by Waheed Elqalatawy
If you want to add a site map and get indexed in google immediately, here is the procedure which is the result of tens of times of trial and error, after bouncing between the conventional wisdom of the savvy webmasters in Blogger classic and the unaware assessment of the results by the newbies. The confirmation is down the article.
Adding a site map to my blog was never thought to be written about by me. I was -and still- writing about health a simplified scientific article or a humble personal opinion, yet trying to verify my blog and add a site map to it was impossible for me at classic Blogger. I then upgraded to Blogger-beta where verification was much more easier, that was after I had understood that Blogger will never allow uploading any files to its server.
When coming to 'add a site map' step, I found it to be extremely exhaustive hard experiment. It is something out of the scope of my knowledge and interests, because I know nothing about html, and when I tried to add a site map I thought it is a WYSIWYG like posting my blogs, then when I tried the least modifications to cope with what I am asked to do, the PC surprised me with "the opening and closing tags","the incorrect format'....etc.
I was chained to the computer for hours repeatedly on a trial and error basis, beginning with copy and paste and ending with matching the format with other blogs like "Blogger Tips and Tricks" and "Hakuna Matata" after I read ' html Tags Definitions' in Blogger help. I got frustrated many times and I began thinking to quit the whole thing, because why should I write what nobody will read it.
Finally, the unexpected happened , and I added a site map to my blog!
I feel pity and passion for the same folks who are like what I was, and this dictated me to write describing precisely how any one can add the site map to his blog easily and what mistakes to avoid, besides, I may find some of them interested in what I write in my blog. Who knows?
Shall we go ?
1- Go to my blog at: www.waheedelqalatawy.blogspot.com 2- Click "View" and select "Source", there will be a text document, click"file" and select "save".
3- Go to 'My Account' in google (since you have a blog) and click the 'Webmaster Tools' button.
4- Under ' Add Site' , type in: http://your blog name.blogspot.com (.DO NOT TYPE IN : WWW.)
5- You will be asked to verify your site. choose "add tag", copy it in the text document to make sure it is the same before pasting it in your "edit html" page in the head segment.
6- Modify the text document by typing in your blog name and your blog ID ( you may find it in the address bar if you typed your URL in the address bar.
7- Copy and paste the modified document in the head segment in the html page of your blog.
8- Go to " Webmaster Tools" again and check verify.
9- After verification, click on " Add a Site map", and type in :
http://your blog name.blogspot.com/rss.xml.
( Neglect any thing written under the window, this is the only format that will get your site map added, and again (DO NOT TYPE IN: WWW.)
It will be Pending for few minutes to few hours, and if you have implemented every thing right, your site map will be added. You are done. Congrats.
This is what your site map status looks like when added to your blog:
Sitemap Type Submitted LastDownloaded SitemapStatus URLs submitted rss.xml Atom Feed Web Nov 6,2006 Nov16,2006 OK 26 ( Downloading the site map by Googlebot is frequent, don' t worry about time period).
TIPS: 1- Do not look at the examples given by the 'Webmaster Tools' page.
2- If you are stuck, add another site and never delete one before your site map is added.
3- If for any reason, your site map is not added, keep matching what you do with this schedule and do not try any thing else to keep away from a bitter taste experiment.
About the Author
Waheed Elqalatawy writes simple scientific articles on health topics for any one who wants to expand his reading horizons about health. Publish articles, but please do not change them and do not forget to include my URL: