FAQ

How do I install & register Sitemap?

2008-11-29T16:12:06.562-08:00

To install you just double click on the plugin. To enter the registration key just enter the 'stiemap settings' (shift-cmd-i) or view->page inspector and go to the plugin settings (the little wrench icon) and then to the registration tab -- you'll see a spot where you can copy & paste the registration code.

What are the various output modes

2008-10-06T21:51:47.971-07:00

You can output the Sitemap in three different formats:

"Tree" view where the Sitemap is formatted similarly to your Rapidweaver project.
"Alphabet" view where you arrange pages by the alphabet. The default is the English Alphabet (A-Z) but you can define your own alphabet and even re-arrange letters or group multiple letters together.
"Category" view. This is the most under appreciated view but perhaps the most powerful. With this view you assign each page a series of categories and the Sitemap is shown by category. This is a great way to create a custom sitemap that only shows certain pages or shows a page twice if you are trying to steer someone to the most helpful sight (for instance your contact me page could be under 'help' as well as 'about us')

For each of the views you can select either a single or dual column mode. If you chose two column mode sitemap will try to create balanced columns while not splitting up a view across columns (e.g. it will keep all of the category in a category view in the same colum)

Finally if you add a description to the site you can optionally turn on or off descriptions.

Why do I get "Unsupported File Format" when I submit my sitemap to google?

2008-08-17T21:59:28.589-07:00

It's a little confusing since the word "Sitemap" is used in so many contexts.

First there is the plugin called "Sitemap" -- This is what you install into RapidWeaver.

This plugin generates two files. A HTML filed and a "XML" file. The "XML" file is called sitemap.xml while the HTML file is whatever page name you give it (often index.html)

It's the "XML" file that you want to submit to google.

I lost my Serial number, how do I retrieve it?

2008-04-15T22:41:21.311-07:00

To retrieve lost license codes you need to go to two spots and fill out forms (It's two spots because there are two different ways to get licenses that have different retrieval methods -- Just do both and you should be good to go

http://store.esellerate.net/support
https://store.loghound.com/store/lost_license

You will need the email you used to register the program -- All of your esellerate and loghound purchase serial numbers will be resent to you.

My sitemap is not indenting properly!

2008-01-27T17:14:05.755-08:00

Most themes define the page CSS in a way that provides pleasant looking sitemaps but occasionally one resets the lists. To get you started here is a snippit of code that should get your first level indenting looking right -- it's just a starting point so you will likely need to adjust it for you individual site & preferences.

#sitemap ul {
padding-left:40px;
}

What does 'set robot metadata to none' do and other options in the output settings?

2007-11-10T07:30:16.716-08:00

There are three output options that can be a little confusing

The first one simply tells sitemap to not include pages that you 'hide' in your sidebar menu (using the RapidWeaver page inspector) -- If you do this or not is purely a matter of choice but one implication is that selecting this option means that these pages will be excledud from your HTML sitemap as well as sitemap.xml

The second option comes into play based on the disable search button under the 'search engine' tab. Selecting this will also mark the page so search engines will not index it. Most users probably want this on

Finally the last button is useful if you have more than one sitemap page. If you have two or more pages selecting this means the sitemap pages share settings (which pages to hide/index, etc.) Most users probably want this off

My SiteMap.xml file is not working... google complains!

2007-08-17T23:22:09.216-07:00

Make sure you are placing the sitemap.xml file in the 'root' directory. Starting with version 1.52 of sitemap this is really easy, just enable the option and it will be automatically placed there.

Previous to 1.52 you had to do this move manually which was painful. If you still feel the need to do it manually continue reading below...

You need to make sure it's in the 'Root' directory of your site... Sadly there is no way to do this within a plugin right now so you have to either copy it over manually (yes, I know, a pain) or if you have shell access you can set up a symbolic link at the root to point to the version saved in the "files" directory under the sitemap.

I've put together a small screencast that shows how the three different approaches work (15MB, 10 minutes). you can view the screencast here

I changed my page to sitemap.xml but it doesn't publish it!

2007-05-06T07:04:18.952-07:00

Sitemap produces a number of files. There is the default 'user viewable' page which is a html file (for instance here). It can also (optinally) produce a 'sitemap.xml' file. This file is uploaded with any graphics, etc. that you have to the 'files' directory under the sitemap page (note that the 'files' directory is not always called 'files' but will always have the word 'files' in it's name)

One improtant tip that sometimes catches people. What you don't want to do is change the name of your sitemap page to sitemap.xml

Instead to get the sitemap.xml file created just select the "Create 'sitemap.xml' file for Google to Index'

One final tip, by default the sitemap is in the wrong location. See the faq entry on 'Moving' the sitemap for tips on how to move it.

What is sitemap.xml and who cares?

2007-04-20T23:14:25.539-07:00

sitemap.xml is a file that search engines used to better index your site. It gives you the chance to specific relative importance of pages in your site as well as give hints to search engines on how often they change, etc. There is no guarantee that the search engine will actually listen to your hints but in general it seems to help provide more accurate searches.

As of April, 2007 Google, Yahoo and ask.com will read the sitemap.xml file

For everything you ever wanted to know about sitemaps go to http://www.sitemaps.org

I hid a page in the menu and now I can't unselect the 'hide in sitemap' button

2007-04-20T23:08:41.337-07:00

If a page is marked 'hide in sitemap' and you can't unselect it then you probably have 'Hide Pages...' in the options tab. Unselect it if you want to hid pages in menu but allow them in sitemap.xml

How do I submit my sitemap.xml to the search engines

2007-04-20T23:04:49.529-07:00

Each search engine has it's own particular way;

Google: http://www.google.com/webmasters
Yahoo: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

however a more generic way to catch 'all' engines is to include it in the robots.txt file. Starting April 11, 2007 3 top search engines (google, yahoo, ask) will 'autodiscover' the sitemap.xml file (http://blog.ask.com/2007/04/sitemaps_autodi.html))

Simply put the text

Sitemap: [ull url to your sitemap]

Anywhere in your robots.txt file.

For instance at Loghound.com the robots.txt looks like this

Sitemap: http://www.loghound.com/sitemap.xml

You can verify this by looking at it here http://www.loghound.com/robots.txt

For more information read this http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.php#informing

(Thanks to the resident SEO expert, Mark Notz, for his help in keeping up with sitemap events)

How do I tell Google or Yahoo to reindex me?

2007-04-20T23:00:54.917-07:00

For google you can do so here:http://www.google.com/webmasters

For Yahoo you can do so here: https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com

Note that starting with version 1.34U you can have sitemap automatically 'ping' google and Yahoo by entering the full address to the sitemap.xml into the 'sitemap' field

What does change frequency do?

2007-04-12T22:52:39.628-07:00

It tells google how often the page changes... Again the theory is if you give it honest hints it can do a better job

What does 'Disable Search' do?

2007-04-12T22:52:27.603-07:00

Simple. It removes the site from sitemap.xml AND it puts a 'ROBOTS=NONE' in your metadata to prevent search engines from crawling that page.

What is high priority? Left or Right?

2007-04-12T22:52:15.490-07:00

Pushed all the way to right is highest priority. Pushed all the way to the left (all the way) will turn off priority for that site. If you want a low priority push it just a nubbin to the right (e.g. mostly, but not all the way to the left)

What are those little slider things? What does it mean to push it to the right or left?

2007-04-12T22:52:04.108-07:00

That tells google what priority you think the pages should be. Note that this is priority within your own page, not against someone else and the priority is all relative.. If you use this feature try to be balanced (e.g. make some low and some high) otherwise it won't do anything. The way I use it is I make my main 'entry' pages high priority so google should tend to prefer those

Search Engine Tab (Google Sitemaps)

2007-04-12T22:48:20.952-07:00

Site Organization Tab

2007-04-12T22:48:11.751-07:00

What is a category.. How do I use it? How do I enter it?

2007-04-12T22:48:04.017-07:00

One of the sitemap's you can create is by category. Let's say you have pages on fish, ducks and ponds. You may tag some things with category 'fish' and 'ponds' while others are 'ducks' and 'ponds'... Each category will show that page. To enter them just type them in per page one at a time hitting return between each one.

What is the 'Description' column and how do I enter a Description?

2007-04-12T22:47:50.616-07:00

Easy. To enter a description simple type it in. It's used to annotate the sitemap and it's also inserted in the meta data for that page to help search engines.

Ok, How do I change the default title, filename or foldername?

2007-04-12T22:47:38.279-07:00

Easy... Type new ones in the table! (or you can go to the site inspector for that page)... They both work (although I find the table to be faster!)

What does "Dont allow publish if page defaults are still present"?

2007-04-12T22:46:41.792-07:00

It will stop the publish process if you add a page but don't change the default Title, filename or foldername

What does 'Show Defaults that need changing' button do?

2007-04-12T22:46:22.704-07:00

It only shows web sites where you haven't changed the default title, filename or folder name....

FAQ