

Step 2: Add The Sitemap to Robots.txt

This step is not mandatory, but it's a good reinforcement for search engines:

1. Head to your Blogger dashboard
2. Click on "Settings"
3. Under "Crawlers and indexing" make sure to enable custom robots.txt
4. Click on "Custom robots.txt"
5. Paste the code above (without the comments)
6. Click "Save"

It should look like this:

Step3: Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console

XML sitemaps can be submitted directly to Google Search Console, which helps search engines understand your website. By submitting the sitemap in GSC, Googlebot will be able to access and crawl the URLs in the sitemap.

1. Head to Google Search Console
2. Click on "Sitemaps"
3. Enter your sitemap and hit the Submit button

FAQs

Are sitemaps good for SEO?

Yes! Sitemaps are proven to boost crawling and indexing and help search engines understand the priorities of your pages. HTML sitemaps are also beneficial for UX.

How can I check if my sitemap is properly formatted?

There are several online tools available that can validate your sitemap and identify any formatting errors or issues. You can use XML-Sitemaps validator. 

Can I have more than one sitemap?

Yes, in fact, that's what Google recommends for large websites. You can do this in several ways:

• Subdirectory Approach: subdirectories within your website's structure to host different sitemaps
• Single Sitemap Index File: single sitemap index file that serves as a directory for multiple sitemaps

Do all search engines use sitemaps?

XML sitemaps are primarily associated with Google, but not all search engines utilize sitemaps equally.