The XML Sitemap file is like a directory of all web pages that exist on
your website or blog. Search engines like Google and Bing can use these sitemap
files to discover pages on your site that the search bots may have otherwise
missed during regular crawling.
The
Problem with Blogger Sitemap Files
An complete sitemap file should mention all pages of a site but that’s
not the case if your blog is hosted on Blogger.
The default XML sitemap file of any Blogger blog will have only the 26
most recent blog posts – see example. That’s a limitation
because some of your older blog pages, that are missing in the default XML
sitemap file, may never get indexed in search engines. There’s however a simple
solution to fix this problem.
This section is valid for both regular Blogger blogs (that use a
.blogspot.com address) and also the self-hosted Blogger blogs that use a custom
domain (like postsecret.com).
Here’s what you need to do to expose your blog’s complete site structure
to search engines with the help of an XML sitemap.
- Open
the Sitemap
Generator and type the full address of your blogspot blog (or
your self-hosted Blogger blog).
- Click
the Create Sitemap button and this tool will instantly generate the
necessary text for your sitemap. Copy the entire generated text to your
clipboard (see screenshot below).
- Next go to your Blogger dashboard and under Settings – > Search Preferences, the enable Custom robots.txt option (available in the Crawling and Indexing section). Paste the clipboard text here and save your changes.
And we are done. Search engines will automatically discover your XML
sitemap files via the robots.txt file and you don’t have to ping them manually.
PS: If
you have
switched from Blogger to WordPress, it still makes sense to submit XML
sitemaps of your old Blogspot blog as that will aid search engines discover
your new WordPress blog posts and pages.
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