As a Webmaster, one of the things you always need to be aware of is how well your the pages of your site are interlinked. This is a crucial factor in overall search engine performance, and simply assuming that your architecture is robust enough to handle this is definitely not the route you want to take.
Over time, you will likely accumulate tons of pages, and as this happens, the odds of certain pages getting buried to the point of becoming nearly inaccessible tend to go up.
To combat this, you can generate an XHTML sitemap that contains links to every page of your site.
Now, some of you may be thinking that your archives essentially solve this problem, but in a vast majority of cases, you’d be wrong 
Typically, WordPress archive pages (and other CMS archive pages, for that matter) do not contain links to all of your internal Pages and available syndication feeds. On top of that, most archives also fail to link to every Post like I do on my archives page.
A properly-constructed XHTML sitemap solves this problem.
Why? Because Google Said So
In its Webmaster Guidelines, Google touts the merits of adding a sitemap to your site.
- Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link.
- Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site.
I’d like to add that I’ve always looked at sitemaps as a helpful tool for the user. Some sites have confusing (read: poor) architectures, and oftentimes, it’s just easier to hit the sitemap and find what you need from there.
Bottom line — including a sitemap is easy, it’ll help your users, and it’s a great way to ensure that all the pages of your site are interlinked.
Download the XHTML Sitemap Generator Template for WordPress
Implementing an adequate sitemap is a simple task with WordPress, and to assist you with this, I’ve created a handy little XHTML sitemap generator.
No matter what theme or template you are using on your site, this XHTML sitemap will work (as long as you’re running WordPress). Best of all, you can easily activate your new sitemap by following these steps:
- Upload
sitemap.phpto your active WordPress theme directory. - In your WordPress administration panel, go to Write and then to Write Page.
- Fill in a title (it can be anything you want), do not enter anything into the text area of the post, and create a Post Slug called “sitemap.”
- Most important, from the Page Template dropdown box, select the Sitemap template.
- When you’re done, click on Create New Page.
The only catch is that the resulting page will be stripped of all styles, so there will be a bit of a visual disconnect between the sitemap and the rest of your site.
Check out what I mean in this sitemap example.
Simple Styling Tutorial to the Rescue!
The good news, however, is that you can easily “style” your sitemap, even if you’re not that familiar with WordPress theme files, PHP, or XHTML.
So, if you want your new sitemap to blend nicely with the rest of your site, here’s what you need to do:
- Open up your
page.phpfile from your current WordPress theme 1, and save it as a new file — call itnew_sitemap.php2. -
In the
new_sitemap.phpfile, delete all the code that lies between this snippet:<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
and this one:
<?php endwhile; endif; ?> - Open up my
sitemap.phpfile (download it here), and copy all of the code that lies between the opening and closing<body>tags. - In the
new_sitemap.phpfile, paste the code that you just copied in between the two lines of code indicated in point #2. -
Finally, in the
new_sitemap.phpfile, add this code at the very top of the file:<?php /* Template Name: New Sitemap */ ?> - Save
new_sitemap.phpand upload it to your server. - Follow the instructions above, except in step #4, choose the New Sitemap template.
Now, quit reading this, and go bask in all your Google-compliant glory!
1 If your theme doesn’t have a page.php file, then it totally sucks. Get a real theme and put yourself on the path to righteousness. ↑
2 My downloadable XHTML sitemap file is called sitemap.php, so I used new_sitemap.php in this example to differentiate between the two. ↑
This is the second in a series of posts covering SEO “best practices” called SEO for Everybody.
There are lots of simple tweaks that average, everyday users can make to their Web sites that will drastically improve both overall accessibility and search engine performance. The goal of SEO for Everybody is to help guide those users through these basic processes, thus resulting in a more accessible, utopian universe.
Or something like that
217 Comments ↓
Thanks Chris. So you recommend we have both an xml sitemap, and an xhtml site map for our site?
I’ve just installed the Google sitemap generator you specified in your first “SEO for everybody” article.
What are the differences between the two according to Google?
Mark,
Yes, I recommend that you use both because the two formats each serve a different purpose.
The XML sitemap is a tool that is specifically designed to help Google (and other search engines) refine how often it should crawl your site.
Here’s what Google says about XML sitemaps:
The XHTML sitemap, on the other hand, serves two purposes:
That makes sense
Thanks for the speedy reply Chris.
If any of you have already downloaded this file, please download it again.
I caught a mistake — I hadn’t linked back to the home page!
No worries, though, as the new file is uploaded and ready to go.
Thanks Chris, as always you make it so anyone can understand. I’m going to try and add a sitemap page this weekend.
You rule O’ Great & Mighty Themedude !
Once again I bow down to your details of attention.
Wow, that took me about 5 minutes. Thanks for the help.
Only issue is I don’t want the sitemap page listed in with all my other pages, any idea how to take that out without manually coding in links?
Shawn,
You can exclude pages by following the example shown on this page of the WordPress Codex.
Use the code from their example, but end the statement after
title_li=. That way, it’ll work just like it does now.Thanks for all the information. Any idea what is wrong with my sitemap? I just get an unformatted block of XML.
I’ve tried both the sitemap and new_sitemap approaches.
http://technical-itch.co.uk/sitemap/
Thanks.
I’ve sorted it now. I was entering the post slug as
sitemap.
without the surrounding quotes, rather then “sitemap.”
This looks great now. Thanks
[...] After asking Chris why we need both sitemap generators, 1 x xml sitemap and 1 x xhtml sitemap, he replied: [...]
Simple, Quick, and Easy! You should put an Easy Button on your sidebar just like Staples.
I can’t wait to see what you come up with next…
Great Stuff!
John
Hi Chris,
I followed the directions for the site map page creation! Thanks for the great tip! Can you peek at my sitemap page and let me know if it looks okay or if I need to tidy it up a bit with the coding. To me it looks cramped a bit!
Thanks again!
Thanks for the tip and instructions Chris. I really appreciate the info you put up here. I’m also a Cutline user. What a great theme! And you tell us how to get the most out of it.
I’m totally with you on the new media idea.
Hi,
I know this may not be the best place, but I just wanted you to know that I love your theme Cutline and will be using it for the forseeable future.
See my story about the Cutline header image.
Thanks for the info!
Uhm…I uploaded the sitemap…I am unable to find ‘page template’ for the Write Page option.
Nevermind! Fixed it!
[...] Recently, I addressed both XML and XHTML sitemaps. In the case of the XHTML sitemap, I even released a special WordPress theme Page that can be incorporated into any existing site without additional modification. [...]
Scott — You high class aficionado, you…Don’t use that sitemap. Use this exclusive one that I built for Cutline users!
Dave — I love that story! Whoda thunk my little header image would’ve been recognized by someone out there. Great stuff!
Griffin — Way to work it.
Great work as always, Chris. May your children rise up and call you blessed.
Chris, what can I say….once again you have made life so much easier! The sitemap.php you made for Cutline works like a charm!
You are an invaluable resource to all!
Happy Holidays to you and your family!
Ben — Love the implementation. Your site is killin.
Scott — Looking great! I like how you fixed up your navigation links to fit on one line, too.
Ack! My theme doesn’t have a
page.phpfile.Any suggestions (besides changing to Cutline in the future) :)?
Griffin,
Well you asked for this:
Your theme totally sucks
Aside from that, I recommend that you take a look at the
page.phparchitecture from Cutline, and then compare that to theindex.phparchitecture from your current theme.By meshing the two files, you ought to be able to come up with a
page.phpfile for your current theme, and in the process, you’ll be able to create your ownsitemap.phpfile as well.It’s not a whole heck of a lot of work, but there may be a bit of confusion and/or uncertainty in store for you.
This is why I’m always touting the benefits of a well-constructed theme
What theme is that Griffin ?
I’m using your XHTML sitemap now- kudos!
There’s another plugin out there that does the same thing (or at least it’s very close). It’s called Dagon Design Sitemap Generator. You activate the plugin and then drop a tag in to a page. The styling is all taken care of because the sitemap is really just another page on your blog.
Hi Chris - that looks great.
Just one question - can it be made to work on my WordPress.com site (which uses Cutline), or only on a site loaded to WordPress.org ?
Thanks for the (ahem) constructive criticism :p …I’ll check with my go-to grrl…
The theme is: Ads Minded Theme found at:
http://www.sapiensbryan.com/
Marios,
I was aware of the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator’s existence before I wrote this post. In fact, the entire reason I wrote this post is because I felt like that plugin was not appropriate for the masses.
I dislike the Dagon Design plugin because it forces posts to be displayed under the category within which they were published. This is something that I fundamentally disagree with, and I’m happy to explain why.
Categories are used improperly all over the Web. In their purest form, they should be used to control how content is displayed.
Tags, on the other hand, are for organizing, slicing, and dicing content for public consumption.
In fact, MovableType 3.3 includes out-of-the-virtual-box support for categories and tags…Can you guess the function that each serves individually?
In the context of a sitemap, I don’t think it’s appropriate to dissect your database in this manner. By definition, a sitemap is merely supposed to be a listing of all of the pages of your site.
Why, then, if you’re going for basic Google compliance, would you introduce an element that is not used consistently by everyone?
The only thing I can guarantee you that every WordPress user has on his or her site is a collection of Posts and Pages.
Whether you are producing themes or plugins, your goal should always be to cast an umbrella over the widest range of users. I hold the opinion that my XHTML sitemap does this better than the Dagon Design plugin, and that’s precisely why I created it.
Chris,
Thanks for the response. I did try to determine the differences between your method and Dagon’s, but the differences, or rather the purpose of the differences, wasn’t obvious to me. But now I know and I’ll have to take a closer look.
Ads Minded is a great name for that jumbled mess.
Sorry.
Hi,
Thanks for the Page Template. I noticed that you are using
altattribute forain the Feed section.This is incorrect according to XHTML 1.1. You need to use
titleinstead.Ajay,
I was just thinking about this topic yesterday, so it’s funny you should stop by and say this.
You’re dead on, of course, and thanks for the heads-up!
Does this mean you’ll be altering the theme ?
Should I wait to dload the entire package ?
If so, let me know when to dload, as I have a couple of blogs to build, after we migrate our sites to a new server, later this weekend.
4GB of RAM w/ dual SCSI 73GB Drives !
I decided to go ahead and implement your sitemap on my blog, when I noticed this.
Also plan on releasing a page template based on this for my theme.
Really useful.
Nice tips out here Have subscribed to your blog feed
Mike,
There’s no way I’ll have it done this weekend, but yeah, at some point, I’ll be changing the theme. I’ve seen a few examples lately of themes that can be changed and easily upgraded. I’ll need to modify Cutline to go that route in the future.
That is a beast of a server. I’ll take two.
I’m not on that tight of a deadline.
Might be next weekend before I get around to the actual theme-work.
The email I sent you showed all that I have coming.
I’ll check with you before then, as Cutline is the only way to go.
That’s what I like to hear
Hey Chris,
Any chance of you sharing the secret to producing the ‘text only’ links to aggregator and bookmarking services you use? I really envy them, but am a Wordpress cretin.
Ian
Solid! thanks a bunch.
Great blog!
Thanks for the helpful resource.
Ian,
I will likely do a mini-tutorial on those in the very near future. It’s a great idea for a post, and I’m a little upset that I didn’t think of it myself!
Great work Chris,
but maybe you may consider include a page option, because if we have 300+ posts, googlebot could think us as a spam blog or something like it.
150 - 200 links per page will be great.
Ozan,
Excellent point. I need to delve a little further into that and see if I can force pagination after
Xnumber of links.[...] read more | digg story [...]
[...] Typically, WordPress archive pages (and other CMS archive pages, for that matter) do not contain links to all of your internal pages and available syndication feeds. Chris Pearson reveals how to serve GoogleBot all of your juicy content morsels using XHTML.read more | digg story [...]
Most important, from the Page Template dropdown box, select the Sitemap template.
Where in the world do I find that on the page? For which version of WP is dis written for ne way?
Excellent!!!!
[...] To combat this, you can generate an XHTML sitemap that contains links to every page of your site. Continue reading ‘Using an XHTML Sitemap to Get a Site Deep Indexed by Google’ At pearsonified Google Wordpress [...]
“I will likely do a mini-tutorial on those in the very near future. ”
Excellent. Look forward to it.
[...] Hop on over here and take a look at the simple and well written instructions for installing an XHTML sitemap. The description of the sitemap and why it is necessary are excellent and worthwhile reads, especially if you are curious about the underpinnings of why these actions are valuable additions to your blog. Just follow the instructions as laid out and you will be up and running in no time. [...]
[...] Use an XHTML Sitemap for Better Indexing [www] If you like this, please share it:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
Now couple the generation of this page with the generation of a sitemap.xml file (www.sitemaps.org) and it would be perfect. You could hit everything in one fell swoop.
Great tips and, I gotta say, great layout! I really like your style.
Hi Chris,
I found out about you and your cutline theme from wordpress.com
Your cutline theme that is preinstalled in wordpress.com is great except for one thing…
The smiley face you put in the footer will tend to appear at the TOP right hand side of the page in Mozilla Firefox, which is so FUGLY.
Can you do like remove it please?
It spoils the whole theme.
Brilliant add-on. Thanks very much. I’ve added it to my site to compliment my xml sitemap and archive pages.
I’ve also added your add-on to my Wordpress Plug-ins/Add-ons Page > http://www.abouthere.co.uk/blog/?page_id=498
Cheers!
Chip — This tutorial is intended to serve those folks running WordPress 2.0 or higher. Something tells me you were on the Write Post tab instead of the Write Page tab, though.
Nate K — Now why didn’t I think of that?
RSL — Thanks very much! Your site has a heck of a nice style, as well. I especially like the progressive tints of gray in the would-be comments area.
Yual — That stupid smiley is something that WordPress.com places on every site. It gets inserted in the
wp_footer();hook, and unfortunately, that hook is in the wrong place in the WordPress.com file. Sadly, I cannot change it—only the WP.com folks can do that.Rob — Awesome! Thanks!
Thanks for some nice tools, Chris. Does Google disapprove of your efforts? I ask because the Firefox Search Status says this page has a PageRank of 0!
Lane,
This particular page has not existed long enough to draw a Google PageRank.
Once the next update comes around, I expect that this one will pull a PR5, or perhaps even 6.
The home page of this site is currently a PR 5, and a lot of PageRank predictors are saying that it will be a PR 7 on the next update.
So in short, Google likes me. It really, really likes me.
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Interesting, but you have a relatively new site and a very small number of posts. What would you recommend doing if a sitemap of all internal pages would return, say, 2000 links?
Brian,
The sitemap should really be paginated, I guess. I am going to look into a solution for that eventually.
Better yet, you can do the styling of the XHTML with the same template used for the rest of your site, so that the entire site has the same look and feel. Putting the common elements of the site in a separate template has the added advantage that those elements can be cached by the browser, typically saving 50% in bandwidth costs. See an example at http://Sample.mobi/ and the “how to” at http://www.ToGuides.com/howto/internet/xml/templates.xml
If you’d be interested in updating your example at http://www.pearsonified.com/sitemap_example/, let me know. Once the template is created (or copied from the “how to”), it’s as simple as adding the stylesheet processing instruction at the top of each page.
You can also use the same type of templates to “transform” the XHTML sitemap and produce one in XML format, or vice-versa, to avoid having to create both versions separately. This is known as “Single-Source Publishing”, publishing content in multiple formats from the same content source. See
http://www.Accilent.com/technologies.xml#standards
Robert,
Did you read the entire post? After I introduce the unstyled example, I go on to explain how you can make the formatting mesh with your site.
In its current state, there is no way for me to make this sitemap work for every WordPress theme out there. In order to do that effectively, I’ll need to turn this into a WordPress plugin, which is something that I intend to learn in the early part of next year.
As for the single-source publishing, that’s a great idea, and one that has been suggested a couple of times in this very comment thread. Thanks for the reference tip.
[...] personified [...]
[...] Use an XHTML Sitemap for Better Indexing Implementing an adequate sitemap is a simple task with WordPress, and to assist you with this, I’ve created a handy little XHTML sitemap generator. (tags: Sitemaps) [...]
I’m quite sure i was in the Write Page … and i know i didn’t find any such Page Template drop down.
Did you create a custom field ? Or did you install a plugin for that ?
Like whoa ! I’m missing that in ALL my blogs (setup through cpanel)…..
Any way i can get it ?
Chip,
It’s quite possible that the theme you’re using does not come equipped with a
page.phpfile, and therefore, you wouldn’t be able to see the Page Template selector.Try switching to Cutline just to see if that option appears for you. If it doesn’t then I recommend calling your hosting company, because anything less than a fully-functional WordPress would be uncivilized
So, is there any way i can create it ?
You can’t create that option, but you could try activating a theme that you know contains a file called
page.php.This would at least establish a stable test condition. If it turns out that this doesn’t solve the problem, then you know the issue is with your Web host, not with your theme.
[...] Use an XHTML Sitemap for Better Indexing Pearsonified continues with their brilliant series on SEO for everyone, handy tips for increasing search engine ranking and raking in the visitors! (tags: blogging business development google howto searchengine seo tutorial webdev) [...]
I don’t use WordPress myself, but the considering the number of users out there I think a lot of people could benefit by heeding the advice in your article. Good work.
[...] Use an XHTML Sitemap for Better Indexing - Pearsonified [...]
[...] sexy X Men Typically, WordPress archive pages (and other CMS archive pages, for that matter) do not contain links to all of your internal pages and available syndication feeds. Chris Pearson reveals how to serve GoogleBot all of your juicy content morsels using XHTML. X Men 101 phoenix forsaleread more | digg story [...]
[...] Chris Pearson has written an excellent artcile on how you can create an XHTML Sitemap for your blog. [...]
Awesome stuff, very well laid out article. Thanks a BUNCH.
Thanks for very helpful tip!
I wish someone could make a tool to convert an xml sitemap to an xhtml sitemap, as well as to an rss (after all they are all based on xml)
You don’t need a “tool” to convert XML to XHTML and RSS - just a couple of XSLT templates. We’re working on packaging a set of such stylesheets and templates under our “XML Styles” project - HowToGuides.com and TVSeries.com are two of the proof-of-concept sites.
Thanks Chris. I have a silly question, am nw to all this so need to know.
If I add/delete post/page, will the sitemap get updated on its own?
Yes,
The sitemap is generated dynamically each time it is called, so every time you view it, you’ll see the latest mix of posts and pages.
Thanks for the prompt reply. Got another question, how do I increase the left margin? Visiting the following page will give u a better idea:
http://manukhanna.com/sitemap/
Manu,
If you look at the XHTML for both your sitemap and your home page, you’ll notice that the sitemap code contains an extra instance of the
<body>tag.Presumably, you’ll be able to find this and remove it from the
sitemap.phpfile that lies in your theme’s directory.[...] Typically, WordPress archive pages (and other CMS archive pages, for that matter) do not contain links to all of your internal pages and available syndication feeds. Chris Pearson reveals how to serve GoogleBot all of your juicy content morsels using XHTML.read more | digg story [...]
I LOVE THIS THEME.
Okay, had to say that - next, thanks for this sitemap. It went up in under 5 minutes. That is MY KIND of easy.
Thanks! That’s how I roll…
[...] I was reading through Peasonified.com yesterday and I came across an interesting article with some tips that I just had to try out. CommerceCubes is quickly becoming a place in which I can hone my skills in all things “web”. Every time that I learn something new I feel as though I must share it because as my knowledge increases I realize that so does anyone who comes across this site gets increased knowledge and value out of it which is the main reason why I started the site in the first place. Sure the first 6 months I’ve tried to find a reason for CommerceCubes existing and only recently I am realizing that reason is simple “To share knowledge and information in an entertaining way”… or at least I hope its entertaining [...]
Chris, I must have something in the wrong place. I did the postslug and the template dropdown, but I keep getting a 404 error. Any ideas?
Nick,
If you entered anything into the text field on the Write Page screen, it won’t work. Also, if you could, please provide me with the broken URL so I can see things in action.
Sure: http://www.nick-rice.com/sitemap/
Hope this helps.
BTW, I’m on WP 2.0.5 | K2 beta 2 & TrueBlue scheme if that makes a difference.
[...] check it out [...]
[...] If you’re serious about improving your SEO, then you’ve probably already taken the time to generate a sitemap and construct dynamic, descriptive <title> tags. [...]
I cannot thank you enough for making such valuable resources available to us. Very appreciated.
Chris, I just got around to installing this on my blog and with a tiny bit of code tweaking it works and looks great. Thanks for the great site and all the great information!
For some reason, I cannot create a postslug called “sitemap.” (with the period at the end). It just defaults to sitemap without a period. Would this cause a 404 error.
And I just upgraded to WP 2.0.6, but I’m not sure that made a difference.
Nick,
You don’t want the period at the end. Grammatical rules dictate that you must end the sentence with punctuation inside the closing quotation mark.
I did get it to work. I redownloaded your siteplan.php file and put a fresh copy on the server and everything worked fine.
This is a great tool. You’re a huge help.
Thanks
Awesome! I’m glad it worked for ya.
I know this isn’t your theme or style, but you’ve been so helpful I thought I’d ask.
Here’s my working sitemap (http://www.nick-rice.com/%E2%80%9Csitemap%E2%80%9D) thank you!
Is there an easy way to indent the bulleted list? With the Trueblue scheme, the bullets fall right on the border. I’d like to scoot them in by 20px.
This doesn’t work with WP2.1 for me.
It gets as far as generating the internal pages and stops. Are there plans to update it please?
Cheers,
Rob,
I will definitely update this for WordPress 2.1 if I find out that it doesn’t work properly.
My guess is that the code used to generate some of the pages are deprecated, so I’ll have to see what’s been changed and then make the appropriate changes.
Thanks for the heads-up!
[...] If you’re interested in getting one too then here’s the Author’s Site. Share This [...]
Hey, Chris P. Thanks so much for this info on the xhtml sitemap. I couldn’t find the “sitemap” template until I moved the sitemap.php from the “themes” folder into the “default” subfolder (*smacks forehead), but I am good to go now!
Chris,
You the man! Double kudos. I really like your very clear tutorials. Being a php newbie I had to twiddle with the code in theme Fall Season to get it to work since it used a different repeat structure.
I finally decided to replace it with
“”
from your code.
That did the trick.
see here the result. http://blogking.powweb.com/sitemap/
Looks great.
I also implimented your dynamic title code.
Thanks a bunch. You are on my must read list now. Keep up the great ideas.
How do you comment code in this text box so it doesn’t disappear?
[...] I was just reading an article on setting up an XHTML sitemap over at Pearsonified (Use an XHTML Sitemap for Better Indexing) and remembered something that I had read recently on the Google Webmaster Guidelines: Keep the links on a given page to a reasonable number (fewer than 100). [...]
[...] To save me from repeating everything that Mr Pearson says, go and check out his post on Using XHTML Sitemaps for Better Indexing. In it he shows you how to download the plugin (yet another one!), and how to style the HTML page that results from using it to suit your sites look and feel. [...]
[...] If you’re curious what sort of XHTML sitemap I used here, it’s one you can avail yourself of at Chris Pearson’s site. It works well for me, but it does require just a bit more knowledge of code, which is why I left it out above. Chris does have some good instructions so if you like the look of my XHTML sitemap, go check Pearsonified. Related Posts : The Ultimate Wordpress Blog SetupThe Ultimate WordPress Setup - Configure Your TitlesThe Ultimate WordPress Setup, Pt. 1The Ultimate WordPress Setup - PingThe Ultimate WordPress Setup - Permalinks [...]
[...] Help the engines crawl your site more effectively - get a sitemap. Doesn’t really matter whether you create one of your own, or use a plugin which creates an xml version or you. Just get ‘er done. Because SE’s typically discover pages from links within a site, the benefits of having a sitemap are obvious. [...]
[...] Selvom Cutline ser enkelt ud, indeholder dette WordPress-tema flere avanceret funktioner, som bl.a. skiftende “header” billeder, indbygget “Site-map” funktion, der forbedrer søgemaskine optimering (SEO) og et “Custom CSS” skrifttypeark, der gør det muligt at udfører fremtidige opdateringer, uden at det påvirker de ændringer i designet, du har brugt timer på at udføre i dit Cutline-tema. Alt dette kigger vi nærmere på! [...]
Hi Chris
I’ve been lurking on Pearsonified for several months now. This is an excellent addition to the Wordpress canon - kudos. I particularly like the way you always give a step by step, easy to follow process for people to install your stuff.
I’ve got my XHTML sitemap installed and working, with one caveat - it happily lists all the site files and then ends with
Topical archives:
“Fatal error: Call to undefined function: wp_list_categories() in [my file path] sitemap.php on line 49″
Is this because my theme sucks as well ?
Can I leave it alone and Google will still crawl it or does the error need to be fixed - and if so, can you please let me know how I can do it when you have time?
Thanks,
Chris
Chris — The
wp_list_categories()function only works in WordPress 2.1+. When the new version was released, I modified the original version of this Sitemap file in order to adapt to this function change.I’m going to step out on a limb here and assume that you’re running an older version of WordPress, and if you replace
wp_list_categories()withwp_list_cats(), you should get the result you’re after.Chris - I’m so glad I Stumbled on your site!
So many times I’ve tried implementing a site map on WordPress; so many times I’ve ended up with nasty bumps on my forehead from banging it on the table.
You’ve truly got a Zen-type gift for making things effective and simple - and you’ve got a new dedicated reader.
Thanks again!
Phil
[...] Selvom Cutline ser enkelt ud, indeholder dette WordPress-tema flere avanceret funktioner, som bl.a. skiftende “header” billeder, indbygget “Site-map” funktion, der forbedrer søgemaskine optimering (SEO) og et “Custom CSS” skrifttypeark, der gør det muligt at udfører fremtidige opdateringer, uden at det påvirker de ændringer i designet, du har brugt timer på at udføre i dit Cutline-tema. Alt dette kigger vi nærmere på! [...]
Thanks so much, this is awesome. Worked exactly as described, had a site map up in a few minutes.
Hi Chris
- the wp_list_cats worked like a charm on my pre 2.1 Wordpress install - thanks for the quick response.
Might I suggest you might want to note that change in your step by step setup list, as there will still be a lot of pre 2.1 installs around for the next few months
Thanks again
Chris
I think I did it right.
[...] Chris Pearson is not just responsible for creating this beautiful theme, he is also responsible for developing a XHTML sitemap plugin for wordpress. [...]
[...] personified [...]
[...] After reading the simple SEO tips at Pearsonified , I was impressed by the fact that we can actually help Google index our blogs better by simply creating a XHTML Sitemap which links to all the internal pages in our blog. Including a sitemap is easy, it’ll help your users, and it’s a great way to ensure that all the pages of your site are interlinked. [...]
that was easy…
I have done this before with an older installation of wordpress, however I just upgraded to 2.1.2 and I’m not seeing the sitemap page template in the write page area.
Michael — In all likelihood, you just need t0 upload the
sitemap.phpfile to your active theme folder. I think you may have mistakenly overwritten yourwp-contentfolder when you upgraded WordPress, and this would have nuked the oldsitemap.phpfile.Thank you, you are correct.
Hello. I installed the sitemap generator and it works fine except under the Topical Archives heading I get the following error message:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function wp_list_categories() in /home/cafeson6/public_html/wp-content/themes/fSpring Widget/sitemap.php on line 49
Any idea what may have caused it and how to fix it?
Hi Chris,
I have got the sitemap working (as you can see :D) but I have a problem with your symple styling tutorial.
When I open the sitemap.php it doesnt have:
or
in it at all so I cannot delete what is between them!
I really have know idea how that has happened, I followed your tutoral step by step… any ideas greatfully appreciated!
Thanks,
Matt
Darn it that code didnt show up (duh!) - anyway its the code in stage 2 that isn’t there.
Cenk — You’ve installed the sitemap generator for WordPress 2.1+, but I’m betting that you need the one for WordPress 2.0.x. Grab the file here.
Matt — Step 2 references
page.phpand notsitemap.php, so I think that might be the source of your confusion. Step 3 tells you what to do with the code fromsitemap.php.[...] Using a sitemap [...]
Thank you for the tutorial! Implemented it on my website..
http://www.evsionlab.com/sitemap/
Great site btw. I bookmarked you!
One more thing! The DIGG icon, on this post. Is this a plugin? I was wondering if you would be able to let me know. Thanks
Chris,
thanks for your speedy reply!
It looks like you were right! .. sort of…
I WAS looking at the sitemap.php instead of the page.php (silly me) but there isn’t the code in stage 2 in page.php either. There is code similar to the first bit of code in stage 2, but the is no sign of the ‘endif’ stuff.
Any ideas? Maybe I have a weird theme…
Matt
Matt — Instead of
endif, look for a closing curly bracket}. That is another way to signify the end of anifstatement.[...] Use an XHTML Sitemap for Better Indexing>> These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
[...] XHTML Sitemap Authors Description: Over time, you will likely accumulate tons of pages, and as this happens, the odds of certain pages getting buried to the point of becoming nearly inaccessible tend to go up. To combat this, you can generate an XHTML sitemap that contains links to every page of your site. My overview: Having the XML Google Sitemap plugin installed is great; however to make sure you get proper Google exposure this tool generates a brilliant sitemap that folk can navigate and Google will suck it up too! I strongly recommend this addon (not a plugin) to all and sundry; however it doesn’t work with WP2.1 yet. [...]
This is simply superb!
[...] E foi o que ele fez. Criou um template estático, onde são apontados todos os links do seu site. Se você tem um inglês razoável pode acessar o tutorial do XHTML SiteMap Generator no próprio Pearsonified. Caso não tenha um inglês tão bom assim, você pode conferir o tutorial em português aqui, mas claro, antes de começar, dê um pulo lá no blog dele para baixar o arquivo e siga as instruções abaixo. [...]
[...] Recently, I addressed both XML and XHTML sitemaps. In the case of the XHTML sitemap, I even released a special WordPress theme Page that can be incorporated into any existing site without additional modification. [...]
Another awesome and easy improvement. Thank you again!!
Andrew
Chris: Thanks for that quick XHTML Sitemap for Wordpress. I do have one question. How do I submit it to Google Analytics (which requires it in .xml)? I’ve tried submitting the URL link to my blog’s sitemap but Google Analytics kept rejecting it. Any ideas or do I just need to follow the steps required for Google?
Chris: Sorry, after I posted my comment, I found your “When Was the Last Time You Talked to Google?” where you lead me to the Google Sitemap Generator (for the XML sitemap). Thank you so much again and please disregard my previous comment.
Thanks for that quick XHTML Sitemap for Wordpress. Thans exactly what i wanted. Thanks.
[...] Typically, WordPress archive pages (and other CMS archive pages, for that matter) do not contain links to all of your internal pages and available syndication feeds. Chris Pearson reveals how to serve GoogleBot all of your juicy content morsels using XHTML.read more | digg story [...]
I don’t seem to be able to get it to work. It shows up if I preview the page but when I publish I get a 404 error.
Also, how do I add the link to the top of the blog like on Chris’s?
Using Wordpress 2.13 with Cutline theme.
[...] XHTML Sitemap: Google suggests it, Chris Pearson makes it possible and rather easy. [...]
I’ve attempted to install your site map generator. I’ve hit a snag, no Sitemap template. appears as one of the selctions in the Page Template dropdown box. I’me using Wordpress Classic as a starting point.
Whatever do I do?
Okay. Disregard the previous post.
I followed the instructions. Duh!
Now I’m getting the 404 error message.
The page either isn’t being generated or put in the wrong place. The link is on page in the sidebar, however, I get the 404 error message when I click on the link.
What now?
[...] Like I said when i started this blog, I was to learn SEO and try to implement them here to see if it really works. To date I have submitted this site to the 3 major Search Engines like all the gurus have taught. I have created and verified a sitemap for this blog. I even created a sitemap page as taught by Chris Pearson. [...]
[...] La seconda soluzione, che è quella che ho scelto per per il mio blog, consiste nell’utilizzare una pagina template realizzata da Chris Pearson. Il template è in XHTML ed è facilmente adattabile ad ogni tema. [...]
That was simple.
Super description. Thanks
I’m using XHTML sitemap now
Thank you, dude!
The script rocks, just installed it on my blog.
Works perfectly!
I did all the things that you instructed here but why is it that the sitemap’s still not blending with the site template?
My site is http://katchatore.freehostia.com if in case you want to check. Thanks.
that a great plugin. i use it with my cutline theme.
where i can find thise good seo framwork for wordpress
Help.
I’m using Cutline 1.1 off of WP 2.1.3, and despite the sitemap.php directions being followed to the letter, I too, cannot get off the 404 screen of death: on the Write Page, every time I enter
“sitemap.”
under Page Slug and save, all that shows up again under Page Slug post save is
sitemap
no quotes or period inside the last quote.
Oddly, if the Page is saved as a draft, WP tantalizes me at the bottom with what looks like a preview of a perfectly formatted Cutline consistent sitemap.
Am I missing something?
Ogrod — Here are a couple of good ones in the order that I’d recommend you try them:
Peter — Right now, there are two pages with the page slug
sitemapon your site. The second one is appended with-2to differentiate it from the first, but since that’s not a desirable page slug, I recommend that you delete both of your sitemap pages and create a new one.[...] First, the HTML sitemap page. This is not a plugin, but Chris Pearson (pearsonified.com) has a great page template that auto-generates your sitemap. A good thing. 2.) In fact, you’ll want to be sure to also get the Google Sitemap Plugin [...]
Hello Chris
Thanks for this excellent theme, I’m a newbie to the world of blogging, for some odd reason I can’t seem to get my sitemap in order, at lease the way you have it on your site. I followed your steps above to the letter. I’m currently using wordpress 2.1.3 HELP
Hey, thanks for the great plugin. One thing. I use the Google XML sitemap plugin, which uses the same file name sitemap.php, so I can only install in my plugins folder. One of you will have to change the name, I think. Perhaps I’m wrong, but if I upload yours, it will over write the other plugin, right? I’d like to use yours, but for now I’ll stick with the Google XML sitemap plugin.
thanks,
David
GarnetDavid — The sitemap plugin that I recommend does not use
sitemap.php. Instead, it makes use ofsitemap.xml, which is recommended by Google.So in theory, there should be no conflict—at least I’m not experiencing one on this site or any of my others that use both types of sitemaps.
Chris- Thanks, I’ll give it a try.
David
Chris, since downloading copyblogger and cutline, i cannot seem to display my Links sidebar widget. there must be something i did to the code. any ideas?
thanks,
Lawton
No Go for the xhtml sitmap. As per instructions, I uploaded the sitemap.php file to the root folder of my blog, but when I went to create the page, there was no sitemap template. So I uploaded the file to my blog’s theme folder, and was able to create the page using the sitmap template, but get a 404 for the page. Any help would be appreciated.
D
GarnetDavid — Putting the file in your blog’s theme folder was the right move (specifically, in the Copyblogger theme folder). As far as you getting a 404 goes, try going to Manage → Pages, and then locate the Sitemap page. Click on View, and see what URL shows up in your address bar.
If you cannot locate the sitemap page, then it was never created successfully. If this is the case, simply try to create it again.
Chris, I appreciate your help. I use the Triple K2 Theme. I created the page using the sitemap template, a slug sitemap and no text. The page created is my blog/sitemap/.
Shouldn’t it be sitemap.php? I deleted and created another, using sitemap.php as the slug, and it worked! Now I have to style it.
The oddest thing, Chris- Of course, labeling the slug sitemap.php was silly, since that doesn’t translate into the slug name. But calling it sitemap definately did not work, perhaps because there are two files named the same. Naming it ANYTHING else then it worked.
GarnetDavid — That all sounds pretty standard. If you delete all existing sitemap pages and start anew, you’ll be able to have your sitemap located at
/sitemap, which I think is a preferable scenario.Chris- I haven’t solved it yet. Deleted all others, but no go. Even tried deleting the google one in plugins. Tried putting the sitemap.php file in different places, renaming the new_sitemap, putting both files in, since one is actually called sitemap. Nothing. I get a big “/muse/sitemap/ NOT FOUND on this server”, blank white. This doesn’t make sense at all.
By the way, I do have my blog in a subfolder, but it doesn’t affect any other pages.
Any suggestions?? I’d like to solve this, since the page slug should be right.
David
GarnetDavid — You keep mentioning
sitemap.php, but I’d like to make it clear that the onlysitemap.phpfile you’ll be dealing with should be placed in your active theme directory (whatever that is).Next, and after you’ve deleted all other sitemap pages, do this:
Sitemapin the title box.sitemapin the Page Slug box (which is on the right).Sorry to frustrate you. After a brief misreading, I followed the original directions well, placing the file in the active theme directory, and created the page properly. I’ve searched all files and there are no duplicates of the sitemap.php anywhere. It never, ever works unless I name the page slug something other than sitemap. I have a beautiful, styled sitemap, BUT with the url /site_map.
Hey Chris, you rock! Apparently I don’t though. I used the sitemap file included in the Copyblogger theme. I simply made a new page with a page template of Sitemap and post slug sitemap. The page works, everything except the posts are there, instead of the posts only a link to the sitemap is there.
Could this really help?
I hope we have one built for the Press Row theme.
Thanks Chris, thats the answer of many of my questions i’v had!
Thanks for the code and instructions Chris. Works great with Cutline.
Thanks Chris. I’ve been struggling for sometime to figure out an archive page. With this new code of yours, I now have an archive page and a sitemap Xhtml.
Why is it when i visted your webpage and used the firefox extension “force content-type” and saw that your webpage had teh doctype xhtml, so i dcieded to use teh content type application/xhtml+xml
why do i get an xml parse error?????
HI FIVE!!!!!111111111111111
Thanks for the article. Very useful. Actually I already created the XML google wanted in their webmaster tools - but making additional XHTML was new to me.
Great tip. I have implemented it! Thanks so much. You’re awesome!
http://tonycai.com
Hello Chris,
I tried your new sitemap approach on my wordpress blog loverslawn.com but I am getting the same error no matter how hard I tried to implement it successfully. Can you please tell me what I am doing wrong? I have already gone through the comments above but I suppose nothing favours me…
Here is the link to my sitemap http://www.loverslawn.com/sitemap/
Thanks for your time!
Ananya
My sitemap and archive is getting longer and longer and was wondering if anyone of you can help me sort them. What I want essentially is have to columns instead of just one. Was wondering if anyone can help me out with this?
Go here to see what I mean..thanks
http://www.evsionlab.com/archives/
http://www.evsionlab.com/sitemap/
XML site maps designed for Google are very important. However I did find it easier creating the site maps for HTML page then PHP pages.
Pretty much every site I build now has an XML site map for Google and a HTML sitemap for Yahoo
mmmmm I will stick to the trustworthy XML sitemap, far more effective then following the ideas of Google. I see there hold on people grows stronger by the day.
I’m using Cutline 1.1, WP 2.2.3 and the Google XML Sitemaps plugins 3.0b6
I too had the 404 problems seen by a couple of other people. I followed the instructions to the letter.
If I try this URL it doesn’t work:
http://technical-itch.co.uk/sitemap/
I get a 404.
“The requested URL /sitemap.xml/ was not found on this server.”
If I try the same URL without the final forward slash I get the XML sitemap generated from the plugin:
http://technical-itch.co.uk/sitemap
In the end I had to use a page slug of site_map before the XHTML sitemap would work.
http://technical-itch.co.uk/site_map/
Will Google care that I’m using site_map instead of sitemap. Will it work just as well?
I am using WordPress 2.2.3 and XML Sitemap Generator 3.0b10. When I use the Cutline 3C 1.1 theme, the sitemap works fine and shows one map for the site based on the home page. However, when I use the Cutline 3C split 1.1 theme, the sitemap has changed to showing multiple maps–a complete repeat of the entire map for each post on the home page. See http://stcwdc.org/wdcblog/index.php/sitemap/
If I switch back to the nonsplit theme, I get back the single map for the site.
How do I get it back to just one map for the split theme?
where I find a tutorial for wordpress?
Wow…I have creat one… wish the google & baidu would indexing more…
[...] an XHTML site map template made possible because of Chris Pearson’s generous work. [...]
[...] como fiz o Mapa do blog e qual é sua finalidade. Para fazer segui um passo-a-passo no blog pearsonified.com, com finalidade de colocar todo meu conteúdo de forma organizada, dentro de uma única página e [...]