AutoMapIt Site Map Creation

webwench · Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

Call me brain dead or NOT but I'm not 100% sure I have all of this set up correctly. The one thing that surely is throwing me is about not adding the FTP info and letting the pages be crawled from this site... right? I am more than eager to learn all that I need to learn, but I surely, obviously, temporarily, need someone to watch my back here...in the event I make a mistake.

The second ? is - if there is an old sitemap existing on the server, should it be deleted?

MaxPowers · Site Admin Joined: 27 May 2006 Posts: 159

If you want to use the XML sitemap hosted on the AutoMapIt server, you will have to change your robots.txt file to point to the sitemap on AutoMapIt. You can find the exact code for your site when you login to AutoMapIt and visit the FTP setup page. I see that the robots.txt for your first domain has not been edited yet.

FTP is still the suggested method as it does more than the hosted sitemaps do. When using FTP, we will ping the search engines, deliver the ROR format, and break your HTML sitemap down into multiple pages at your request. The hosted sitemap only applies to the XML sitemap, but it is a way that many people are now able to use the system due to FTP restrictions set by their webhost.

By all means, setup your site using the instructions given on the FTP setup page (the only place to find your specific URL) and ask me to review your robots.txt file.

As far as 'old' sitemaps... if the older ones are out of date, they are doing you no good and may even hurt you (linking to pages that are no longer there). If they are current and valid, then there is no reason to destroy your current sitemaps. If you would like them to remain current and valid, you could set the filenames on the Sitemap Setup page and they will overwrite your existing files if you use FTP.

Should you use the hosted XML sitemap and your own XML sitemap? Probably not. If they contain the same info, there is no reason to use both. If it contains different info, then you can use the Tweak Page at AutoMapIt to configure every URL of your site, but you still probably shouldn't be using two conflicting sitemaps.

webwench · Joined: 18 Mar 2008 Posts: 2

Honestly..I thought when I paid for this that it was something that someone would do for me....I guess not. I have to read this again tonight and see if I can figure it out.

As for the old site maps, I would hazard to guess they are out of date.

Thank you for help thus far -- don't stray too far away as I know I will most definitely need your help again...please.

MaxPowers · Site Admin Joined: 27 May 2006 Posts: 159

I am more than happy to help with anything you need me to do, but as far as personal settings... you know your own website far better than I do and can do a much better job of managing your settings.

AutoMapIt does provide a very good set of account defaults so that you can begin getting your sitemap with very little effort. Enter your domain info, optionally enter your FTP info, and set your scheduling preference since you have an upgraded account (free accounts are automatically updated once per month, no more, no less).

But AutoMapIt also goes far beyond that and provides a very configurable experience... you can change settings for almost everything having to do with your sitemaps.

As far as making changes to your website... I can tell you what needs to be changed and where it needs to be changed, but I cannot log into your site without FTP access and make any of these changes.

AutoMapIt does crawl your site to find all available URLs for your sitemap and the system does upload your newest sitemaps and then it will ping the search engines for you, but it cannot do this without the FTP information or we have no access to your server.

-Shawn