Using the Sitemap for better SEO

  • All websites should have a file named sitemap.xml that tells search engines which pages to index.
  • The Framework can create your sitemap.xml for you and place it in the document root.
  • The XML-based sitemap is created under Admin > Web Content > Sitemap.
    • You can enter simple page names such as index.a5w.
    • Or you can enter dynamic page names with parameters such as products.a5w?id=100&pg=12.
    • Click Omit to exclude this page from the file, select the appropriate Rank indicating how “important” this file is to your site, and select a Frequency to indicate how often you update this page.
  • When you are done, the template creates three files:
    • sitemap.xml – leave in your document root.
    • sitemap.txt – submit this to other search engines that require a simple text file.
    • sitemap.htm – no longer of much value. Retained for possible future use by the template.
  • Here is a good reference to what search engines look for on your website: http://www.metamend.com/things-search-engines-look-for.html.
  • Check here for a good resource on sitemaps, and how to submit your xml file to search engines: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitemaps.