Need help? Check out our Support site, then


WordPress.com Forums » Support

Google Sitemap Generator and technorati

  1. whitehallpost
    Member

    HI I am new to this and have 3 questions. sorry but im not very good at codes. but I have set up my blog, but i am trying to add some plugins to my blog to help market it.

    a)I went to wordpress.org and found a plugin for google sitemap generator, and it looks so compicated.

    so far i have saved the plugin to my desktop, but the first thing the manual says to do is:
    1. Upload the full directory into your wp-content/plugins directory
    2. Make your blog directory writeable OR create two files named sitemap.xml and sitemap.xml.gz and make them writeable via CHMOD In most cases, your blog directory is already writeable.

    errr how do i upload the directory? what is wp-content etc? how do i maje my directory writeable? infact where is this directory? create what files sitemap.xml etc?

    so confusing can you help. is there an easier way?

    b) second problem: im trying to upload the technorati logo onto my site, so ppl can vote for it, they gave me a code for the logo, but where do i place this code?

    c) on some websites i see they have logos for you to add the webiste to homepages like google and yahoo. the logos look like this '+yahoo' and '+google'. where can i get these logos, and how do i place them on my blog.. please please dont say it involves more code, but i have a feeling you are.

    please can you help, i would be so grateful. thanks

  2. dirkgently
    Member

    You can't upload to any directory with a wordpress.com blog (that also includes changing file permissions CHMOD). For that you need FTP access . For that you need to be using a different host, with your own domain name.....which costs money. Any widgets which need that will not work in wordpress.com blogs.

  3. judyb12
    Member

    A: dirk's right, we have no uploading ability for widgets here. Take a look at this post for google sitemap (which i found by searching the forum): http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=446&page&replies=5

    B: the Technorati code needs to go in a text widget. You can only use their HTML, not javascript or flash. Take a look at the FAQ entry for text widgets: http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/12/24/using-the-text-widget/

    C: again, a text widget. You will have to go to each site to get their code

  4. whitehallpost
    Member

    thanks for the info most useful.

    two more questions:
    1) how can we market our blogs without signing upto a different host?
    2) can blogs hosted on wordpress use google adwords to market the website?

    thanks
    josh

  5. drmike
    Member

    1) if you mean by market as promote, please do a search of the forums for terms like 'promote' as it's been discussed many many times in the past. There's also a quick article I wrote on the subject over at http://pimpmyblog.wordpress.com that you may want to read.

    2) I don't see that an an issue but best bet would be to ask staff directly via feedback. You may want to stress the point of 'adwords' as a marketing tool just to make sure they understand.

    I do have to ask though as the volenteers here in the forums are currently having a discussion on this topic. Please don't take this as an insult. All of your questions (except for the adwords one) has been covered in the past here in the forums as well as in the stickies and the faq blog. Is there some specific reason you didn't search or look for the questions? Did you search and were unable to find them? Again, not trying to be negative but we're wondering why folks aren't finding the answers they're looking for.

    thanks,
    -drmike

  6. whitehallpost
    Member

    Hi Drmike, that link is really helpful and has given me more ideas aswell. thanks.

    In terms of your question, i think as a newbie it is part my fault and part not why i wrote in the forum when it had alreday been covered (also thanks for not having a go at me, you phrased it all in a polite way when you didnt need to, so cheers).

    Previously I have searched for things in the forums, and when i did, lots of past posts came up, discussing the topics i enquired about. admitedly half the time my problem has been solved by doing my own search, but it does take a lot of time, to find the right post that applies to you and decipher what people are talking about. I think you as moderators know your stuff well, so its easier for someone like me to just post and wait for the help.

    I think i was abit lazy, and as i siad its easier to ask you for help, rather than look it up. but on a genuine note, going trhough previous peoples posts on the same topic is not user friendly, as for instance im a total beginner at this, so dont understand alot of what people wrote in previous posts on the same topic.

    hope this helps. thanks

  7. raincoaster
    Member

    Yes, but forcing us to answer the exact same question repeatedly is not volunteer-friendly. You can understand why we wouldn't be tremendously motivated to do that, right?

    I'm glad to see you're independent enough to search for answers first. It will save everyone a lot of time and add a lot of goodwill.

  8. timethief
    Member

    @ whitehallpost
    As you are a "total beginner" this link will be helpful http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=11280 And "good on you" for looking for answers before posting.

  9. roadsofstone26
    Member

    Actually with WordPress.com you can very simply load an html sitemap into Google - and it works just fine. You need to get Google to verify your site first.

    Here are the two tutorials you need from tigredofogo:

    http://tigredefogo.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/how-to-make-google-verify-your-wordpresscom-blog-verify-site-ownership/

    http://tigredefogo.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/tutorial-google-sitemap-solution-for-wordpresscom-blog/

    Many thanks to engtech for showing how it can be done, and to tigredefogo for mentioning it here and making it simple.

    For the technorati widget, the solution is in the FAQ.

  10. timethief
    Member

    http://faq.wordpress.com/2006/07/22/how-do-i-embed-technorati-code/

  11. whitehallpost
    Member

    Thanks guys, most helpful, took your advice and got the technorati logo on my site pasting their code into the text widget, (now i know what they are for) and am currently using your suggested methods for marketing.

    Those links you have are most helpful, thank you very much. i know that beginners like me appreciate it and hopefully in the fuiture i will be like you and able to help new comers.

    Thanks everyone

  12. drmike
    Member

    Also thanks for the response to my question. :)

  13. raincoaster
    Member

    In my opinion, you won't need to buy adwords. I have done virtually NO promotion of my second blog, but we hit the front page of Google within the first month. I hadn't even bothered to register it with the blogsearch!

    Tags, baby: it's all about tagging your posts.

  14. drmike
    Member

    It depends really. If you have a niche blog, I could see it. For the standard blogs we have here, I agree with Rain as it being not necessary. Proper categorizing of posts and being mindful of post titles would give you a lot than Adwords would.

  15. raincoaster
    Member

    Hey, my second blog is a niche blog, and there we are, making Google our bitch. And I haven't even gone around commenting on other blogs in that niche, as I normally would.

  16. tfrischholz
    Member

    Well, http://tigredefogo.wordpress.com/2007/05/08/tutorial-google-sitemap-solution-for-wordpresscom-blog/
    didn't work. I've got an error.

  17. ellaella
    Member

    What error message did you get? Did you verify ownership of the blog first?

  18. tfrischholz
    Member

    Yes, I verified the site - which worked so far. The errors I get are the following:

    Line:
    12
    Invalid URL
    This is not a valid URL. Please correct it and resubmit.

    Line:
    13
    Invalid XML: too many tags
    Too many tags describing this tag. Please fix it and resubmit.

    Line:
    12
    Incorrect namespace
    Your Sitemap or Sitemap index file doesn't properly declare the namespace.

  19. dontstop
    Member

    I get the same errors and some more. Did you find out more about this issue?
    See also:
    http://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=18468&page&replies=3

  20. ellaella
    Member

    I've had both the too many tags and the URL not allowed (mentioned in the thread dontstop lined to) and when I was unable to fix them I reduced the number of posts in my feed and waited a week or two. They disappeared, so I assume those "errors" are generated from the feed and not a site crawl. I could be totally wrong about that, but they are gone.

  21. dontstop
    Member

    So i've tested this for some time. The error-messages in google-webmaster-tools complaining about the wordpress.com feed do not "disappear" in my case - nevertheless the feed seems to work great as a sitemap. Google crawles my complete blog now - instead of only some posts bevore i submitted the feed as sitemap.

    perhaps wordpress.com coud find out, if there's a problem with its feeds or if its a google-webmaster-tools problem anyway...

  22. timethief
    Member

    perhaps wordpress.com coud find out, if there's a problem with its feeds or if its a google-webmaster-tools problem anyway...

    The best way to insure that this actually comes to staff attention is to contact staff. The'r is a "support" button on the top right hand corner of any admin side blog page that you can use to do this. Support hours are Monday - Friday 8 AM - 4 PM.

    P.S. Lucky you when I tried to get Google to use the feed link it would not accept it.

Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies.

About this Topic

Tags