How to Add A Google Sitemap To Your Blog

By adding a Google sitemap to your blog, you can more easily submit your site to the Google search engine spider. You get better coverage by the spider, than by simply submitting your blog to the Google search engine. You'll also get detailed statistics about how Google sends traffic your way, and how the Google spider sees your blog. This is generally the first thing done after adding a blog to Google Webmaster Tools.

Unless other wise noted, everything below will be conducted from Google Webmaster Tools.

1. If you don't have a Google account yet, you'll need one. GMail is free, and Google Groups is a vital resource for problem research. Anytime there is a problem with your blog, you should be posting into Blogger Help Forum.


2. First, and most importantly, verify site ownership by adding a meta record to the template.


3. From the GWT dashboard, select the menu option Site configuration, then Sitemaps. Then hit the button "Submit a sitemap".


4. In a separate window, go to the Blogger dashboard, and to "Settings - Site Feed" for your blog. Ensure that your site feed is enabled.


5. Return to GWT and Sitemaps. In the box for "Submit Sitemap", type "atom.xml" (or "atom.xml?redirect=false", if you're using a redirected custom (external) feed for public access, and need redirection override), and hit "Submit Sitemap".


6. This will update the GWT Sitemaps list, with the advice

   You have added the URL of your sitemap.

   In the list My Sitemaps you should now see the added sitemap URL.

You are now done with the initial add process.

When you update your blog, if you don't update regularly, use the form below. If you update regularly, it's likely that the Google bots already have your blog in a schedule, and the form will be redundant.

Enter the blog feed URL (obtained in step 4, above), and hit Ping Google Sitemaps.