Sitemap Submission

Sitemaps, typically created as an XML file, define your blog’s structure. They list all of the contents of your blog, also pages. The main point is to help search engines understand exactly what your blog is about, so that it can properly rank your blog in search results. With that being said, having a sitemap is extremely important for proper blog indexing. Creating a sitemap is a simple process, for blogs it can to be atom.xml or rss.xml. After submitting, you can tell search engines where these files are located in your web account, and they’ll begin indexing your pages! The actual sitemap submission task is the easy part.

Google
Google has the nicest sitemap submission method around: it’s called Google Webmaster, and it’s a fully functional administration panel that you can use to manager all of your blogs. There’s hardly a webmaster around who doesn’t have a Google Webmaster account – it is an invaluable free service that lets you monitor your blogs, beyond what Analytics can do for your site statistics.
To submit a sitemap to Google, create a free Google Webmaster account. Add your blog directly on the front page, then click its link, and look for the “Sitemaps” link on the left bar. Click “Add sitemap” and follow the instructions. Type in the remainder of the URL atom.xml or rss.xml, save, and you’re done!

Yahoo
Submitting a blog to Yahoo is identical to that of Google Webmaster, as previously explained. You’ll have to create a free Yahoo account, from there, you can then visit Yahoo Site Explorer – a free user panel that manages your blogs and their sitemaps that will be listed on Yahoo’s search engine.
To submit your sitemaps to Yahoo, visit Yahoo Site Explorer and create a free account. Add your blog. Click the “Manage” button to the left of the website you’ve added. From there, type in the rest of the path that points to your sitemap file, and click “Add Feed.” Yahoo will then add your sitemap to its queue. (Note that Yahoo will not accept your sitemap until your site has been verified).

MSN.com
Many people are not aware that MSN.com also has its own version of the “Webmaster account” as seen on Google and Yahoo – probably because it is not very easy to find via a search engine search. It’s called MSN Webmaster Center, and you can simply add a blog URL and path to the XML file. MSN, like Google and Yahoo, also asks you to upload a file for blog verification, in which you’ll have to copy and paste some code into an XML file, and upload that file to the root directory.
To submit a sitemap to MSN.com, visit MSN Webmaster Center and create an MSN account. Add your blogs and point to their XML sitemap. Don’t forget to use MSN’s site verification feature!

Ask.com
Ask.com’s method of sitemap submission is a little more unorthodox to that of other search engines, of whom have their own management account centers. To submit your blog’s sitemap to Ask.com, simply visit the following URL (don’t forget to remove “yourdomain.com” and enter your blog’s URL/location to your “atom.xml” file):

http://submissions.ask.com/ping?sitemap=http%3A//www.yourdomain.com/atom.xml

It’s that simple. The instant you visit that link, your sitemap is in the queue.

Enjoy!

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