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There are only a couple of plugins out there for automatic sitemap generation on Wordpress, that really serves the purpose. While generating a sitemap is not that all a big deal, setting it right with the right options does make a nig difference to your SEO scores. Not everyone is aware of the right settings for a sitemap, many still thinks that adding a sitemap is enough to take care of things.

Let me try and explain to you what could be possibly the right settings for generating a sitemap for your WordPress blog, and why its essential.

Today among all the sitemap generator plugins for WordPress we have, the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator Plugin is the best one available (For HTML sitemaps), because it has more control over sitemap generation and it helps us to trim down the sitemap to an effective one devoid of the frills. And Google Sitemap Generator by Arne Brachchold for XML sitemaps.

Some things to keep in mind before generating a sitemap

- A sitemap is like a route-map to the search bots. It doesn’t mean that you have to put in everything that you have on your website on a sitemap.
- Search bots will find links to your pages and will anyway crawl them, even without a sitemap (sometimes), so when you have a sitemap, make sure you add some value to it by adding in some additional info.
- Sitemap doesn’t mean a huge set of links on an HTML page, its an XML file often found at the root folder.
- Once you have a sitemap, make sure you let the crawlers know about it, either through the Webmaster console or the Robots.txt.
- Not listing a post/article on the sitemap will not make the crawlers stay away from it.

Making the right settings for the Google WordPress sitemap plugin

Here is an example of optimum setting for the Google sitemap generator.

1. Uncheck the – Add sitemap URL to robots.txt

If this is checked, the plugin will rewrite your existing robots.txt or create problems with it if its already existing. Uncheck this and add the following syntax to your Robots.txt

Sitemap: http://www.yourblogurlhere.com/sitemap.xml

2. Always check the template URL.

The sitemap generator follows a template which is by default in the plugin directory. If you have made changes to the plugin directory name/moved it, this will not function properly. So while checking the “default” option, make sure the path is right, or else you will get a broken sitemap.

3. Uncheck the MySQL standard mode unless absolutely necessary

This if checked will take a lot of memory on your server, so uncheck it unless you have MySQL errors showing up on the sitemap.

4. Limit the number of posts in sitemap

The maximum number of files that can be listed on a sitemap is 50,000 beyond which you have to split up the sitemap and use a “mother sitemap” to link to the “satellite sitemaps”. So unless you have a very large website with lots of pages (above 50k), leave it as such.

5. In Building mode, check rebuild sitemap, if you make changes to the contents of your blog

This will ensure that every time you post/edit a new article, a new sitemap will be generated.

Location of the Sitemap file and Post Priorities

As seen in the above image, check the “Do not use automatic priority calculation”. We will give the priorities for the sitemap contents in the next step.

Also, the location for the sitemap should be the root folder ex:- yourblog.com/sitemap.xml

Click on automatic detection and give the file name as “sitemap.xml”. Using a custom location will complicate things.

Setting Content Priorities for the Sitemap

In the priorities box, set the maximum priority for homepage > followed by posts and pages > then equal priority for all other contents like category and tags.

1 means high priority and lesser values lesser priorities.

Having a higher priority will suggest the crawlers to index those files more often with more importance. However this might get over ridden by incoming link value.

Setting crawling Frequencies for the sitemap contents

In the change frequencies box, make sure that all the values are according to your normal change rates. If you have a weekly posting cycle, change the posts to “Weekly” and if you have a daily cycle, change it to “Daily”. The idea is to give a hint to the search crawlers as to when the content on the site will be changed and what will be changed frequently. But this too will be overridden by the crawlers own judgement, so this setting is only a hint.

That should wrap up some basic sitemap settings, make sure you check your sitemap is fully working and not broken. If it is, the first thing to do is change the settings back to default and rebuild the sitemap.

Guest post from Michael Martine. Michael runs Remarkablogger, where you’ll find tons of free articles, videos, and audio on getting results from your blog: more money and more traffic. Michael is also the author of WordPress SEO Secrets, the most complete step by step guide to WordPress SEO. You can follow Michael on twitter at @remarkablogger.

Getting a domian name, naming your blog, and coming up with a tagline can feel like tough decisions, but they don’t have to be. If you have a good idea of what you’re going to blog about, everything is easier. You have two main considerations: search engine optimization (SEO) and branding/positioning.

Search Engine Optimization

As much as we’d love to think that if you just come up with a clever, catchy blog name, the world will beat a linkpath to your URL, it just ain’t so. People will find you via search. The question is, with what keywords will they find you, and how high in the rankings will your blog be? You want the main subject of your blog to be in the domain name if possible. If you’re a wedding planner in Vermont with a blog, then vermontweddingplanner.com would rock. If you’re a change management consultant, then “changemangement” had better be part of your domain.

Branding/Positioning

Although WordPress SEO is important, it’s not always be possible to get a search-optimized domain name. Or, you may already have a domain, and you’re not about to change it. That’s okay. Branding and positioning are also vitally important. Let’s take the change management consulting example again. Say their company is actually called Move it 4ward. If so, moveit4ward.com would be a great domain from the branding perspective. As long as they had a major page in the blog like moveit4ward.com/changemanagement/, that would work nicely.

Blog Title and Tagline

Your blog’s title doesn’t have to be the same as the domain, but again, including major keywords in it will help, not hurt. The more specific a niche your blog is about, the more narrowly you can title the blog. If our Move it 4ward people did other kinds of management consulting besides change management, then they wouldn’t want to single out any particular type as a primary home page keyword. “Management Consultants” would be an ideal add-on to the company name in the blog title. Why? Because that’s what people who are looking to hire a management consultant are going to search for. If you go for branding in the blog title, then make sure you use primary search keywords in the blog’s tagline. Better yet, if you’re using WordPress, get a plugin or blog theme (such as Thesis) that allows you to have a separation between the blog’s on-page title from the HTML title tags. Both are important in search, but search engines pay more attention to the title tag than people do, and people pay more attention to the headline’s words on the page. I can use my own blog as an example of this. The branded name is Remarkablogger, but the tagline has the keywords “blog consutling” and “coaching” in it. My HTML title tags are also search-optimized separately, thanks to the All-in-One SEO Pack plugin.

Keywords are Important, but they’re not Everything

The main thing you should take away from this post is that while keywords are very important, they’re not everything. Branding and positioning via the blog domain, title, and tagline are also important. Getting both together is the ideal if you can.

This is search engine optimization tip number twenty five in our continuing series of Search Engine Optimization tips. All of our SEO tips are meant to be pretty specific in nature, should not take too long to read and review, and will be rather “short and sweet” and directly to the point. This search engine optimization tip has to do with something that you might have forgotten to do: update your copyright date.

Not following along with our Search Engine Optimization Tips? You might want to take a look at the recap of search engine optimization tips I posted. There are a lot more search engine optimization tips coming in the future. In fact, to keep up with these SEO tips you might want to subscribe to our SEO RSS Feed.

This search engine optimization tip is probably something that you probably forgot about, which we actually need to do at the beginning of each year: update the copyright data on all of the web pages on your web site. This actually does have to do with search engine optimization, and I will explain that in a minute.

Technically speaking, the date of the copyright indicates the year the content was created or published. For articles or blog posts on your web site, I typically recommend that the date when it was published is actually added towards the top of the article or blog post (depending on your blog’s template, it might be included near the title of the blog post, under it, or in a sidebar somewhere. It might actually be located in the URL, as well, especially if it is a blog post. But, the actual copyright date should appear somewhere it your web site’s footer.

For example, if you look at the footer of our site, you’ll see something like this:

As you can see, we have updated our date to 2009. Take a look at your web site. Look to see if you have updated your copyright date. If you have not updated it yet (maybe it’s even a few years old?), then I suggest that you update it. Why? Well, here is where the search engine optimization part comes in: it forces you to review your site’s web pages and, if you update the web page manually, then you will have updated every page on your web site: the search engines will notice this change and they may re-crawl your web site as a result. There’s a “last modified date” on each of the web pages on your site: and if it’s updated then it might cause the search engines to respider that web page, especially if they haven’t in a while.

The copyright notice, and how it’s displayed on your web site, really can vary; the style that you use is really up to you. In fact, if you take a look at here, you will see several different various of the copyright notice:

copyright © 2008 Microsoft Corporation. Release: Thursday, February 7, 2008.

copyright © 2006 by Microsoft Press Deutschland

copyright 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

© copyright 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

There are so many different variations that it’s really up to your particular writing style and the style of your web site: and, most importantly, if you have the room in your footer for a long copyright notice or you need a shorter one.

For search engine optimization purposes, though, you might consider changing the length of your copyright notice and adding or changing the link you may (or may not have) in your copyright. Add a longer or a shorter copyright notice in the footer depending on what you currently are using: if you had a short copyright notice, then add a longer one. This will change the file size of your web pages, which may cause the search engines to see the updated file(s) on your web site. Some of the search engines prefer “fresh” content, and you may be rewarded for the change.

Also, for search engine optimization purposes, you might update the footer of your web pages to include a link to your site’s home page along with your copyright. If you mention your company name in the copyright notice, consider adding linking that either to your web site’s home page or even an “about us” or “about our company” web page on your web site. This additional link may help your search engine rankings.

So, updating the copyright notice on all of the web pages on your web site not only helps your web site look like it’s been updated, updating your copyright notice might the file size of your web page. It might also cause you to take a look at your web pages to see if the copyright has been updated on all pages on your web site. And, looking at your web pages, manually, to review them like this, might reveal some other areas or issues that you have on your site that needs attention.

• SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool - tool shows top keyword phrases from Wordtracker.
• Wordtracker Free Keywords - free keyword suggestions from Wordtracker. Wordtracker also has a more advanced paid version, and sells top keyword reports.
• Google AdWords Keyword Suggestion Tool - recommends keywords based on a keyword you enter or a URL you have the tool analyze
• Google Suggest Tool - shows frequently search for phrases starting with the words and letters in your query.
• Keyword Discovery - free keyword tool from Trellian. Trellian also has a more advanced paid version of Keyword Discovery.
• Microsoft Keyword Forecast - shows predicted Microsoft search impression count and historical trends.
• Wordze - nice for generating decently large keyword lists quickly and inserting them into paid search campaigns.
• Yahoo! Search Marketing - Yahoo! has a keyword research tool inside their platform. It is really bad marketing of them to only have the new tool accessible inside their platform, while neglecting their old keyword tool.

Keyword Valuation Tools

• Google Traffic Estimator - shows the estimated bids prices and ad clicks for the top ranked AdWords ad. Allows you to check for [exact match], “phrase match”, or broad match.
• Google Search Based Keyword Tool - shows keyword search volume estimates and keyword values…by keyword, site, or category.

Blog profits Blueprint

Nevermind if you want to make money with your blog or not, this excellent 54 pages ebook, written by Yaro Starak, contains all tips you’ll need for reaching audience, gaining rss suscribers and the techniques to start making money with your blog.
Yaro explains the concept which made his blog successful: Pillar articles, blog marketing, blog promotion…
Source

WordPress SEO

Provided by Jai from Blog Oh Blog, WordPress SEO is a short ebook dedicated –you guessed it– to SEO techniques on a WordPress blog. WordPress SEO is a crash course for all the people who are struggling to get better search engine results with their Wordpress blogs. In this e-book, you’ll see how to rapidly configure your Wordpress blog with maximum SEO benefits. Even Wordpress veterans can benefit from the tips as they might be missing out on a few points, so don’t hesitate to download it!
Source

Success with WordPress

In my opinion, every WordPress user should have read this book. Kyle Eslick, the author of the popular Hack WordPress blog, tells you about nearly everything about WordPress, from the very basics to alternative uses: WordPress as a CMS, as a photoblog, etc. Success with WordPress also contains a very nice chapter about blog monetization, with useful tips and techniques.
Source

Deep Secrets of Successful Blogging - learn from 30 experts

This free ebook is a compilation of 30 articles, written by 30 of the World’s top bloggers, as such as Darren Rowse from Problogger, and covers almost everything about the art of blogging.
Source

Killer Domains

This isn’t exactly an ebook about blogging, but every blogger or internet people needs one or more domain name(s). If you think finding an available good .com domain is almost impossible theses days, you should definitely gets your hands on this ebook, written by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips.
I had reviewed this book some weeks ago, you can read the review here.
Source

The Zen of Blogging

This is the story of an aspiring blogger who sets out on a journey to discover the secrets of blogging. What will he find at the top of Mount Blogmore? Will he learn how to become a great blogger, or will he get his head cut off? You’ll have to read to find out!
A really nice free ebook which is based on the author’s own story: A guy discovering blogging, and teach himself how he can become a successfil blogger.
Source

A geek’s Guide To Promoting Yourself and Your Online Business in 140 Characters or Less with Twitter

I recently signed up on Twitter and just have a few followers, but I can already say that Twitter is very good for your blog and for staying tuned with your readers. This 48 pages ebook, available for free to download, will help you to understand why twitter is a powerful marketing tool, how to use it efficiently, and how to find your first followers.
Source

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2 http://www.dmoz.org 9
3 http://www.stpt.com/ 8
4 http://www.lii.org/pub/htdocs/home.htm 8
5 http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/ 8
6 http://www.blogwise.com/ 8
7 http://www.open-site.org 8
8 http://www.bloggernity.com 7
9 http://www.podcastzoom.com/ 7
10 http://www.blogrankings.com 7
11 http://www.bloguniverse.com 7
12 http://www.femina.com 7
13 http://www.gogreece.com 7
14 http://www.lanic.utexas.edu 7
15 http://www.polishworld.com 7
16 http://www.nationaldirectory.com/ 7
17 http://www.sacentral.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm 7
18 http://www.worldhot.com/ 7
19 http://www.123india.com/ 7
20 http://www.kinderstart.com 7
21 http://www.portal.eatonweb.com 7
22 http://businessweek.directorym.com 7
23 http://www.elib.org/ 7
24 http://www.ezilon.com/ 6
25 http://www.yourwebloghere.com 6
26 http://www.epooch.com/ 6
27 http://www.christiansunite.com/ 6
28 http://www.toronto1.biz/ 6
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32 http://www.nzs.com/ 6
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34 http://linkcentre.com 6
35 http://www.info-listings.com/ 6
36 http://www.zensearch.com/ 6
37 http://www.bluedir.com/ 6
38 http://www.imegamall.com/ 6
39 http://payvand.com/yp/ 6
40 http://www.globalgateway.com/ 6
41 http://www.canlinks.net/ 6
42 http://www.albanywebsites.com 6
43 http://searchsight.com/ 6
44 http://www.siteranking.com/ 6
45 http://findingblog.com/ 6
46 http://link-ads.com/ 6
47 http://www.directoryforce.com/ 6
48 http://www.gimpsy.com 6
49 http://www.iguide.co.il/ 6
50 http://www.webworldindex.com 6
51 http://www.canadopedia.com/ 6
52 http://indiafocus.indiainfo.com/ 6
53 http://www.americasbest.com/ 6
54 http://www.great-british-pages.co.uk/ 6
55 http://www.somuch.com/ 6
56 http://www.illumirate.com/ 5
57 http://www.christianlinks.com/ 5
58 http://www.click2directory.com 5
59 http://www.axelis.com/ 5
60 http://www.eurofind.biz 5
61 http://www.abilogic.com 5
62 http://www.gandalfdir.com/ 5
63 http://www.josh.nu 5
64 http://www.linketeria.com/ 5
65 http://www.londinium.com 5
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68 http://www.mavicanet.com/directory/eng/ 5
69 http://www.poddys.com/ 5
70 http://www.pedsters-planet.co.uk/ 5
71 http://directory.portalit.net/ 5
72 http://www.tsection.com/ 5
73 http://www.addurl-free.com/ 5
74 http://www.worldsbiggestdirectory.com/ 5
75 http://www.777media.com/ 5
76 http://www.buzznick.com/ 5
77 http://www.directory.ldmstudio.com 5
78 http://www.evenseek.com 5
79 http://www.forage.in 5
80 http://www.global-weblinks.com/ 5
81 http://www.network-room.com/links/ 5
82 http://www.rdirectory.net 5
83 http://search.able2know.com/ 5
84 http://www.siteinclusion.com/ 5
85 http://www.mddccommunity.com/ 5
86 http://slsites.com/ 5
87 http://www.finditireland.com/ 5
88 http://www.dirdir.info/ 5
89 http://www.my-kerala.com/ 5
90 http://www.a-free-directory.info/ 5
91 http://www.webdirectory-submit.com/ 5
92 http://www.my-india.net/ 5
93 http://www.dramba.com/ 5
94 http://www.worthwhilelink.com/ 5
95 http://allfreethings.com/ 5
96 http://www.eu-directweb.com/ 5
97 http://directory.lonelyway.com/ 5
98 http://www.uk-web-index.co.uk/ 5
99 http://www.infignos.com/ 5
100 http://www.singaporesearchengine.com/ 5
101 http://searchwarp.com 5
102 http://www.zeezo.com/ 5
103 http://sonicquest.com/ 5
104 http://www.aryawat.com/ 5
105 http://www.skoobe.biz/ 5
106 http://www.busybits.com/ 5
107 http://www.unifieddirectory.com 5
108 http://dir.ukwizz.com 5
109 http://www.top5jamaica.com/ 5
110 http://www.thetopsites.net/ 5
111 http://www.trycanada.com/ 5
112 http://www.allshops.com/ 5
113 http://www.anyapex.com/ 5
114 http://www.jtrotta.com/ 5
115 http://www.indiabook.com/ 5
116 http://www.resourcehelp.com/ 5
117 http://www.pleaseretrieve.com/ 5
118 http://www.moldova.com/ 5
119 http://www.annasinkovska.com/fashion-directory/ 5
120 http://www.infotiger.com 5
121 http://www.christianwebsite.com/search 5
122 http://www.lybot.com 5
123 http://www.4ppl.com/directory 5
124 http://www.directorylist.org/ 5
125 http://www.spotjockey.co.uk/ 5
126 http://www.turnpike.net/ 5
127 http://www.searchtheweb.com 5
128 http://www.typicallyspanish.com/html/english/ 5
129 http://www.aha.co.za/ 5
130 http://www.zielony.pl/ 5
131 http://www.amray.com/ 5
132 http://www.best-websites.net/ 5
133 http://en.wedoo.com/ 5
134 http://www.url.biz 5
135 http://www.downunderindex.com/ 5
136 http://www.dxpnet.com/riot/ 5
137 http://www.data-spain.com/ 5
138 http://directory.bizhat.com/ 5
139 http://www.burf.com 5
140 http://www.landoflinks.com/ 5
141 http://www.hedir.com/ 5
142 http://www.submiturlhere.com/ 5
143 http://www.worldsiteindex.com/ 5
144 http://www.dhundo.com/ 5
145 http://www.infovisual.info/directory/index.php 5
146 http://www.hotlaunch.com 4
147 http://www.add-link.info/ 4
148 http://www.am-directory.com/ 4
149 http://www.apexoo.com/directory/ 4
150 http://www.abifind.com 4
151 http://www.adverts.gr/grsearch/pages/ 4
152 http://www.businesscatalogonline.com/ 4
153 http://www.buildturkey.com 4
154 http://www.biblestudynotes.org/links/ 4
155 http://buycanuck.com/ 4
156 http://www.bugsdirectory.com 4
157 http://blue.daffodil.uk.com/directory/ 4
158 http://www.clasione.com/ 4
159 http://www.directory-free.com/ 4
160 http://www.directoryon.info/ 4
161 http://www.directorystorm.com/ 4
162 http://www.findwhatwhere.info/ 4
163 http://www.directorydelux.com/ 4
164 http://www.englandsportal.com 4
165 http://www.exoode.com/directory/ 4
166 http://www.floridadirectory.biz 4
167 http://www.friendlycanadian.com/search/ 4
168 http://www.fxdir.com/ 4
169 http://www.ir8.net/ 4
170 http://www.iconcave.com/partners/ 4
171 http://www.indexrated.com/ 4
172 http://www.look4business.org/ 4
173 http://www.listmyniche.com 4
174 http://www.linkengine.com 4
175 http://www.nintra.com/directory/index.pl 4
176 http://www.openhere.com/ 4
177 http://www.orangefish-directory.co.uk 4
178 http://www.robolink.co.uk 4
179 http://red-links.com/ 4
180 http://www.redjuniper.com/ 4
181 http://www.rndirectory.com 4
182 http://www.seekabove.com/ 4
183 http://www.searchmaryland.com 4
184 http://www.simpledir.com/ 4
185 http://www.spheri.com/ 4
186 http://www.sgtsearch.com/ 4
187 http://www.ShopShootah.com 4
188 http://www.thames-valley-business.co.uk 4
189 http://www.thesearchbrain.co.uk 4
190 http://www.thelocalweb.net 4
191 http://www.wura.co.uk/ 4
192 http://www.uudir.com/ 4
193 http://www.UKbest50.co.uk 4
194 http://www.urlshack.com 4
195 http://www.velendi.com/ 4
196 http://www.web-central.info 4
197 http://www.worldwidedirectory.org/ 4
198 http://www.wholeworld.com 4
199 http://www.weblinkdirectory.net/ 4
200 http://www.wahlinks.com/ 4