Naming a sitemap file

[shaunm]

Hi All,

Do I have to name my sitemap file specifically "sitemap" or anything is acceptable? I mean should it be "example.com/sitemap.xml" or can be anything such as "example.com/sitemap_en.xml" ?


Thanks!

[deadsea]

You can name it whatever you want. If you name it sitemap.xml then it will be found automatically because search engines expect it to be named that.

If you name it something else you have to tell the search engines where to find it. You can either do this with robots.txt or by using webmaster tools with each search engine. For robots.txt the instructions are on this page: [sitemaps.org...]

You can specify the location of the Sitemap using a robots.txt file. To do this, simply add the following line including the full URL to the sitemap:

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

If you elect to tell the search engines where to find the file, you will need to log into webmaster tools, verify your site, and submit the sitemap. You should do this with both Google and Bing.

[shaunm]

@deadsea

That was really helpful. Thank you so much!