Access the Bing Webmaster Tools dashboard and log in.
Click on "Sitemaps" in the left menu. In the input box, enter your sitemap URL, and click "Submit."
This simple process ensures your sitemap is indexed by Bing.
Advanced Sitemap Strategies for Large Websites
For large websites, optimizing sitemaps is vital to ensure search engines effectively crawl and index content. Let's explore advanced strategies to enhance sitemap management and boost site visibility.
Sitemap Indexing Optimization:
Dynamic Generation: Use automated tools to create sitemaps based on website updates.
Priority and Frequency: Assign tags to URLs to signal importance and freshness.
XML Splitting: Divide sitemaps into smaller files for efficient crawling.
Enhancing Sitemap Coverage:
Image and Video: Create separate sitemaps for media content.
Hreflang Tags: Specify language and regional variations.
Mobile Integration: Include mobile-specific URLs for comprehensive coverage.
Sitemap Auditing: Detecting and Fixing Errors
Let’s quickly review steps to effectively audit your website's sitemap to identify and resolve errors in order to ensure optimal search engine visibility and user experience.
Error Identification
Discover common sitemap errors such as broken links, incorrect URLs, and missing pages, using specialized tools like Google Search Console and XML Sitemap Validator.
Error Resolution
Take action to rectify identified errors by updating URLs, fixing redirects, and removing obsolete pages from your sitemap, ensuring accurate indexing and improved site navigation.
Regular Maintenance
Implement a routine schedule for sitemap audits and updates to proactively address any new errors or changes in site structure, maintaining search engine rankings and user satisfaction.
Suppose your website has lots of pages, Google suggests breaking up your sitemap into smaller ones since each sitemap can only have up to 50k URLs.
Additionally, the URLs in your sitemap come with a last modified date. It's best to update these dates only when you've made significant changes or added new content to your site.
Google considers it spammy if you update dates on unchanged pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why should I create a website?
There are many reasons why you should create a website if you’re an artist. You can use it to create a place where people can learn about you, talk about your art, or show off your work.
How do I choose a design for my website?
One of the most important things when creating a website for your art is the design. Even though your pieces of art might be amazing, people will leave if your site is hard to navigate. This is why it’s important that the site is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate.
Is a website on WordPress safe?
Websites on WordPress are safe, however to avoid hacking keep your website up to date.
Are WordPress plugins free?
WordPress has loads of plugins you can install, some of them are free, but some of them you will need to pay for. You can learn how to use WordPress Plugins on our blog.
Should I include every page on my website in the sitemap, or are there exceptions?
You should generally include every page on your website in the sitemap, but there may be exceptions for pages you don't want search engines to index or pages with low priority.
Is it necessary to have a sitemap if my website is small or has only a few pages?
Yes, having a sitemap is still beneficial for small websites or those with few pages because it helps search engines index and crawl all available content efficiently.
How often should I update my website's sitemap?
You should update your website's sitemap whenever you add new pages or make significant changes to your site's structure or content.
