Submitting your Blogger.com or Blogspot.com blog site to Google Webmaster will enable Google to find, index, and rank your site. For those who are new to this, you may go to the official Google Webmaster Tools site to create a new Webmaster profile.
Upon logging in using your Gmail account, key in your blog site URL, and click OK. You will then be asked to verify your site. This is to ascertain that you are indeed the owner of the site.
There are two ways to verify your site. You can either add a Meta Tag or Upload an HTML file. If you are using the Meta Tag method, Google will generate a Meta Tag code. Copy the META tag that is generated for you, and paste it in your site's home page in the first section of the page, before the first section. What you do is to go to your Blogger dashboard. Under Template ->Edit HTML, somewhere near the top of the script, add the Meta Tag as follows:-
<head> <META TAG> <b:include data='blog' name='all-head-content'/> |
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Replace the META TAG with the code generated by Google Webmaster. Once done, Save the Template. When you return to Google Webmaster site, you can click the button that says “Verify”.
Note: The second method of uploading an HTML file is NOT applicable to Bloggers using Blogger.com or Blogspot.com because this requires you to upload a file to the root directory of your Blog, which is not possible. There is therefore only one method for you to verify your site, and that is by inserting the Meta Tag as explained above.
After you have had your site verified, click on the Sitemaps tab as shown below. By adding a Sitemap, you will be providing Google with more details and information about your Blog. With this, Google will crawl your site, report information on any errors in the Sitemaps tab, and index your Blog site at a faster rate.
Click the link that says “Add a Sitemap”. This will take you to another screen where you should choose the type “Add General Web Sitemap”. The Sitemap URL for any normal website is usually the index page that is stored in the highest-level directory of that site. In the case of Blogger.com or Blogspot.com, the only way to add a Sitemap is to use either of the following 2 Sitemaps:-
http://YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com/rss.xml |
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OR
http://YOURBLOGNAME.blogspot.com/atom.xml |
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Remember to replace YOURBLOGNAME with that of your Blog's. For Blogger blogs, do not add "www." to YOURBLOGNAME. Once you have added your Sitemaps, you will receive a confirmation telling you that reports are being generated but “may take several hours to update”. Congratulations! You have successfully added your Sitemaps. When you login to your Google Webmaster days later, you should be able to see the indexed pages and statistics of Google webcrawl of your Blog.
Leave the meta tag in the template if you want to view the statistics of your site. If Google can't find the meta tag, it will show an error message in your webmaster toolbox and you may have to verify your site again.
You may want to read the articles on how to Submit Blogger URL sitemap to Yahoo! and Submit Blogger Sitemap to MSN and Ask.com. Also, submit your Blog to Blog Directories and Feed Directories to let more people know about your Blog. As well, submit your Blog to the various Search Engines for maximum exposure.
© Tips for New Bloggers
75 comments:
Quick question.
Do I leave the META tag and code generated by Google after I'm done authenticating, or can I delete/replace it?
Thanks.
-Amit
Hi Amit
I believe you should leave it there to see the stats of your site. If Google can't find the tag, it will show an error message in your webmaster toolbox and you can verify your site again. For more info, you can look up their Help site at http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/?hl=en
thanks for the very useful info...
I wasn't sure if the meta tag was needed just for the initial verification, or also for site statistics. I guess that means it's fine to have multiple META tags in the webpage as I have another one for Yahoo Site Meter.
Thanks a lot for the prompt response. And, I've added a link to your wonderful website through my blog.
Cheers,
-Amit
Also, a suggestion to maybe add a line in the blog post to indicate to readers to leave the META code in there after the site has been verified, as the blog post doesn't say anything one way or the other.
Though, if a user reads all the comments now, s/he will know :)
Cheers,
-Amit
Sure Amit, have added that in the article as you've suggested.
hi bizwhiz, i had my blog for almost 3 months now and it is only now that i was able to figure out the sitemap. thanks to your blog i am slowly learning the ropes so to speak, lol. question though, i have included in my template http://pedestrianobserver.blogspot.com/rss.xml so now it appears on the top part of the blog, is it supposed to do that?. 2nd question can I remove it after the verification?
Hi Cyber Istambay
Please remove that URL from your template. We only need to insert the Meta Tag code which is generated by Google Webmaster.
As mentioned above, you may leave the meta tag in the template if you want to view the statistics of your site. If Google can't find the meta tag, it will show an error message in your webmaster toolbox and you may have to verify your site again.
I registered a site with www in the url so that it required me to have www in the sitemap. Will this make a difference somehow? I couldn't register a sitemap without www so I don't think I have a choice.
Hi Hilda
Sure, you can include www. if you registered a domain. For people who are submitting their blogs, they should not put a www. in their blogspot.com URL. This was a feedback raised by one of our readers, Ado.
Is it a good idea to submit both atom.xml and rss.xml?
If not, which one is the best?
Hi captain1821
You can submit both but it is also alright to submit either. I don't think there is any significant difference between the two. They are both widely acknowledged and accepted formats.
Hi! First I would like to thank you for all the knowledge that you imparted in here. It has really helped me a lot.
I have a question, when I placed the meta tag code generated by Yahoo, the message below appeared..
Your template could not be parsed as it is not well-formed. Please make sure all XML elements are closed properly.
XML error message: The element type "META" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "".
Pls help..
Hi Yale Zeuqsalev
If the tag ends with /> it should be ok. Please don't change other parts of the code. You may like to try it again.
HI,
http://sara-intop.blogspot.com/
this is my blog ...
i have deleted my sitemap.. while using google webmaster tool ..
there is no link to addsite map..
what to do...
Hi, I am having problems submitting a Sitemap! It gave an Error 404! What is the problem, I followed your instructions on the posts! thanks!
Hi Saravanan
If you are logged in to Google Webmaster, you can click "Manage URL" where URL is your Blog URL. You can see 4 tabs at the top and the last one reads "Sitemaps". In the top left corner, there is an "Add a Sitemap" link. You can add a sitemap using that.
Hi bokjae
That is likely to be a server connection problem. Try logging in later and submit again.
I love your Blog! Link has been added to my page.
Have you ever posted on external sites that checks, validates and reports on your blog, like this one I found:
http://www.xinureturns.com/
Check quickly your PageRank, backlinks and much more.
Hi Bizwiz,
I submitted my blog to yahoo and google together with other search engines about two months ago.
When i did a search using my site URL http://kamauharrison.blogspot.com/ only yahoo takes me to the site, google takes me to other sites including yours where my site is mentioned,But does not take me to the actual site. What do you think could be the problem? Also how do i submit to msn? Warm regards, Harrison
Hi Kamau Harrison
Search engines have different algorithms. They may display results according to key words, page ranks, relevance, etc. If you go through all the pages of the results, you should be able to see your site. You could also login to your Google Webmaster account and look at the pages that are indexed by Google.
We should be updating our article to cover submission of site to other directories and search engines.
Hi bizwhiz,
I follow your steps but still couldn't find my site at Google search engine. Please guide me
Thanks.
Monica
Hi Monica
How soon they index the site is not within our control. In the meantime, you may want to look at our latest article on Submitting Blog to Search Engines. Submit to other search engines as well.
Hi bizwhiz,
Thanks for your reply.
I saw my site at Google which turn out like this : turn-u-offMonica Blogger 1 1 25 tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-976824399466293739.post-7432648923993254376 2007-08-20T13:42:00.000+08:00 2007-08-20T14:18:28.934+08:00 So ...
www.blogger.com/feeds/976824399466293739/posts/default - 3k - Cached - Similar pages
and when i clicked on it, it came out DO YOU WANT TO SAVE THIS FILE?
I am confused!
Monica
Hi Bizwhiz,
Thanks so much for all your wonderful tips! your blog is great stuff, simple, easy to understand and comprehensive explaination and step-by-step guide to solve all my problems. I had been blogging on xanga for past few years, only lately i realised i can do much more with blogger. But i have no idea how to start. u gave me all the cool ideas to decorate up my stie (http://p-latte.blogspot.com)!
I will link your site to my blog to share your great work with all my friends! thanks a again!
hello,
i don't understand why we should add meta tags to be in google ranking, because blogger.com is own by google, right ?
Hi internet marketing for beginner
I believe the meta tag is to authenticate the blog so that the correct blog owner and webmaster can receive visitor, search and other stats on the site. If you don't need these stats, you can also submit the URL to Google for indexing. I have the Google URL to send to in the article on Submit Blog to Search Engines.
This is a useful material.
by
http://wwwportal.blogspot.com
hi again .. ih sorry but i did all steps
and in sitemap url step i enterd (http://lu2a.blogspot.com/atom.xml)
but i got this error messege
(The Sitemap must be located at http://lu2a.blogspot.com/. To add a Sitemap at http://lu2a.blogspot.com/http://lu2a.blogspot.com/, first add that site to your account and then click the Add a Sitemap link beside it.)
http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=94074648zf8.jpg
can u help me plz ?!!!
thank u
Hi Wael
Since the blog url already appears in the box, you need to type in atom.xml and not repeat your blog url.
hiii....
i created my blog and wanted to submit it to google......and by using ur steps...i reached till that it said that it has been verified....bt after that..when i go to the next step....to add site map....it gives me the following error:
The Sitemap must be located at http://windowstipstricks.blogspot.com/. To add a Sitemap at http://windowstipstricks.blogspot.com/http://windowstipstricks.blogspot.com/, first add that site to your account and then click the Add a Sitemap link beside it.
plzzzz help.....
hiii again.....
yaa...i got my error...i read the comment be4 me....nd it waz sm as me......
so....i got it....thanx...
hi,i followed your step ..
but in the end i can jus add rss.xml because the rest was already fill in by google..
You have added a Sitemap to http://www.sidemoney101.blogspot.com/. Reports may take several hours to update. Thank you for your patience!
u see the www is also included automatically...
Hello Bizwhiz,
I've learnt a lot from you, I guess 99% my site development shall be dedicated to your very-easy-to-follow guidelines.
I've recently submitted my site to Google webmaster. I paste my meta tag list below the 'head', above the meta tag of yahoo!, and my blog works fine. But when I clicked on 'verify' button in Google they said "Verification status: NOT VERIFIED
Last attempt Nov 27, 2007: We couldn't find the verification meta tag"
I suspect I put the meta tag in a wrong place, but I've checked Google Help and they advised me the same thing (after 'head' and before 'head'. Can you please advise? Thank you v.much!
Hi Anita
If you have inserted the generated meta tag at the correct place, and your blog is a public blog, it should be verifiable. Try submitting it again and write to them if you are still facing problems.
Thanks again! I went to Google Webmaster to index the site map. For each post that I had, they indicated it was an error. For instance, http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspo...u-recognize-early-warning-signs-of.html. Do you know how to resolve that error? Please help!
THANKS!
I really love your site through which I found the way to submit my sitemap to google webmaster http://lexom.blogspot.com/ however, i am having errors such as
URL not allowed
Invalid XML. too many tags, and
Incorrect namespace, do you have a way to fix this I would really appreciate that.
Thank you
Fatos
hi ur blog is awesome and verry infomative.i just want to ask that i accedently del my google meta tag.how can i get another meta tag thanks
hi i kept having this error don't know what to do.. i follow your instruction regarding the rss.xml on my blogger and it says error 404 not found.. tnx..
We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap. Please ensure your Sitemap follows our guidelines and can be accessed at the location you provided and then resubmit.
i verified my blog but i dont understand about sitemaps in the step three 3. My Sitemap URL is:
http://anonymos.pblogs.gr/{empty box}
Example: sitemap.xml what i must put in the empty box?
hello friends,
i have done everything as u said.my blog has been verified but
if i add sitemap using atom.xml i am getting the following errors
----------------------------
1.Invalid XML: too many tags
Too many tags describing this tag. Please fix it and resubmit.
2.Incorrect namespace
Your Sitemap or Sitemap index file doesn't properly declare the namespace.
--------------------------
if i click the details for errors it gives me this
------------------------------
If you see this error, we've detected that your root element doesn't specify the default namespace. The namespace should be specified as follows:
xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
Some reasons you may see this error are:
* the namespace may be missing
* the namespace may be declared incorrectly (for instance, the namespace may end in ".9" rather than in "0.9").
A Sitemap file should begin as follows:
xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?
urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
A Sitemap index file should begin as follows:
xml version="1.0 " encoding="UTF-8"?
sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
--------------------
please can anyone help me out...
hi!Your tips are awesome and i have saved your blog.But plz guide me to how to go about sitemap.
My site has been verified and i added the site by rss .xml and it gave me these errors
Line Status Details
2 URL not allowed
This url is not allowed for a Sitemap at this location. URL:
Found: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/SkinCar...3/239932507/friends-with-your-skin.html
Feb 26, 2008
2 Invalid XML: too many tags
Too many tags describing this tag. Please fix it and resubmit. Parent tag:
Tag:
Found: channel
link
Feb 26, 2008
2 Incorrect namespace
Your Sitemap or Sitemap index file doesn't properly declare the namespace. Parent tag:
Tag:
Found: channel
link
Feb 26, 2008
kindlu guide me plzI also did using atom.xml but the same errors persisted
Thanks, its so easy. what a relieve after thinking so much how to this thing. Thanks Again
I can't find anything in the HTML that says < Meta tag > to begin with. I tried to add one in the head section and google says there's nothing there.
Love your blog
Hi. I already submit sitemap rss.xml,
but after index they said error "URL not allowed"
and there is this url
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AutomatedForexReview/~3/267855613/forex-auto-pilot.html
Could u help?
Hi
Thanks a lot, i am new in blogger and its help me a lot. thanks,
I followed the directions for google site map, and I got alot of errors, and did more research and found that it was recommended that you end the site map with:
atom.xml?redirect=false
if you use feedreader. I have resubmitted the sitemaps, and so far no errors! LOL I swear there is so many combinations to WHAT you are suppose to do at times!
If I were guessing I would think that changed due to the 'bugs' that blogger decided to fix!
I meant FEEDBURNER - not reader! LOL!
Thank You verey much For your hard & useful work, I was having problem with The SiteMap Both Atom & Rss .XML Didn't work But when I tried FeedBurner's feed url + .html
It worked {http://feeds.feedburner.com/Ssj7.html}
HI
General HTTP error: 404 not found
We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap. Please ensure your Sitemap follows our guidelines and can be accessed at the location you provided and then resubmit.
I have this error while submitting
me site map as http://elecprojects.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Can u plz help me out..
Since my sitemap is not verified is signed up to feedburner. still shows me error.. can u help me out.
Fantastic Article! Please keep up the good work
I am trying to verify my site on Google Webmaster. I have pasted the meta name, but when I save my html, it inverts the code so that it reads "meta content='...' name='verify-v1'" rather than the way I pasted it in. And Google can't find the verification tab. Any ideas?
Glad I found your site. I have no idea why google doesn't make this info more available.
Thanks, http://www.gotaccident.com
http://www.gotspeedingticket.com
Thanks...it was really quite informative.
By default, atom.xml only contains 25 posts. If you want you increase the number of posts in your atom.xml, change your URL to:
atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=1&max-results=100
This will give you 100 posts. I think blogger has a limit on the number of posts in your atom.xml file, but I am not sure what it is.
If you have more than 100 posts, simply add another URL to get the next batch:
atom.xml?redirect=false&start-index=101&max-results=200
I hope you get the idea.
Thank you, as a new blogger this helps So Much!
Happy Blogging
I don't get... how do I create a siptemap for my blog?
This is a great page.
electronics345.blogspot.com
Thank you.. Your site was very helpful,and easy to understand(and I did come across it through Google search results).
Site successfully verified!
Thanks for the guide, i really need that.
Hi!
I hv submitted my sitemap for http://net-affiliate-online.blgspot.com. It was OK for 2 days. But now its showing error. I hv loaded both rss & atom. What to do? I hv a feedburner account with rss.xml. Plz help. Even when it was ok, google showed no results when I searched with my URL.
there is showing.........
URL restricted by robots.txt
what will i do??
Hello! I already verified my blogs and added Sitemaps. But when I checked my blog Status, it says ERRORS.
Why is that?
thanks for the reply.
this is wonderful tutorial .. i read it 3 times and get a fantastic results and sure i put a
copy of this lesson on my site here
http://happ-hamza.blogspot.com/
Thanks friend for your informative post. I learned a lot from it. But still have problem with sitemap, hoping you will help me.
My blog feed:
http://pk-photography.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Show posts from October and November only, but most of my posts (links)that are not indexed in Google search engine are posted in August. How to include Posts of August in sitemap or feed?
I have few urls which got restricted how to fix them?
tell me plz.
http://useful-info-blog.blogspot.com
I followed your instructions you posted.. I was verified by goggle..I have some errors with my sitemap like "This url is not allowed for a Sitemap at this location" and 'Too many tags describing this tag"..
Can you help me with this...
I have submitted site to google sites with this url
http://makemoneymakedestiny.blogspot.com/rss.xml
Its showing error and depicting not allowed urls what to do?
plz help!
there is no problem in crawling ,etc is it necessary to have google site map submitted to get indexed in search engines?
Good on....really helpful.just submitted my site ingully.com to google.
thanks..!!!Godbless!!!
hi, thanks for all the blogging tips. I really like you webpage. But I still have a problem with google sitemap submitting. I used rss.xml and atom.xml to submit the sitemaps, but they have errors. I also noticed that eversince I subscribed to the feedburner feeds, these 2 feeds no longer exist as it directs them directly to the feedbruners address, once I try to go to the rss.xml and atom.xml page. Please help.
Another thing is that, the add a sitemap link was not available as described by google. Whenever, I tried to click on the link, it directs me to the help page on how to submit a sitemap. And eversince, google provided me a feed to submit, feeds/posts/default, I submitted it and it works for quite some time, now it cant. And the add a sitemap link is now gone? I dont know what is going on, pls help me on this thanks.
hi bizwiz,
I am facing the same problems as " Profile" isat the moment. Google isn't indexing my old posts. Moreover when I signed in to my webmaster account , I found an error in my status. Under the Status Link it is wriiten " Error"
Google is also showing my some URl errors in my sitemap and asking me to fix it. Plzz tell me how can I do it?
If you could write a post on "how to fix sitemap errors" that would be a cool idea!!!
Regards
www.TECfun.co.nr
I submitted my blogspots to webmasters tool and added meta tag and submitted site map using rss.xml but it is showing error i resubmitted it again and again but still error so i changed to atom.xml but still it shows error please help me in this pleaaaaaassssssssssseeeeeeeeeee
i went to submit my sitemap on google webmaster...http://desiindiantv.blogspot.com/.....and then i put atom.xml in the box to submit my sitemap......but it errored as something wrong wid robot.txt.........i have authenticated this blog by adding meta tag.....any help...??
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