Add an XML Sitemap to a Blogger Blog - Ultimate Guide
Know how to make XML sitemaps for your Blogger and Blogspot blogs. Sitemaps will assist Google web crawlers in better indexing your site.
An XML sitemap file is similar to a directory that contains all of the web pages on your website or blog. These sitemap files may be used by Google, Bing, and other search engines to locate pages on your site that their search bots might otherwise miss during ordinary crawling.
The Problem with Blogger Sitemap Files
A full XML sitemap file should include all of the site's pages, however, this is not the case if your blog is hosted on the Blogger or Blogspot platforms.
Google allows sitemaps in the following formats: XML, RSS, and Atom. For best crawling, they recommend using both XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds.
Any Blogger blog's default atomic RSS feed will only carry the most recent blog articles - see the example. This is a limitation since some of your previous blog pages may never be indexed in search engines if they are not included in the default XML sitemap file. There is, however, a straightforward solution to this problem.
Generate XML Sitemap for your Blogger Blog
This section applies to both conventional Blogger blogs (with a blogspot.com address) and self-hosted Blogger blogs with a custom domain.
Here's how to use an XML sitemap to reveal the whole site structure of your blog to search engines.
Step 1: Enter the complete address of your Blogger blog into the Sitemap Generator.
Step 2: When you click the Generate Sitemap button, this tool will quickly generate an XML file containing your sitemap. Copy all of the text to your clipboard.
Step 3: Then, go to your Blogger.com dashboard, select Settings -> Search Preferences, and check the Custom robots.txt box (available in the Crawling and Indexing section). Paste the XML sitemap here, then save your modifications.
And now we're done. The robots.txt file tells search engines about your XML sitemap files, so you don't have to ping them manually.
Internally, the XML sitemap generator counts all of the blog entries on your Blogger blog. The postings are then divided into batches of 500 and various XML feeds are generated for each batch. Because each article on your blog is included in one of these XML sitemaps, search engines will be able to find it.
NOTE: Even if you've migrated from Blogger to WordPress, submitting XML sitemaps of your old Blogspot blog can help search engines locate your new WordPress blog posts and pages.