Create Your Own XML Google Sitemap

Google Sitemaps is a program to help improve and increase the coverage of your website with Google. There are software and generator programs to help you make them, but its not that hard to create it yourself. If you have a very large website, then you will want to look for a program/generator.

The Sitemap must contain the following tags

<urlset> </urlset>, <url> </url>, <loc> </loc>

Optional additions are <lastmod>, <changefreq> and <priority>. In the example below, the optional additions have been included.

XML Sitemap Format

Below is a sample of the format that can be used for your XML sitemap. Simply highlight the grey shaded area, and paste it into notepad. From there you can replace the urls with your own, and customize it as needed. When saving the file in note pad, make sure you save type as All Files, and call it mysitemap.xml (or whatever name you like). Once that is done, you can go to Google Sitemaps and create an account and submit your new XML sitemap.

As you create new pages for your site, you will need to update it.

  <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 

<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.8">

<url>

  <loc>http://www.ThisIsMySite.ca</loc> 

  <lastmod>2005-10-19</lastmod> 

  <changefreq>daily</changefreq> 

  <priority>0.8</priority> 

  </url>

<url>

  <loc>http://www.ThisIsMySite.ca/service.html</loc> 

  <lastmod>2005-10-19</lastmod> 

  <changefreq>daily</changefreq> 

  <priority>0.6</priority> 

  </url>

<url>

  <loc>http://www.ThisIsMySite.ca/news.html</loc> 

  <lastmod>2005-10-19</lastmod> 

  <changefreq>hourly</changefreq> 

  <priority>0.5</priority> 

  </url>

<url>

  <loc>http://www.ThisIsMySite.ca/aboutus.html</loc> 

  <lastmod>2005-10-19</lastmod> 

  <changefreq>monthly</changefreq> 

  <priority>0.5</priority> 

  </url>

<url>

  <loc>http://www.ThisIsMySite.ca/contact.us</loc> 

  <lastmod>2005-10-19</lastmod> 

  <changefreq>weekly</changefreq> 

  <priority>0.5</priority> 

  </url>

  </urlset>

If you are looking for a Google Sitemap Generator, you can go to http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/ and it will tell you what is needed to be done to create your sitemap.

Is it still essential to offer a site map to users in addition
to an XML sitemap?

Will your website be penalized if all the URLs all have the same priority?