Site maps are built in - no need to do anything

http://en.support.wordpress.com/sitemaps/

OT: I really love this picture http://catwoodsporchparty.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/100_4495.jpg

But I did manage to verify my blog with Google, lol.

Because the views have not gone up, yesterday I researched keywords and sitemaps on the WordPress support and forums. Somehow that lead to a link to this site - sorry I cannot recall how I got there:

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

I made the sitemap at this link and clicked on the next step, "uploading". But because I really didn't understand the process, I took the option to discontinue. I didn't see a 'delete' option, so I just closed the program.

Then I researched further and found that the blog comes with a sitemap. I located that one, it looks fine, and I want to stick with the one from WordPress - that is, unless someone can tell me there's a particular advantage to using one generated from another site.

My question(s): Is the sitemap I made on the XML-sitemaps site still out there somewhere, or did closing the program delete it? If it's still there, how would I delete it? If it's out there, could it interfere - in some tech way - with the sitemap included on the blog from WordPress?

I know these questions seem basic but I'm just not in the know. Thanks for any help you can provide.

The blog I need help with is:

http://catwoodsporchparty.wordpress.com/

These 5 videos introduce how Google discovers, crawls, indexes your site’s pages, and how Google displays them in search results. It also touches lightly upon challenges webmasters and search engines face, such as duplicate content http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2010/03/22/5google-webmasters-video-tutorials/

If you are using a WordPress.com theme good SEO is a given. However, going beyond the theme what the blogger has done within that structure is worth evaluating. Whether you write informative, persuasive or controversial content learning how search engines work, and how to apply basic SEO to you content will benefit your blog as it will increase traffic from targeted readers. http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2011/10/21/two-seo-videos-for-bloggers/

6 Ways to Make Google Your Blog’s Best Friend > http://onecoolsitebloggingtips.com/2012/10/08/6-ways-to-make-google-your-blogs-best-friend/

Here are 25 basic steps to take to increase traffic to your blog:
1. Structure a reader and search engine blog;
2. In blogging content is king create unique, high quality content so publish fresh content frequently;
3. Learn basic SEO so you can use keywords effectively and apply basic SEO to your headlines, blog and posts;
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.
4. Make your blog posts look professional;
5. Create at least 4-6 pillar posts and continue to create pillar posts;
Pillar posts are also referred to as flagship content. Pillar posts are comprehensive posts that offer great value to readers as the contents are timeless in nature. They define you as having authority in the niche you blog in.
6. Select and link to appropriate anchor text;
7. Leave meaningful comments on related blogs and encourage comments on your own blog;
8. Develop relationships with other bloggers so you can build a blog readers’ community around your own blog;
9. Support the blog centered communities on related blogs by commenting on them and promoting posts from them;
10. Link to authoritative sources in your posts;
11. Deep link to your earlier related posts in your new posts;
12. Assign appropriate categories and tag your posts with care;
13. Link to related authoritative blogs in your blogroll;
14. Provide RSS feeds for subscribers;
RSS (Rich Site Summary or really simple syndication) is a format for delivering regularly changing web content. Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it.
15. Having a well designed theme is important, evaluate your theme for effectiveness, and if required, create a new header, make improvements or replace your theme and reduce page loading time;
16. Avoid cluttering your blog with widgets that lack reader value and slow page loading time;
17. Buy your own domain and domain mapping;
18. Verify your blog with the three big search engines.
19. Get organized, use an online to do list by developing a blogging workflow;
20. Join social networks and social media sites like Facebook and use Twitter, Friendfeed and other Free RSS directories to promote your blog posts;
21. Promote your blog through social networks, online groups, and selected directories;
22. Develop a social media time management strategy and stick to it;
23. Submit your latest pillar article to a blog carnival;
24. Become a guest blogger on sites with higher page rank than your own site.
25. Create newsletters, podcasts, videos and/or Ebooks for your subscribers.

Note this thread this thread has been tagged for closure as we aren't allowed to create discussion or blog promotion threads. If you have specific technical issues please start new threads and we will be glad to help you. http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/forums-housekeeping?replies=1

I would really like to have for example differently social icons on my sidebar or a good sitemap.

You can capture an image of any social networking icon and upload it, link to it and display it in a text widget.

For creating links in a text widget see:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/links/text-widget-links/
http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/
NOTE http://en.support.wordpress.com/widgets/text-widget/#adding-an-image

You can upload image files by clicking the Add Media button right above the editing area of a page or a post. http://en.support.wordpress.com/add-media/

You can also upload new files to your Media Library using Media → Add New. http://support.wordpress.com/media/media-add-new

See also http://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/images-the-three-link-options/

For troubleshooting see http://en.support.wordpress.com/images/troubleshooting-images/

Same Terms of Service: The Domain Mapping Upgrade does not permit the use of any kind of prohibited code or upload additional themes or plugins. With the upgrade, your blog will still be hosted here at WordPress.com, which means that you will not have FTP access to your files and you will still be required to abide by our Terms of Service. http://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/#important-notes-before-upgrading

If you require plugins then you have to hire a web host, set up your self hosted WordPress.org install and move your content into it.
http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/

To customize your blog’s sharing options go to the Settings -> Sharing page in your dashboard. http://en.support.wordpress.com/sharing/

Wow, this part of things is just so far over my head...

Note: If you are using an IE9 browser in compatibility mode that makes it render as IE7 and IE7 is not supported. To disable see > http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1196-internet-explorer-compatibility-view-turn-off.html

If you are running one of the browsers and versions listed at http://browsehappy.com please do these four things:

1. Try clearing your browser’s cache:

http://www.google.com/support/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=32050

2. Make sure that you have third-party cookies enabled: http://en.support.wordpress.com/third-party-cookies/

3. Try with all browser extensions or add-ons temporarily disabled.

4. Try enabling HTTPS: http://en.support.wordpress.com/https/

If it’s still happening, let us know exactly which browser (and version of it) you’re using by checking here if necessary http://www.whatbrowser.org/

I know I will have to earn my way up the ranks so to speak but right now it appears I am not even able to do that since, as I understand it at least, Google can't index the site in the first place if there is no site map. And regardless of WordPress.com automatically submitting it Google says there isn't one for my site.

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below. ...

There's a lot of baloney circulating about SEO. Search spiders look for keywords in the content of your posts and they can detect whether or not keyword categories/tags are supported by the keywords in the post content or not.

In fact WordPress.com blogs have excellent SEO. http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/seo-on-wordpress-com/

http://en.support.wordpress.com/search-engines/