If you’re like most bloggers you want your blog to be visited by as many people as possible, and getting all of your posts indexed by the major search engines is the most effective way to drive traffic to your blog. To make that task easier, Google, Bing and Yahoo have agreed to use XML sitemaps to aid them in indexing as many pages of a website as possible.
Normally a webmaster would create an XML sitemap file for his/her website in accordance with the standards set forth, upload the completed file to the server, and then “tell” the search engines how to find it. The sitemap file itself can be assembled manually (not an easy thing to do if a site is large) or by using an XML sitemap creation script of some type. The problem is, every time a new page or blog post is added, the XML sitemap file must be recreated and uploaded all over again.
Thankfully, if you have a WordPress blog there is an outstanding plugin that automates the entire process for you after the initial setup is performed. The Google XML Sitemapsplugin takes care of all the drudge work for you. After you install and configure it, it takes over and makes sure every post and page you add to your blog gets added to the XML sitemap, which it then automatically uploads to the server. The plugin also pings the search engines to let them know that the sitemap has been updated. What a great plugin!
If you have never used an XML sitemap before or if you have been updating and uploading it manually, you’re going to LOVE this plugin. If you want to add it to your WordPress blog, you’ll find it right here.