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Add an HTML Sitemap to a WordPress Website

By on December 20, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

Add an HTML Sitemap to a WordPress Website

Here’s some easy to follow instructions on how to add an HTML sitemap to a WordPress website.

After scouring the web and nearly giving myself a headache I found a solution, so this will hopefully save others those near headaches.

I’ll ramble here a little to begin with, to make getting to the crux of the problem easier, but you’re welcome to just leap to the formula below.

You see, when you find the site that provides the code for a WordPress HTML sitemap, it gives all the information, but not quite all the information on how to implement it – this was the frustrating part.

So I was armed with the ‘plugin’ code and the ‘shortcode’ to activate the sitemap, but didn’t really get the installation instructions of: “”Add the shortcode to the page(s) of your choice””. You see an HTML sitemap is a page alone, it shouldn’t be added to specific pages, it should usually be on a page called: sitmap.php/htm/html &c.

I wanted my sitemap to be linked from the footer of every page of the site.

So to start with you’ll need the ‘plugin’ code, which is courtesy of Angelo Mandato (credit at bottom of article); there’s 2 options: you can go to the installation page, where at the top right of the page there’s a big red button, or use the instructions below, which I’ve stated as being easier.

Being easier, I’d advise you to log-in to your WordPress Dashboard and click on ‘Plugins’ (left-hand menu), a little drop down menu reveals ‘Add New’ click here, on this page there’s a search box, type in ‘HTML Sitemap’ and click on ‘Search Plugins’. At the top of the list you’ll see: ‘HTML Page Sitemap’, version ‘1.1.1’ – click on install.

Okay, 1st of 3 jobs completed.

Now to create the interaction between the ‘plugin’ and the ‘shortcode’ which is [html-sitemap], you’ll firstly need to click on ‘Pages’ (in the left-hand menu) of your WordPress Dashboard, in the drop down menu you’ll need to click on ‘Add New’, this will create the new sitemap page. Where it asks for ‘title’ enter ‘Sitemap’, in the ‘content’ box you need to add your ‘shortcode’, which is [html-sitemap], make sure you use square brackets. Now because you don’t want this page in the main navigation, it is advisable to give it a parent, so in the ‘Page Attributes’ (right-hand menu), click on the ‘no parent’ drop down and put it under ‘Other Info’ or something similar, click on ‘publish page’.

Okay 2nd of 3 jobs done.

Now we need to get the sitemap visible on every page of the site. Back to the WordPress Dashboard, in the left-hand menu click on ‘Appearance’, the drop down menu offers the link ‘Editor’, click on this. In the right-hand menu of the new page all the ‘Templates’ are listed, go down till you find ‘Footer’ (footer.php), click on this and you’ll see the content of your site’s footer links. You will most likely have the following in the footer already: Powered by <>a href=””http://www.WordPress.org””>WordPress<>

Right after this add the following: | <>a href=””http://www.MYWEBSITE.com/sitemap”” target=””_blank>Sitemap<>

Naturally change the ‘MYWEBSITE’ to your own website and the.com to.de,.nl or.co.uk. Click on the blue button ‘Update File’.

That’s it job 3 of 3 completed.

Go to your website, press the ‘F5’ key, you may have to do this twice (that’s computers for you), and in your footer you should now see your newly created link to your site’s HTML sitemap, click on the link to test it, and you should find a nicely laid out sitemap indexing all your site’s pages.

Now naturally you may want the sitemap to be more detailed, for this I will reference you back to Angelo’s site, where he explains this further, but for me I just needed a nice clear HTML sitemap and no further headaches.

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WordPress Leading the Way

By on December 10, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, Blog Business, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

For many reasons, WordPress is preferred as the leading blog publisher for websites. Its structured and sophisticated features make blogging so enjoyable and fun. One of its modern features, Kubrick template, is easy to install and customize. Kubrick comes together with WordPress as the default style. For advanced version of Kubrick, K2 is modified to make blog administration easier with the addition of logistics- handling tabs. However, users feel that Kubrick is not user- friendly enough simply because there better themes out there. It is custom theme that can be personalized accordingly.
Bloggers find Kubrick boring after a few posts because of it lack of customization. Upon installation of WordPress, the default theme is Kubrick, which is not sustainable in long-term use. This is because plug- in need to be installed to keep track of comments left by readers. Although WordPress allows easy installation of plug-ins into your blog, it is still a hassle compared to other custom themes that often comes with plug-ins.
In these days, it is not a good idea to use Kubrick as the base theme for WordPress as this leads themes that are difficult to customize. Moreover, Kubrick theme has little documentation and it makes unattractive layouts. For beginners, this is a source of headache when changing layout with Kubrick seems to take forever. In short, Kubrick theme is not user- friendly to bloggers.
Kubrick theme might look too formal with its rigid vertical columns for art lovers. People with art and graphic base often choose more organic and soft-edged designs instead of rigid designs that you would see in Kubrick theme. This is why Kubrick should be changed into a more beautiful theme that suits everyone’s taste.
Also, Kubrick theme should be developed in minimal way for easier customization if it is still going to be WordPress default theme. People always prefer to break away from the default look by tweaking the codes. However, Kubrick codes are not easy to work with. The theme should be plainer so that customization is easier. Therefore, in long-term, Kubrick is not a good base theme for its bad workability.
It is not the end of the world for those who are not good in CSS and HTML editing but yearn for a revamp for their blogs. They can always download themes from websites such as WordPress Theme Generator and IMJTK. These highly informative and useful websites dedicate themselves to provide countless gorgeous WordPress themes to replace Kubrick theme. Downloading and uploading your custom theme is easier this way and saves a lot of time too.
You can also switch themes as much as you like to check the theme’s suitability to your blog. You can always remove the theme if you find the theme looks awkward in representing your blog posts. Unlike Kubrick, there is not much you can do if you find the design not attractive enough for your taste. You need to tweak the finest details to get the result you want which means more time is spent on blog layout rather than concentrating on the blog content.
All in all, custom theme is so much better than Kubrick theme because of its versatility and functionality. It is hoped that one day WordPress decides to replace Kubrick theme with a better-looking theme that is easy to be customized.

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5 Reasons To Use WordPress As Your Blog System

By on July 29, 2011 in !Randy Roedl Internet Marketing, affiliate marketing, wordpress, Wp Headers, Wp Themes

5 Reasons To Use WordPress As Your Blog System

I have tried many blogging system to hold my blog. Starting from free blog systems like blogger.comto open source blog programs.

It is not until I found WordPress and settle down with it. There are 5 reasons for you to choose WordPress as your blogging system, in the order of their importance.

1. Search Engine Optimization Built-in Feature

WordPress is programmed with Search Engine Optimization(SEO) feature. What I am talking about is the function of converting your blog article to URLs pointing to your blog article.

For example, if you blog has address of [http://www.YourBlog.com], you can have URLs like this, pointingto your articles:

[http://www.yourblog.com/your-article-title-here]

So, if your article title is “”Wordpress Private Tutorials”” then you can have this URL:

[http://www.yourblog.com/wordpress-private-tutorials]

Just imagine when search engine listed those URLs to their system. When people search something about ‘WordPress Tutorials’ or merely about ‘WordPress’, there are big possibilities they end up clicking your URL above. Thus, you will get traffic to your blog.

This SEO feature can be activated with only a few simple steps. Most people who use WordPress don’t activate this feature after installing their WordPress blog.

2. Ease Of Use

I’m sure you don’t want to get headache when using your blogging system, and concentrate on the writing part. That’s why WordPress is the right system to use, since the control panel’s user interface is beautifully built. Even if you are new to internet and blogging world, WordPress user interface can be used by you intuitively.

3. Rich Arsenal Of Plug-ins

WordPress ethusiast programmers are plenty. They are making good and great plug-ins you can use with your WordPress. There are so many of them that there are more than one plug-ins available to serve a single purpose.

Searching and trying which plug-in works for you can be a risky, tedious and time-consuming task. Here’s a tip: ask person whose blog you read and in his/her blog you find an interesting function at his/her WordPress blog.

4. Rich Arsenal Of Theme

Besides programmers, there are also many WordPress enthusiast web designers. They created plenty WordPress theme you can use for free. There are downsides if you use these free themes:

– You cannot modify them as you like

– You probably cannot find a theme that suits your need

– You look unprofessional since you are using a free theme.

Thing these risks when you are considering a free theme.

5. Familiar To Readers

Last but not the least, like they say, WordPress look is very familiar to blog readers. It is since the are many people are using WordPress as their blog system. Naturally, many readers became familiar with WordPress look. So, if you use WordPress, your readers can easily walk around your blog.

This is a great advantage that can keep your reader’s visit duration. ‘Visit Duration Rate’ is very important to determine how successful your blog is.

As a conclusion, despite a few disadvantages mentioned above, WordPress still your best choice of blog system. WordPress definitely will stay at the internet for a long time, and it is time for you to join the community if you have not yet.

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