Manual creation of Google Sitemap in Magento

9th SEP 2008 | Posted by in Magento, Marketing
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Most of you probably know this, but let’s define what the sitemaps are. Sitemaps are a simple way for site creators to give search engines the information about pages on their site that are available for public. Basically, those are just 1 or more XML files that lists URLs for a site along with additional meta informatio about each URL (like last update, how often it changes, its importance relevant to other pages). With this in mind, search engines can be more clever while crawling the site. Click here see how sitemap of this site looks like.

You will hear the term Google Sitemap a lot, but XML Schema for the Sitemap protocol is not related only to Google at all. It can be used in many places, but the most important ones are Google Webmaster Tools and Yahoo! Site Explorer.

How do we create Google Sitemap in Magento?

1. Sitemap File Configuration

First we need to create sitemap file in Magento. This is basically pointer to tell Magento where to create sitemap file and how to name it. Log in to Magento Administration and go to:
Catalog -> Google Sitemap

Check to see if the sitemap file is already present. Lets assume we wish to create sitemap in the URL: http://www.yourstore.com/sitemap/sitemap.xml
To do it successfully,

  1. FTP to the server
  2. create sitemap folder
  3. chmod the folder to 777

On some servers, previous steps will not be required, but it is better to create the file first so that Magento can edit it.

Let’s go to Magento administration now and click on “Add Sitemap” button. Just insert the default values.

After this step, we just told Magento where to create sitemap file. It is not yet created.

2. Configure Sitemap

Sitemap can be configured from the interface System -> Configuration -> Catalog->Google Sitemap. If you are not sure what does it all mean, check XML Tag definitions section from “Sitemaps XML format” document.

3. Create Sitemap Manually

Looks like Magento folks were thinking that sitemap should only be created by a cron job. Yes, it can be done that way also. Be sure to read Wiki article How to Set Up a Cron Job to get familiar with it. If you are looking for manual creation, quit your search for “Create Sitemap” button. You will not find it. But there is a workaround. You can enter manual URL to execute sitemap creation:

http://www.yourstore.com/index.php/admin/sitemap/generate/sitemap_id/[ID of Sitemap from step 1]

Of course, replace the content with square brackets with actual Sitemap ID.

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Author

Tomislav Bilic

CEO

Tomislav is an owner and CEO of Inchoo. Enjoys traveling, traditional cuisine (from most cultures), good wine and strong rakija.

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Discussion 21 Comments

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  1. Branko
    09-09-2008 at 22:37 | #

    Thanks for this short but useful and informative HOWTO. It’s always the small things one can overlook.

    Creating a sitemap is a must do step in order to get the Google see you’re site clearer and faster.

  2. srinigenie
    22-09-2008 at 12:26 | #

    Thanks a bunch!! That was a very useful piece of info :) .

  3. Nick
    24-09-2008 at 0:32 | #

    Thank you, the manual url was exactly what I was looking for. Now if there was a way to hide certain pages from the sitemap that would be awesome as well.

  4. Reino
    14-10-2008 at 13:08 | #

    Thanks for this post!

  5. Tela
    21-10-2008 at 4:43 | #

    Thanks so much for the tip! Exactly what I was missing.

    Now I have a question for the update of the sitemap. Do we need to manually set up a cron job like you refered to on step 3? Or is it enough to set up the cron in the admin?

  6. Tomislav Bilic
    21-10-2008 at 7:23 | #

    Hi Tela,
    Yes, you can set up a cron job in the Magento administration. If you have trouble with it, you can occasionally recreate the sitemap using the steps above.

  7. edulink.cz
    01-01-2009 at 21:20 | #

    Thank you, very usefull!

  8. Prashant
    21-01-2009 at 6:54 | #

    Hi,

    I want to separate my category and product web sitemap (not google sitemap).

    http://www.mysite.com/catalog/seo_sitemap/category/
    http://www.mysite.com/catalog/seo_sitemap/product/

    The above both sitemap are created from the “/app/design/frontend/default/default/template/catalog/seo/sitemap.phtml” but I want to modify both the sitemap, so can we make two seprate files “category_sitemap.phtml and product_sitemap.phtml” so that both the sitemaps gets created from the different files. How can I do this?

    And one more thing, on product sitemap I want a product attribute as
    $_def_cat = $_item->getAttributeText(‘default_category’);

    “default_category” I have created from admin panel.

    But “default_category” attribute is not coming on this page. Can u please guide me how can i get the value of a product attribute on sitemap.

    Thanks

  9. Neha Gupta
    05-02-2009 at 14:23 | #

    Use this
    $_def_cat = $_product->getData(‘default_category’);

  10. MageWorx
    21-09-2009 at 22:09 | #

    Hello,

    The Extended Sitmap extensions was released today
    http://www.magentocommerce.com/extension/1977/extended-sitemap
    It replaces the default Magento Google Sitemap functionality for auto generation of XML Site Map files with a more optimized and advanced functionality.
    Also it allows you to display all of your existing Catalog Categories, Products, CMS Pages and additional configurable links with a hierarchical structure SEO optimized for web spiders.

    Btw, thanks for the post. It really helps :)

  11. jeissler
    08-12-2009 at 22:55 | #

    Thanks for the how-to. Worked perfectly. Thanks for contributing to the Mage community. Bookmarked the site ;)

  12. princy
    16-12-2009 at 9:38 | #

    Can i add my magento CMS pages also to my sitemap.
    Is there any way to include cms pages also through code ?

  13. Pingback: XML sitemap for magento |

  14. Magento Design KWAVE
    24-09-2010 at 17:57 | #

    Thanks, I kept forgetting to set permissions to 777.

    Princy: I don’t know if this got answers but the sitemap should automatically add your cms pages to the sitemap. Mine did anyways.

  15. Pingback: Creating sitemap(s) in magento « Jontas

  16. Dekbedovertrek
    03-10-2010 at 21:28 | #

    Thank you so much for this guide. I overlooked the first part and could not figure out how to generate the sitemap, but now i have!

  17. Prashant
    23-12-2010 at 11:44 | #

    I want the same thing.. thanks a lot!!!!!!

  18. holy
    14-02-2011 at 13:14 | #

    thank you for the details !

  19. Matthew
    24-05-2011 at 21:15 | #

    Fought with this for weeks till I stumbled across this solution. Thanks for putting it up. Much appreciated.

  20. transitaire
    12-08-2011 at 10:05 | #

    I was looking how to do a sitemap with my magento new website :) Thank you for sharing your knowledge ;)

  21. Emil
    30-08-2011 at 13:07 | #

    thanks, it was exactly what I was looking for too, but how can I use scc to style it?

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