How to install and configure the Google XML Sitemaps plugin for WordPress

Installing the Google XML Sitemaps plugin for WordPress is covered in this article. Search engines find it simpler to index a website’s content when it has an XML sitemap.

Despite the plugin’s name, “Google XML Sitemaps,” Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines may also use the XML sitemap index that it creates.

Installing Google XML Sitemaps

To install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress site as the administrator.
2. In the left-hand pane, click Plugins.
3. Click Add New.
4. In the Search text box, type google xml sitemaps, and then click Search Plugins.
5. In the Name column, locate Google XML Sitemaps, and then click Details.There are several plugins with similar names. To confirm that you have selected the correct plugin, make sure that the plugin author is Arne Brachhold.
6. Click Install Now.
7. After WordPress finishes installing the plugin, click Activate Plugin.

Configuring Google XML Sitemaps

After you install the Google XML Sitemaps plugin, you can configure it. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your WordPress site as the administrator.
2. In the left-hand pane, click Settings, and then click XML-Sitemap. WordPress displays the URL for the sitemap file near the top of the page.
3. Under Basic Options, select the search engines that you want to notify of blog updates.
4. Under Sitemap Content, select the types of WordPress content that you want to include in the sitemap index.
5. Review the remaining default settings, which are suitable for most web sites, and make any necessary changes.There are many additional settings that you can use to more finely control how the sitemap is generated. For more information about all of these settings, please visit http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/help.
6. Click Update options.