How do I create a Google sitemap for my website?

The following article explains how to create and submit a Google sitemap for your website. A Google sitemap is a free service from Google that provides your website information to web crawlers. This information is then used by search engines to rank your site in search result listings.

Note: Currently, this option is only available for Windows based hosting accounts.

To create a Google sitemap, please follow these steps:

1. Open a browser window and go to www.HostMySite.com
2. Click on Control Panel Login.
3. Log into the Control Panel as one of the following:
   • Account Administrator and select the appropriate domain
   • Technical Contact for the domain
4. Click Google Sitemap from the menu.
5. Enter the necessary information:
   • Site URL: select the domain name from the drop down
   • Default Home Page: enter the file that visitors are first directed to when they access your website, eg. index.html
   • Sitemap File: enter a name for the sitemap file that will be sent to the search engines (Google recommends to use sitemap.gz, but an alternate name can be used)
   • Directories to Exclude: enter any directories you wish to exclude from the sitemap (optional)
   • File to Exclude: enter any files you wish to exclude from the sitemap (optional)
   
6. Click Submit.
   Note: Clicking 'Submit' will create your sitemap and submit it to Google for you.

Important: Your Google ranking will not improve if you submit your sitemap multiple times without any relevant changes. Most search engines negatively view multiple submissions of the same site content and will typically skip your website in search results. Only re-submit your sitemap after new pages, relevant content, and changed navigation are added.