SOLVED: How to Create a SITEMAP.XML and Submit it To Google

A sitemap is a simple listing of all the pages you have in your site.  Sitemap.HTM has been used for some time to help Google and Bing spider/crawl sites but there were several standards and it got messy.  Now there is a new standard using eXtensible Markup Language for your sitemap, hence SITEMAP.XML and Google wants you to submit it to them.  The problem is it is a pain to create, so below is the easy process I used:

1. Surf to auditmypc.com/xml-sitemap.asp
2. Enter in the address of your site in the URL (i.e. http://www.URTech.ca )
3.  Set a few exclusions in the EXCLUDE  URL FILTERS box for example:
   1. */template/* will exclude the template folder
   2. */client-login/* will exclude the client-login folder
   3. *password.php will exclude the password page
   4. *urtech.jpg will exclude the URTech graphic (I would not skip this… but you could!)
4. As at February 2014, in Internet Explorer 11 you need to make the window full screen and then RESTORE it back to a regular size to see the little green START button at the bottom left
   1. This is definitely an oddity which they will likely correct soon
5. One the search sitemap is created, you can export it to a file.  I called mine SITEMAP.XML
6. Post that file in the root of your website, most likely using a FTP tool
7. Submit it to Google by:
   1. Sign into google.com/webmastertools
   2. Click CRAWL > SITEMAPS, click ADD/TEST SITEMAP
   3. Type in the name of your sitemap (in my case SITEMAP.XML )

For more information see:

http://code.google.com/p/sitemap-generators/wiki/SitemapGenerators

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183669?hl=en