XML Sitemap (Google Sitemap XML)

Configuring an XML Sitemap with Google XML
Sitemaps


  1. Install and activate the plugin.



  2. Access the robots.txt file. A sample robots.txt file will be generated. Let’s try accessing it. For example, if your WordPress URL is https://getshifter.io, add /robots.txt to the end of the URL to access it. Sample robots.txt:


    User-agent: *
     Disallow: /
     Sitemap: /sitemap_index.xml


  3. Check the sitemap.xml file. The app’s sitemap URL will look like /sitemap.xml. XML Sitemap Index generated by the Google XML Sitemaps plugin:


  4. Disable notification settings. To prevent the temporary URL from being sent to search engines, uncheck the following two checkboxes under [Basic Options]:

    • Notify Google of site updates
    • Notify Bing (formerly MSN Live Search) of site updates

  5. Generate and deploy the artifact. Once you’ve verified the sitemap file, publish it. Click the [Generate Artifact] button.


  6. Double-check the robots.txt file. Add /robots.txt to the end of the URL and access the Shifter site.
    User-agent: *
     Disallow: /
     Sitemap: http://modest-wescoff7228.static.getshifter.net/sitemap_index.xml

  7. Access the deployed site and its generated sitemap.xml. The sitemap URL for the deployed site will look like https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
    or https://foobar.on.getshifter.io/sitemap.xml
    XML sitemap index generated by the Google XML
    Sitemaps plugin on the deployed site:


That’s it! Search engine crawlers will now access the XML sitemap via robots.txt.