How to Create a SiteMap.xml in Homestead Sitebuilder and submit it to Google.

November 3, 2009 17 Comments

When I was in my elementary stages of using “Homestead SiteBuilder” It was a nightmare trying to figure out how to create a site map that Google would accept. I had to dye my hair after that project. Fortunately after many days of research, contacting help support and many other things I was FINALLY able to figure it out. (note: Homestead support was absolutely 0% help with this topic. I usually don’t have complaints about their support, however, when it came to SiteMaps, I received a whole bunch of “I don’t knows” and “pay this much and we can do it for you”. I was quite disappointed).

I have noticed a few websites that offer to show how to create a SiteMap for homestead site builder and properly submit it to Google FOR A PRICE… (bummer). Well, fortunately for you, the HOMESTEAD SEO PRO BLOG cares about the struggles and hard times that HS SiteBuilder users endure. Below I will explain the entire process FOR FREE, all I ask in return is that you continue to visit the Homestead SEO Pro Blog for future helpful articles.

HOW TO CREATE A SITEMAP FOR HOMESTEAD WEBSITE AND UPLOAD IT TO GOOGLE.

STEP 1:

Visit www.xml-sitemaps.com and follow the on screen directions to create your sitemap.xml. Once the generator is finished creating your sitemap.xml, Download it (by following on screen directions), save it to a folder or desktop where you will be able to find i;t because you will need it in a few minutes.

STEP 2:

We now need to get our sitemap uploaded to our Homestead Sitebuilder files. To do this, open up Homestead Sitebuilder and click on the “FILE MANAGER” tab on the left. You will see a button at the top that says “IMPORT”. Click on “Import” and browse for the sitemap that you just saved. Once you find the sitemap in your computer files, select it and click open. Your sitemap will now be added to your Homestead Sitebuilder files.

You will now need to click on the “UPLOAD” tab that is at the top (near the “Import” button). When the mini window opens up asking if you want to upload the entire site, click on upload.

Your sitemap is now uploaded to the internet.

STEP 3:

You now need to log into your google webmasters account. Visit http://www.google.com/webmasters and click on the “Sign in to webmaster tools” icon. If you have not yet added your website to google webmasters, you will need to do so. Click on the “Add Site” button and follow the instructions.

Once you add a site, you will need to verify that you are the owner of this site. Google will provide a verification HTML code that you will need to add to your website. To do so, go to your “Index” page in the Homestead Sitebuilder and on the right you will see 3 tabs (near the top) that say: Basic, Meta Tags and Advanced. Click on the advanced tab. In the advanced tab, you will see a large box (under the <HEAD> tag section) where you will be able to place HTML codes. You MUST place the Verification HTML code that google provides (in the google webmaster tools) inside this text box. NOTE: adding this code DOES NOT show up on your website. Once you add the HTML code that is provided by Google, you need to save and upload the index page.

Once you add the HTML code and save/upload the index page, go back to the google webmasters page and click on the “Verify” button. Google will search your source code for the verification HTML code and then confirm that your site is verified. If done correctly, Your site is now verified.

STEP 4:

Now we need to add your Sitemap to google webmaster. To do so, go inside the google webmasters website and make sure you are logged in. Click on the website that you just verified. Once it opens up the tools for your website, you will see an “Add Sitemap” button near the bottom left side of the page. Click on the “add sitemap” button and it will ask you to type in the sitemap URL. It should automatically have your website entered in followed by a /.

In the text box where you need to type the Sitemap URL, you MUST type in “Sitemap.xml” The finished text should look like http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml.

Click the submit button and google will take a moment to verify that your sitemap was created and submitted correctly. (usually takes no longer than 30 minutes).

If done correctly and google accepts your sitemap, You are now finished creating and submitting your sitemap to Google using Homestead Sitebuilder.

Google will take this sitemap into consideration and eventually crawl all the URLs that are entered on this sitemap. As you develop your website and add new pages, you will need to repeat this process and add the new URLs into your site map, Import it to homestead sitebuilder again and upload it, you will then need to RE-SUBMIT it to google.

I hope this tutorial for “Creating a sitemap for Homestead Sitebuilder Websites and uploading it to Google” was helpful. If you have more questions regarding this process, you can send your email to john@netbreakdesigns.com

John R | Design/Marketing | Devline Intermedia/Netbreak Designs | http://www.netbreakdesigns.com | john@netbreakdesigns.com

Filed under seo, sitemaps Tagged with , , , ,