In searching for the best solution for generating an xml sitemap for Joomla!, our team had several parameters in mind. The ideal solution had to:
- Auto generate
- Auto update
- Keep the sitemap on the same URL, so that it could be resubmitted to Google Webmaster Tools with ease if needed
- Be relatively user-friendly
So, we started initially with the handful of solutions we already knew about, from using them around the office on various projects:
- Using http://xml-sitemaps.com
- Xmap plugin for Joomla!
- RedMystic plugin’s sitemap feature
XML-sitemaps.com offers a free version that is usually pretty effective…USUALLY. The trouble with this is that first of all, the webmaster has to physically visit the website and generate the sitemap; the process cannot be easily automated. For a one-time deal, this may do the trick. But, what if your URLs change frequently, or your site uses SEF URLs which are rewritten on a semi-regular basis? In addition, xml-sitemaps.com sometimes struggles with crawling through sites, and when it does, the result is a sitemap of only four or five URLs. It wasn’t good enough in our books!
The Xmap plugin works, but it requires a bit of configuration. First, the newest version doesn’t work with older versions of Joomla! (namely the ever-popular 1.5). We recommend Xmap version 1.2.11 for Joomla! version 1.5. Second, the XML sitemap feature doesn’t work unless you create a menu item with Xmap’s HTML sitemap FIRST. The features of specific inclusion and exclusion are nice, and they work as promised, and the URLs for both the HTML and XML sitemaps are available within the Xmap control panel.
Finally, RedMystic came into play because we already have used it for Google Merchant Center data feed generation and auto-submission–we figured their sitemap generation and auto-submission wouldn’t be bad, either. Like Xmap, it is necessary to do a bit of initial configuration for the XML sitemap to work, as the XML sitemap will not generate properly unless you create a menu item to the HTML sitemap FIRST. Once that is done, the sitemap works very well, but the URL is a bit harder to find, which made it lose a few points in our book. RedMystic’s sitemap generation feature is aimed at merely NOTIFYING the search engines of sitemaps, not submitting them to Webmaster Tools. It is possible to do both. To get you your RedMystic XML sitemap once it is generated, simply go to: http://yourdomain.com//index.php?option=com_redmystic&view=sitemap&layout=raw&format=raw&sitemap=sitemap.xml. Then, copy the only URL you see on that page, as THIS can be submitted to Webmaster Tools…an extra step that didn’t contribute to usability. Also, the above-mentioned link is only available in RedMystic’s help files, making this particular feature NOT a great solution for those requiring something user-friendly.
In summary, Xmap won the battle. While all three solutions worked to some degree or another, only Xmap offered the ease of use that we believe our users seek and deserve. To download the Xmap sitemap plugin, please CLICK HERE
image credit: Rob Enslin