Introduction
Search engines are capable of crawling and searching websites, but an important step when starting a side income blog, is submitting XML sitemaps to search engines for search engine optimisation (SEO) purposes.
Sitemaps structure pages and posts from within a website in an organised hierarchy and can be created in XML or HTML.
XML Sitemaps
An XML sitemap can be submitted to search engines to show the structure of your blog.
When starting a side income blog, it’s a good idea to submit sitemaps to Google when you make posts to get them indexed quicker and as a way to promote your blog.
As your site gains authority, sitemaps can be submitted less often or after major updates, as the crawling algorithm from search engines will become more apparent for your site.
To submit a sitemap to Google you can use a plugin such as Yoast SEO. Yoast SEO has a feature to create an XML sitemap.
Another option to create XML sitemaps is using a website such as XML-sitemaps. It lets you create a sitemap, that you can download and upload it to your webhost. Your XML sitemap can then be submitted to Google, through Google Search Console, or to Bing, through Sitemap Tools.
HTML Sitemaps
HTML sitemaps can be used to provide a list of website pages and posts on your blog, helping users navigate your website easier.
HTML sitemaps can be created using a plugin such as Simple Sitemap.