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Originally published in The SEO Blog, 2007

Getting Google and other major search engines to spider your XML Sitemap just got a little bit easier. Although submitting through a search engine’s submission interface such as Google Webmaster Tools can offer additional valuable information, if you simply could not be bothered there is now an easier way.

Vanessa Fox posted in the Webmaster Central Blog a few recent announcements regarding sitemaps.org, including a point on XML sitemaps.

Now you can add a simple line to your robots.txt file that will tell the search engines that support XML sitemaps, where your file is. No need to create an account. Simply upload your XML sitemap and add a line including the full path to your robots.txt file

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

It is as simple as that, your sitemap will be spidered and you need not do anything else. That said, using the supplied interface, such as Google Webmaster Tools, will allow you to ensure that your sitemap was spidered correctly and without errors, but it is nice to see an alternative is available.

Scott Van Achte is the Sr. SEO at StepForth Search Engine Placement.

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