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April 23, 2008 Edit: This mod is for Build A Niche Store (BANS) sites that are v1 or v2 only. BANS v3 includes a dynamic sitemap so there is no need to add this mod to v3+ sites.
You can help Google index your site by submitting a sitemap to them. The sitemap below is a dynamic sitemap, which means it automatically updates whenever you add a new store or content page. You probably already know that sitemaps are beneficial but if your sitemap isn’t dynamic then you have to update it whenever you add a new page to your site. And chances are good that you either won’t want to take the time to do this with every new page or you will forget.
This dynamic sitemap, created by BANS member WebMogul, is an excellent mod that will automatically update when you create new pages. Once you add the mod there is nothing more you need to do to have an up-to-date sitemap that you can submit to Google.
This sitemap is strictly for search engines and is not meant to be viewed by people. You can also add Mark’s sitemap, which is meant for people. It is ok to have both this dynamic sitemap and Mark’s sitemap on your sites together.
You can view WebMogul’s instructions and download the needed files here.
My instructions to add a dynamic sitemap to your site: |
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Step One
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| Go to WebMogul’s web site and download the files needed for this mod. | |
| Step Two | |
| Upload the sitemap.php file to your site’s root folder (click here to read my opinion of the best FTP client). You will upload it to where your site’s index.php page is located. | |
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Step Three
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| Go to the .htaccess file (click here if you don’t know how to do this). | |
| Save a copy of the original code (click here for instructions on how to do this). | |
| Copy and paste the contents of htaccess-changes.txt BELOW the RewriteRule .* - [L] tag. | |
| Save changes and view site for errors | |
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Step Four
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| Verify that the dynamic sitemap works by viewing the URL where the sitemap is located. It will be something like http://www.YourSiteURL.com/sitemap.xml. | |
| Potential Problem : When I first did this mod I found that my sitemap wasn’t accurate. There were many pages missing. It turned out I had previously created and uploaded a sitemap.xml page and this older sitemap was overwriting the one I was now trying to create. | |
| I resolved this by deleting the sitemap.php from my server and starting from scratch at step two above. | |
| You can tell you are looking at WebMogul’s dynamic sitemap if the top of your dynamic sitemap says: | |
| <!– Generated by WebMogul’s BANS sitemap generator: http://mogul.webmogulenterprises.com –> | |
| The color and alignment of this message may vary but not the wording. | |
| Step Five | |
| Log in to your Google Webmaster Tools account. (If you don’t yet have one you can get one at Google Webmaster Tools.) Submit your dynamic sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools. | |
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Step Six
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| Add the dynamic sitemap to your robots.txt (click here if you don’t yet have a robots.txt). Instructions to add your dynamic sitemap to your robots.txt are located here. | |
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done
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Rochelle

Rochelle
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