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Boost Blogger SEO: Add Your Sitemap in Simple Steps

Boost Blogger SEO: Add Your Sitemap in Simple Steps

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Estimated reading time: 7-9 minutes

Are you a dedicated Blogger user looking to elevate your blog's presence on search engines? Then understanding and implementing a proper sitemap is crucial for boosting your Blogger SEO. A sitemap acts as a roadmap for search engines like Google and Bing, guiding their bots to discover all your valuable content – from the newest posts to those hidden gems from years ago – ensuring nothing gets overlooked during the crawling process. This comprehensive guide will walk you through the simple steps to create and add a sitemap to your Blogger blog, significantly improving its indexability and overall SEO performance.

Key Takeaways for Boosting Blogger SEO with a Sitemap

  • Default Blogger Sitemaps are Limited: The native Atom RSS feed in Blogger only includes your most recent posts (historically 26, later 500, now 150 URLs per map), potentially leaving older content unindexed.
  • XML Sitemaps are Essential for Full Indexing: A complete XML ssitemap ensures all your blog posts and pages are presented to search engines, drastically improving discoverability.
  • Easy Generation with Online Tools: Dedicated Blogger sitemap generators can automatically create the necessary XML code for your entire blog, even for those with custom domains.
  • Integrate via Custom robots.txt: The generated XML sitemap code is easily pasted into Blogger's "Custom robots.txt" settings, making it discoverable by all major search engines.
  • Google Search Console (Webmaster Tools) Offers Deeper Insights: Submitting your sitemap directly to Google Search Console provides detailed indexing status and error reports, offering a more granular control over your blog's visibility on Google.
  • HTML Sitemaps are for Users, XML for Search Engines: Understand the distinction; HTML sitemaps aid user navigation, while XML sitemaps are specifically for search engine crawlers and directly impact SEO.

Table of Contents

Understanding Sitemaps and Their Role in Blogger SEO

At its core, an XML sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages, posts, and other content on your website. Think of it as a comprehensive directory for search engine robots. When these bots crawl your site, they use this sitemap to understand its structure and discover pages they might otherwise miss. For Blogger SEO, this is incredibly vital, as a well-structured sitemap ensures that search engines can efficiently index every piece of content, leading to better visibility in search results and ultimately, more targeted traffic to your blog.

The Problem with Default Blogger Sitemaps

While Blogger automatically generates an Atom RSS feed, it has a significant limitation: it typically only includes a certain number of your most recent blog posts. Historically, this limit has varied, from 26 posts to batches of 500, and more recently, sources indicate a limit of 150 URLs per map. This means that if your blog has been around for a while and boasts a rich archive of content, many of your older, valuable posts may never be discovered or indexed by search engines. This oversight can severely impact your Blogger SEO, as potential readers won't find your older articles through organic search.

Google accepts sitemaps in XML, RSS, or Atom formats. They recommend use both XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds for optimal crawling. The default atom RSS feed of any Blogger blog will have only the most recent blog posts. That’s a limitation because some of your older blog pages, that are missing in the default XML sitemap file, may never get indexed in search engines. There’s however a simple solution to fix this problem.

Generating Your XML Sitemap for Blogger

The good news is that there’s a straightforward solution to overcome Blogger's default sitemap limitations. You can generate a complete XML sitemap that encompasses all your blog posts, regardless of their publication date. This method works for both standard .blogspot.com addresses and custom domains hosted on Blogger.

Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Use a reliable Sitemap Generator: Tools like the Sitemap Generator by Labnol or ctrlq.org/blogger/ are specifically designed for Blogger. Open one of these generators in your web browser.
  2. Enter Your Blog URL: Carefully type the full address of your Blogger blog into the provided field (e.g., https://yourblogname.blogspot.com/ or https://www.yourcustomdomain.com/). Ensure you include the "https://" prefix. Some generators explicitly ask you not to include it, so read the instructions on the tool carefully.
  3. Generate and Copy the Sitemap: Click the "Generate Sitemap" button. The tool will process your blog and instantly create the XML sitemap code. Copy this entire text to your clipboard. These generators work by splitting your posts into batches (e.g., 500 posts per batch) and creating multiple XML feeds, ensuring every post is covered.

Adding Your Sitemap to Blogger via Custom robots.txt

Once you have your complete XML sitemap code, the next step is to integrate it into your Blogger settings. This tells search engines where to find your comprehensive sitemap file.

  1. Navigate to Blogger Settings: Log in to your Blogger.com dashboard.
  2. Access Search Preferences: Go to Settings → Search preferences.
  3. Enable Custom robots.txt: In the "Crawling and indexing" section, find the "Custom robots.txt" option and click "Edit". Select "Yes" to enable it.
  4. Paste Your Sitemap Code: A text box will appear. Paste the entire XML sitemap code you copied from the generator into this box.
  5. Save Changes: Click "Save changes".

And that's it! Search engines will now automatically discover your XML sitemap files through your robots.txt file. You won’t need to manually "ping" them.

Submitting Your Sitemap to Google Search Console (Optional, but Recommended)

While adding your sitemap to robots.txt is effective, submitting it directly to Google Search Console (formerly Webmaster Tools) offers additional benefits, including detailed indexing reports and error notifications for your Blogger SEO efforts.

  1. Access Google Search Console: If you haven't already, add and verify your Blogger blog in Google Search Console.
  2. Go to Sitemaps: From the dashboard, select your blog property. In the left-hand menu, navigate to Indexing → Sitemaps.
  3. Add a New Sitemap: In the "Add a new sitemap" section, you’ll typically enter just the path to your sitemap relative to your domain. If you've used an external generator, it might provide a format like atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500. For Blogger's built-in sitemaps, you would submit sitemap.xml and sitemap-pages.xml. Google also suggests using atom.xml with ?redirect=false for FeedBurner users.
  4. Submit: Click "Submit".

Google will then attempt to crawl your sitemap. You can monitor its status in Search Console to see how many URLs have been submitted and indexed. This direct submission can help Google discover new content faster, though Google states it doesn’t guarantee use, it can only benefit your Blogger SEO.

XML vs. HTML Sitemaps: A Key Distinction for Blogger SEO

It’s important for Blogger SEO to understand that there are different types of sitemaps. When we talk about improving search engine visibility, we are primarily referring to XML sitemaps. These are machine-readable files designed specifically for search engine bots to efficiently crawl and index your content.

HTML sitemaps, on the other hand, are designed for human users. They typically present a visual, categorized list of your blog's content, often found in the footer of large websites. While they can aid user navigation, they have little direct impact on SEO. Furthermore, HTML sitemaps on Blogger don't automatically update, meaning you'd have to manually re-generate and replace them every time you publish a new post – a tedious and largely inefficient task for SEO purposes when compared to the automated benefits of XML sitemaps.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the purpose of an XML sitemap for a Blogger blog?

An XML sitemap serves as a comprehensive directory for search engines, listing all your blog posts and pages. This helps search engine bots discover and index all your content, especially older posts that might be missed by Blogger's default Atom feeds, significantly boosting your blog's SEO.

Do I need to generate a new sitemap every time I publish a new post?

No, not if you're using a sitemap generator that creates multiple feeds in batches. When you add the generated sitemap entries to your robots.txt, search engines will periodically revisit these URLs, which are dynamically updated to include new posts. If using Google Search Console, once the sitemap is submitted, Google will recrawl it regularly.

Will adding a sitemap to Blogger penalize my search rankings?

Absolutely not. Google explicitly states that you will never be penalized for submitting multiple sitemaps or having one. An XML sitemap can only benefit your Blogger SEO by ensuring better content discovery and indexing, not harm it.

Can I use this method for custom domains hosted on Blogger?

Yes, this method is valid for both regular Blogger blogs (e.g., .blogspot.com addresses) and self-hosted Blogger blogs that use a custom domain (e.g., yourcustomdomain.com).

Sources

  • The XML Sitemap file is like a directory of all web pages that exist on your website or blog. Google, Bing and other search engines can use these sitemap files to discover pages on your site that their search bots may have otherwise missed during regular crawling.
  • A complete XML sitemap file should mention all pages of a site but that’s not the case if your blog is hosted on the Blogger or blogspot platform.
  • Google accepts sitemaps in XML, RSS, or Atom formats. They recommend use both XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds for optimal crawling.
  • The default atom RSS feed of any Blogger blog will have only the most recent blog posts – see example. That’s a limitation because some of your older blog pages, that are missing in the default XML sitemap file, may never get indexed in search engines. There’s however a simple solution to fix this problem.
  • This section is valid for both regular Blogger blogs (that have a blogspot.com address) and also the self-hosted Blogger blogs that use a custom domain (like postsecret.com).
  • Here’s what you need to do to expose your blog’s complete site structure to search engines with the help of an XML sitemap.
  • 1. Open the Sitemap Generator and type the full address of your Blogger blog.
  • 2. Click the Generate Sitemap button and this tool will instantly create the XML file with your sitemap. Copy the entire text to your clipboard.
  • 3. Next, go to your Blogger.com dashboard, navigate to Settings –> Search Preferences, enable Custom robots.txt option (available in the Crawling and Indexing section). Paste the XML sitemap here and save your changes.
  • And we are done. Search engines will automatically discover your XML sitemap files via the robots.txt file and you don’t have to ping them manually.
  • Internally, the XML sitemap generator counts all the blog posts that are available in your Blogger blog. It then splits the posts in batches of 500 posts each and generates multiple XML feed for each batch. Thus search engines will be able to discover every single post on your blog since it would be part of one of these XML sitemaps.
  • PS: If you have switched from Blogger to WordPress, it still makes sense to submit XML sitemaps of your old Blogspot blog as that will aid search engines discover your new WordPress blog posts and pages.
  • A question I get from a lot from bloggers is “How do I know that Google sees my site?” And the short answer is: as long as you have the privacy settings set correctly (In your Blogger Dashboard under Settings >> Basic) Google can find you.
  • For the VAST MAJORITY OF BLOGGERS, REPEATEDLY GENERATING AND SUBMITTING A SITEMAP WILL HAVE LITTLE TO NO IMPACT ON YOUR SEARCH RANKING. I DO advise bloggers to submit an initial sitemap once they have optimized all their content, just to give crawlers a little push to index your site, but after the initial submission it is definitely a diminishing return to submit another.
  • There are actually more than one type of sitemap. When most people are talking about sitemaps that have to do with SEO, they are talking about XML sitemaps. This is the type of sitemap I’ll be explaining, but I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the other type of sitemap.
  • Another type of sitemap is the HTML sitemap. This is like an index of all your blog content. It LITERALLY takes your post list and creates an HTML list of posts which you can modify to become a menu type list. You often see these in the bottom bar of large sites.
  • One of the biggest drawbacks to HTML sitemaps is that they do NOT automatically update. Every time you add a new post you would need to generate a new sitemap and replace you old one.
  • XML and RSS/Atom sitemaps are a different thing entirely. XML file types (Extensible Markup Language) are both human and machine readable. You can generate a sitemap and submit it to search engines and they will use it as a “roadmap” for crawlers to index content on your site. (Google actually doesn’t guarantee it will use your sitemap, but it can only benefit you to have one just in case!) You also can generate an updated map by having Google crawl a map based on your RSS feed. Google suggests that you use BOTH!
  • Blogger is a very unique platform in that the generation of sitemaps is extremely simple to do. In 2016 Blogger began automatically generating XML sitemaps like this: http://www.YOUR-SITE-NAME.com/sitemap.xml and for your non-post pages, make sure the map is: http://www.YOUR-SITE-NAME.com/sitemap-pages.xml
  • The problem is that the default map only contains the last 26 posts but we want ALL our pages indexed.
  • Blogger Sitemap Generator
  • IN 2016 THE SINGLE SITEMAP PAGE LIMIT FROM AN RSS FEED WENT FROM 500 TO 150 SO MAKE SURE YOUR URLS ARE ENDING IN "150" OR ELSE YOU ARE SUBMITTING MAPS THAT WILL NOT BE COMPLETE!
  • To submit your sitemap via the Robots.txt box in your dashboard (Under Settings >> Search Preferences) you just need to copy the following code and replace “your-blog-url” with your blog URL and the information between the asterisks with the atom feed sitemap code you generated above.
  • Example code: User-agent: * Disallow: /search Allow: / Sitemap: http://YOUR-BLOG-URL.com/sitemap.xml Sitemap: http://YOUR-BLOG-URL.com/sitemap-pages.xml Sitemap: http://YOUR-BLOG-URL.COM/*atom.xml-blah-blah-blah=150* Sitemap: http://YOUR-BLOG-URL.Com/*atom.xml-blah-blah-blah=150*
  • When I submit my sitemaps I always use the Webmaster Tools sitemap submission. If you don’t have a webmaster account set up or haven’t added your blogs, you definitely should.
  • To submit a sitemap, select your blog from your properties list and select crawl >> sitemaps. In the upper right corner is an orange button to submit a new sitemap.
  • A pop up box will appear and you need to paste in the sitemap url you generated in the sitemap generator NOT INCLUDING "http://www.yourblogname.com/"
  • For the XML sitemap you want to ONLY paste in "sitemap.xml" and for the RSS feed maps you only want to paste in “atom.xml blah blah blah” and hit SUBMIT.
  • Once you have submitted them all, you want to refresh the page in order to see if the sitemap was valid. On the bottom of the page it will show you a list of sitemaps as well as how many pages have been submitted and indexed for each one.
  • The XML sitemap file acts as a directory for all of your website's or blog's web pages and posts. These sitemap files can be used by Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Baidu, DuckDuckGo, and other search engines to find pages and posts on your site that their search bots may have missed during routine crawling.
  • The XML Sitemap Generator » counts all blog posts in your Blogger blog internally. The posts are then divided into batches of 500 positions, with multiple XML feeds produced for each batch. Since every single post on your blog will be included in one of these XML sitemaps, search engines will be able to find it.
  • Google introduced the Sitemap 0.84 Protocol, which was created to leverage the XML format, back in 2005.
  • A sitemap is a method of classifying a website, indicating the URLs and the information included inside each component. In the past, sitemaps were largely designed with website visitors in mind. However, Google's XML format was created specifically for search engines, making it possible for them to locate the content more quickly and effectively.
  • Contrary to popular belief, XML sitemaps are not a tool for search engine optimization. Although it has no bearing on rankings, it does enable search engines to provide more precise ranks and queries.
  • Due to the widespread use of the XML protocol, website developers are no longer required to provide unique sitemaps for every search engine. One file may be produced for submission, and after modifications have been made to the website, it can be updated.
  • As of a recent change to the sitemaps protocol, it is now possible to inform all search engines of the position of your XML sitemap by adding an entry to your robots.txt file. Ask.com has also started to support XML sitemaps.
  • Sitemap: http://www.examplesite.com/sitemap.xml
  • The Blogger Sitemap tool will create a complete XML sitemap for your Blogger blog that includes all your blog entries, not just the most recent ones.
  • Search engines will find your blog content and better index your blog with the use of XML Sitemaps. All major search engines, including Google, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and Bing, support sitemaps.
  • Blogger blogs now automatically reroute to regional Blogspot domains, however for sitemap generation, you must specify the main .com URL. Only blogs that are hosted on Blogger.com can use the embed function. For blogs using custom domains with Blogspot, it can also create XML sitemaps.
  • A Sitemap helps your Search Engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing etc. to easily Crawl and Index your Website to make it more visible.
  • Sitemap for your Blogger Blog is very Important. This has many benefits, like easier navigation and better visibility by search engines and it gives the opportunity to inform search engines immediately about any changes on your blog plus targeted traffic to your blog. And Moreover this makes your Cool Blog SEO Friendly.
  • Your Blogger Sitemap must consists of all your cool blog posts, but that's not the case with default Blogger Sitemap. Default XML sitemap of any Blogger blog will have only 26 most recent blog posts.
  • Go To Blogger >> Select Settings >> Search Preferences >> Enable -Custom robots.txt >> Select Yes >> And Paste the following code inside it User-agent: * Disallow: /search Allow: / Sitemap: http://www.ebloggertips.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=500 Sitemap: http://www.ebloggertips.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=501&max-results=500 Sitemap: http://www.ebloggertips.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1001&max-results=500 Sitemap: http://www.ebloggertips.blogspot.com/atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1501&max-results=500 Now Replace www.ebloggertips.blogspot.com with your blog's URL.
  • To Check, if Sitemap is Working or Not :- Add /robots.txt after your blog url (example:- http://www.ebloggertips.com/robots.txt) And you are Done ! Search engines will automatically discover your XML sitemap via the robots.txt file.

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