As a professional web developer, I am constantly seeking to remain up-to-date on the latest trends on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and useful strategies to improve my blog’s Search Engine Results Position (SERP) as well as my many other websites.

So if you are like me and use WordPress as your blog’s publishing platform I have an amazing plugin that will help you get your website into the database of all popular search engines such as Google and Bing. It is the Google XML Sitemap plugin for WordPress.

Google XML Sitemap is a WordPress plugin that will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your blog. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.

Installation is very simple just like any other WordPress plugin. When logged into your WordPress Dashboard, click on the sub-link ‘Add New’ under the Plugins tab on the left. Perform a search for ‘Google XML Sitemap’. Click on the ‘Install’ link under actions for the Google XML Sitemaps plugin and once the pop up loads, click the ‘Install Now’ button. You will then be asked for your connection information. This is typically the FTP info provided by your hosting provider. 99% of the time, your hostname will be ‘localhost’ as well. Click the Proceed button.

Once the plugin has finished installing, make sure to activate it then click on the ‘XML-Sitemap’ sub-link under the Settings tab on the left side of your dashboard. You will see something similar to the screen shot below. Review all of the sitemap settings and adjust according to your preference. Once you are ready, build your sitemap and you are done.

Google and other search engines will receive your sitemap which will contain links and information about the pages, posts, comments, and content on your blog depending on the plugin settings. They will send scripts to your blog to crawl it for keywords and index your content to help people searching keywords find your blog. I have read that Google is the most important search engine to gain a high SERP because once you become king of the hill on Google, the rest will follow suit.

Please check out this plugin and let me know what you think by commenting below. Retweet this post for ALL of your Twitter followers as well. Thanks and remember to always have fun.

About Clifton Hatfield

I am a family man. My wife and I are both web developers and parents to our beautiful boys. I have been working with social networks since 2004 and blogging even longer. After building niche networks of over 400,000 members, I have genuinely gained knowledge of how they have grown over the years and have influenced the way people interact on the internet. My hobbies include writing Facebook Applications and Wordpress Plugins. In my free time, I love a glass of wine with my wife or playing in the yard our boys. Nothing means more to me than my family.

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