How to Make a Smart WooCommerce Product Search

Do want to improve the product search in your WooCommerce store?

WooCommerce has a built-in search feature, but it is not very good at finding products. Replacing it with a smarter and faster search improves user experience and brings in more sales.

In this article, we will show you how to make a smart WooCommerce product search for your online store.

Why Add a Smart WooCommerce Product Search to Your Store?

By default, WooCommerce comes with a built-in product search feature, but it leaves a lot to be desired.

It does not look for matches in product attributes, reviews, custom fields, or description. It is also very slow and doesn’t offer a good user experience.

This means that users will not be able to find the products they are looking for, and you will lose potential sales.

Luckily, there are some excellent WooCommerce product search plugins that you can use to remedy that. This will allow you to show more helpful product search results, fetch them faster, and get more product sales.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a smart WooCommerce product search feature to your online store.

Method 1. Make Better WooCommerce Product Search Using Ajax Search for WooCommerce

This method is easier and recommended for most store owners.

For this tutorial, we will be using the pro version of Ajax Search for WooCommerce, which is the best WooCommerce product search plugin on the market.

It looks for the searched keywords in all your products fields including custom fields. The plugin can can also display results without reloading a page, and it is considerably faster than the default WooCommerce search.

There is a free version of this plugin available as well, but it doesn’t have all the powerful features.

First, you need to install and activate the Ajax Search for WooCommerce plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to click on the ‘Ajax Search for WooCommerce’ menu in the WordPress admin sidebar to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the plugin website.

After that, you can visit the WooCommerce » Ajax Search Bar page to configure plugin settings. Simply switch to the ‘Search bar’ tab to get started.

From here, you can choose the appearance of your search box. You can show and hide the button, change the search button label, and replace the placeholder text.

The plugin starts fetching and displaying product results as soon as users start typing. You can customize how many products to show, and how to display instant results.

Simply switch to the ‘Autocomplete’ tab and review the available options. If you are unsure, then you can leave them as they are. The default settings would work for most online stores.

Next, you need to switch to the Search config page. From here, you can tell the plugin which areas to look at when looking for a match.

You can check all the options if you want. You can also select custom fields that you may want to be included in search.

Lastly, the plugin also includes Fuzzy matches. These basically include products that might be close to what users are looking for but not an exact match. We recommend keeping this setting at Normal for more relevant and helpful results.

Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store all your settings.

Displaying Your WooCommerce Product Search on Your Website

Ajax Search for WooCommerce gives you three ways to add the product search box to your WooCommerce store.

• You can add it to your store’s navigation menu.
• Display it in the sidebar using a widget
• Add it manually to a shop page using the shortcode

Adding WooCommerce Product Search to Navigation Menu

Users are likely to look for the search option near your top navigation menu. The plugin makes it easy to place the product search there.

Simply go to Appearance » Menus page. Make sure that your current navigation menu is selected and then add the ‘AJAX Search Bar’ to your navigation menu.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Menu button to store your settings.

You can now visit your store to see the product search added to your site’s navigation menu.

Adding WooCommerce Product Search to Sidebar Widget

The sidebar is also a popular place to display the product search option.

Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘AJAX search bar’ widget to your sidebar.

Optionally, you can provide a title and choose a layout for your search field from the widget settings.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to save your widget settings.

You can now visit your store and you’ll see the search box in your sidebar.

Adding WooCommerce Product Search using Shortcode

If you are using a custom landing page for your shop page or product catalog, then you may want to display a product search on that particular page or post.

The plugin comes with a shortcode that allows you to easily do that. Simply edit the post or page where you want to display the search box.

On the edit screen, click on the add new block button (+) and then insert the shortcode block. Inside the shortcode block, you can simply enter the following shortcode:

[wcas-search-form]

Don’t forget to publish, save, or update your post / page.

You can now visit that particular page or post to see the on-page search box displayed there.

Method 2. Creating a Smarter WooCommerce Search Using SearchWP

This method is for store owners that also have a lot of non-product related content, and they want to make a better search experience for all their content.

SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin on the market and comes with a WooCommerce addon too that helps you improve WooCommerce product search too.

The advantage of SearchWP is that it also indexes your blog posts and landing pages.

The disadvantage is that their instant search feature doesn’t display product thumbnails in the results. As a store owner, you want a more visual search experience to engage your customers instantly.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the SearchWP plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: You’ll need at least the PRO plan to access the WooCommerce integration.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » SearchWP page and switch to the license tab to enter your license key.

Next, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce Integration extension. You can download it from your account area on SearchWP website and install it as you would install any other WordPress plugin.

Now you are ready to set up your SearchWP custom search engine.

Simply go to Settings » SearchWP page and click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.

This will bring up a popup where you need to make sure that the checkbox next to products is checked.

Next, click on the ‘Done’ button to close the popup and scroll down to the ‘Products’ section.

By default, the plugin will look at the product title, content (description), slug, and excerpt (short description) for matches. You can extend that by clicking on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.

This will bring up a popup where you can check to include reviews or select custom fields and taxonomies. We have added color and size in the custom fields, and product categories, and product tags in the taxonomies.

You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your settings. It will then start rebuilding your search index in the background.

SearchWP automatically looks for your WooCommerce or WordPress search forms and replaces them. Your WooCommerce theme may already have an option to display the search option.

You can go to your website to try out the search feature. You’ll notice that it is slower and will reload the page to show the search results.

You can change that behavior by downloading the Live Search extension from SearchWP’s website. After downloading it, you can install and activate it like any other WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘SearchWP Live Search’ widget to your sidebar.

Don’t forget to click on the Save button to save your widget settings.

After that, you can visit your website to see your smart WooCommerce search in action. You’ll notice that SearchWP will display products in live search results but without product thumbnails.

Which is the best WooCommerce Product Search Plugin?

Ajax Search for WooCommerce and SearchWP are both good at finding products that your default WooCommerce search would not be able to show.

However, Ajax Search for WooCommerce is faster and offers a better user experience. A faster search feature on an eCommerce store ultimately leads to more sales.

It is also easier to use, and you wouldn’t need to install multiple addons to create a better product search on your site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily make a smart WooCommerce product search for your online store. You may also want to see our pick of the best WooCommerce plugins that help you grow your store, and our comparison of the best business phone services to add a virtual phone number on your site.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Make a Smart WooCommerce Product Search appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 18, 2021 at 06:00PM

9 Best Online Course Platforms for 2021 (Compared)

Are you comparing the best online course platforms?

Whether you’re a content creator looking for an online course platform to sell courses, or a student looking to learn from online courses, you’re in the right place.

In this comprehensive guide, we will compare the best online course platforms with their pros and cons.

What to Look for in an Online Course Builder Platform?

Following are a few things that you should look for in an online course builder platform. These things may affect your ability to build better courses and grow your business over time.

1. Course building features

Depending on what kind of online course you want to sell, you may have specific features in mind that you’ll need. For instance, you may want to give assignments to students, create quizzes, or offer multiple payment methods.

Different learning management systems (LMS) offer different course creation features. Make sure you review them before you sign up, so that you don’t have to switch platforms later on.

2. Payment solutions

You may also want to make sure that they offer payment solutions that are affordable for you as the business owner. Some online course builder platforms may charge a percentage of revenue generated from selling each course, and this amount adds up over time.

3. Integrations

Integrations help you connect your online courses to third-party platforms and marketing automation tools. For instance, you may want to connect it with your email marketing service, social media marketing tool, or your CRM software.

Make sure that your online course platform supports third-party integrations and already has many important ones ready to use.

4. Flexibility and freedom

Many online course platforms may have their own terms and conditions that may affect your business. For example, they may not allow you to sell certain types of courses or may have the ability to shutdown your entire business without any notice.

Some platforms compromise on flexibility for ease of use, which means you have less control on your courses, and you cannot add new customization / features on your own course.

5. Ease of use and Support

As a course creator and entrepreneur, you want to choose a course builder that is easy for you to use. It should come with customizable templates, work with your own website, and offer good customer support.

You also want to make sure that it is user-friendly for your students and customers too.

Keeping these criteria in mind, let’s take a look at the best online course platforms on the market today,

Best Online Course Platforms to Create and Sell Online Courses

We are breaking our guide into two sections. The first six course platforms are for content creators looking to build and sell online courses.

If you’re looking for best online learning platforms for students, then please click the link to jump to that section.

Having that said, here are the best online course platforms for content creators and teachers:

1. MemberPress

MemberPress is the best WordPress LMS plugin on the market and the easiest way to build online courses.

It runs on top of WordPress, which powers over 39% of all websites on the internet.

MemberPress comes with an online courses addon that allows you to easily create, manage, and sell online courses. Their drag and drop course builder is super easy to use.

You also don’t need to worry about design skills. MemberPress includes a virtual classroom functionality that takes care of styling and works with all WordPress themes.

The classroom mode is designed to offer an interactive learning experience on your course website. You can add high-quality video content along with additional downloadable resources.

The best part is that you get access to MemberPress’s powerful content access controls. This allows you to sell unlimited courses with different pricing options and subscription plans.

You can also add digital downloads with access control, so only logged-in students can access them.

MemberPress checkout seamlessly integrates with your email marketing service, so you can add each student to your email list, so you can notify them of new course upsell or discounts in the future.

You can add a discussion forum using bbPress to boost engagement, add a referral system or affiliate program using Affiliate Royale to boost sales, and create custom sales pages / webinar pages using SeedProd to grow your online course business.

Pros:

• MemberPress is extremely easy for use even for beginners. You don’t need any coding skills to use it.
• Visual course builder makes it very easy to create courses for educators.
• It offers a better learning experience for students with the classroom mode
• Ability to drip course content, sell group memberships, and all the powerful membership features.
• You have the freedom to set your own course prices, charge upfront vs subscription payments, have multiple pricing options for your online school, and more.
• It supports multiple payment gateways such as Stripe and Authorize.net for credit cards and full PayPal support.
• It does not take a percentage of your course sales like other platforms.
• MemberPress integrates with all popular email marketing services like MailChimp, and they also have a Zapier integration that lets you connect with over 2000+ apps.
• Since it’s a WordPress plugin, you have the flexibility to customize your website design, add new features, and more without any restrictions.

Cons:

• You’ll need to manage a WordPress site which means installing updates and managing backups.
• If you haven’t used WordPress before, then there might be a slight learning curve as you familiarize yourself with it. Most beginners quickly overcome this phase quite easily.

Pricing: Starts from $149 per year for a single site license (no monthly fee).

How to Get Started with MemberPress:

To build and sell courses with MemberPress, you will need to create a WordPress website.

We have created a complete step by step on how to create a membership site in WordPress with MemberPress.

2. LearnDash

LearnDash is another popular WordPress LMS plugin and online course builder. It allows you to easily sell online courses using WordPress.

LearnDash comes with an intuitive drag and drop course builder that allows you to create any type of course, add interactive video lessons, quizzes, assignments, and more.

You can give all course contents right-way, or use drip content feature to release content as users move along a course. It is super easy to use and gives you lots of tools you would want to see in an LMS platform.

It integrates with all popular payment services, WordPress eCommerce plugins, bbPress, and more. It even works with MemberPress allowing you to let MemberPress manage subscriptions and LearnDash handle the course management.

You can create sales funnels for your courses by using the SeedProd landing page builder, and add gamification by using any of the WordPress gamification plugins.

If you’re looking to create SCORM or TinCan content, then you will need the UncannyOwl Toolkit with the all access pass. They allow you to add many powerful features to LearnDash.

Pros:

• Full fledged WordPress LMS plugin with quizzes, lessons, assignments, certificates, and more.
• Easy to use with a visual course builder that allows you to create interactive online courses.
• Integrations allow you to add third-party tools you’ll need to promote your online course.
• It does not take a percentage of your course sales like other platforms.

Cons:

• Content access controls are not as powerful as MemberPress.
• Less control on creating multiple subscriptions with different access controls.
• Runs on WordPress, so you’ll need to manage your own site, which is pretty easy for most beginners.

Pricing: Starting from $159 for a single site license.

How to Get Started with LearnDash:

To build and sell courses with LearnDash, you will need to create a WordPress website.

To get started, you will need your own domain name and web hosting. Domain name is your website’s address on the internet such as wpbeginner.com, and web hosting is where your website files are stored.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are offering WPBeginner users a generous 60% discount on hosting, a free domain name and free SSL certificate. Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.

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After your website is setup, you’ll need to install the LearnDash plugin and continue creating your courses.

3. Teachable

Teachable is a hosted all-in-one platform that allows you to easily create courses and sell them without managing any software or installing updates.

You can use Teachable on your own custom domain name or add it as a subdomain to your existing website.

It is super easy to use and allows you an easy drag and drop platform to make courses, upload content, and publish it. It also includes marketing and analytics to help promote your course.

Teachable also takes care of payments for you and offers your customers multiple ways to pay. You can also use its highly optimized sales to create landing pages for your courses.

Pros:

• Incredibly easy to use.
• You don’t need to manage any software installation, updates, or backups.
• You also dont’t need to worry about scaling resources as your business grows.
• Powerful integrations allow you to use third-party tools for marketing and growth.

Cons:

• Teachable is more expensive than MemberPress or LearnDash.
• It also charges 5% transaction fee on each transaction if you are on the basic plan.

Pricing Starting from $29 per month for basic plan with 5% transaction fee. You can upgrade to the Pro plan which has no transaction fees but costs $99 per month.

4. Thinkific

Thinkific is another fully-hosted online course platform similar to Teachable.

It comes with an intuitive drag and drop visual course builder that lets you make highly interactive courses. You can upload any content to your course including videos.

Thinkific supports all features you can expect from an LMS plugin. Plus, you can create different multiple subscription programs, create landing pages, and make a membership community.

Pros:

• Thinkific is very easy to use for all users
• It is fully hosted which means you don’t need to worry about software, backup, and other technical aspects.
• You can grow your business without worrying about scaling the platform

Cons:

• It is more expansive than WordPress powered LMS platform like MemberPress
• The free plan is quite limited in features

Pricing: Limited free plan that allows you to offer up to three courses. Paid plans start at $39 per month.

5. LifterLMS

LifterLMS is a popular WordPress LMS plugin that you can use to create and see courses online.

LifterLMS is a powerful platform and comes with tools that help you easily create online courses. It also offers a better learning experience for your users which is important to build a community around your website.

It is flexible enough to set up an small online coaching website or a full-fledged degree program. It supports multi-tier courses, where you can add training modules, lessons, categories, and more.

It has advanced features like drip content, course progression requirements, group memberships, and more.

Pros:

• A powerful platform to create highly engaging online learning communities.
• Easy to use with simple course builder that helps you add any type of course material.
• Integrations for third-party services to help you promote and grow.

Cons:

• You need to manage your WordPress website and install updates
• Cost may increase if you choose to buy individual addons

Pricing: Starting from $99 per year for a single site. You’ll need to purchase addons separately and pricing for addons typically starts at $99 per year.

How to Get Started with LifterLMS:

You’ll need to purchase a domain name and web hosting to setup your WordPress site.

You can use Bluehost, SiteGround, or any other recommended WordPress hosting provider.

6. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform in the world. It is incredibly easy and flexible which makes it a good base to build your online course.

For selling and managing an online courses with WooCommerce, you’ll need their Sensei LMS extension.

Sensei LMS is a simple and straightforward LMS addon that allows you to create courses, add modules, lessons, and quizzes.

It is easy to use, and you can quickly setup a course website using the WooCommerce storefront theme.

If you want to create custom sales pages, then you can use SeedProd page builder. For real-time analytics, you can use the MonsterInsights analytics plugin.

Pros:

• Simple and straightforward LMS plugin
• Runs on top of WooCommerce which allows you to sell other physical or digital products on the same site.
• You can use essential WordPress plugins to extend your website and grow your business.

Cons:

• Requires paid addons to create paid courses and subscription programs
• Lacks some of the advanced LMS plugin features.
• You’ll have to manage your WooCommerce store and install updates

Pricing: Sensie LMS itself is free, but you’ll need WooCommerce Paid Subscriptions addon to create paid courses which costs $129 per year.

Best Online Course Platforms for Students

Whether you’re a student or an aspiring professional, acquiring new skills and continue improving on them can open many doors of opportunities in the modern economy.

There are ton of online learning platforms for students that you can join to acquire a new skill or to follow your passion.

7. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning (formerly, Lynda) is a popular platform to learn digital, creative, and other professional skills. They a large variety of subjects and classes for all levels of users (not just beginners).

LinkedIn Learning’s courses are taught by professionals with real-world experience and qualifications in their field.

You can learn at your own pace using the their online teaching platform, or their iOS / Android app.

You also get to earn certificates upon completion of a course which you can then display as a badge on your LinkedIn profile.

Pros:

• Higher quality courses taught by professionals with relevant background
• Badges and certificates that you can show off on your LinkedIn profile
• You also get access to LinkedIn Premium with more salary and job insights, unlimited profile viewing, InMail credits, and more.

Cons:

• More expansive than other online learning and skill sharing platforms.
• LinkedIn does not offer refunds, so you better take advantage of their free trial before making a purchase.

Pricing: Free trial, but pricing starts at $29.99 per month.

8. Skillshare

Skillshare is one of the largest online course platform for students offering hundreds of courses on a wide variety of subjects and categories.

It has a limited free trial, after that, you can upgrade to premium which gives you access to thousands of premium online courses that you can join.

Courses are created by professionals and teachers, not by Skillshare itself. Teachers are paid for these courses by views. This acts as an incentive for teachers to offer better quality and highly engaging courses.

Pros:

• It is affordable and you can cancel anytime.
• Thousands of classes on a very large number of skills and topics
• Easy to use with a built-in community element that makes learning fun

Cons:

• With too many courses it can be difficult to decide where to begin.
• Skillshare courses an be taught by anyone and there is not too many checks on the quality or standardization of the courses.

Pricing: Skillshare Premium starts from $3.29 per month paid annually.

9. Coursera

Coursera is another good place to learn new skills.

They offer a variety of free and paid courses and even online degree programs. They have partnered with technology companies like Google and IBM who want to promote the usage of their technologies by offering free courses.

In addition, Coursera also collaborates with colleges offering online degree programs. The courses offered are prepared by professionals with qualifications and skills in the subject matter.

Pros:

• Some useful technical courses for beginners are available for free enrollment
• Easy to use platform with a relatively better quality control than similar platforms
• Access to course materials from top IT companies and colleges
• Takes a more academic approach to courses.

Cons:

• Upselling of degree programs offered by colleges

Pricing Varies based on the courses or programs you choose to enroll.

Which is the Best Online Course Platform (Expert Pick)

After evaluating all the popular online course platforms, we recommend MemberPress as the best online course platform to build and sell online courses.

If you’re a student looking for the best online learning platform to expand your skills, then LinkedIn Learning and Skillshare are the best online learning platforms for students.

We hope this article helped you choose the best online course platforms. If you are selling your own online courses, then you may want to see our guide on how to grow your business online without spending a fortune.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Disclaimer: to help avoid choice paralysis, we only compared the top online course platforms. This list doesn’t include other elearning platforms or course marketplace like Udemy, Kajabi, Podia, LearnWorlds, WizIQ, iSpring, Academy of Mine, etc.

The post 9 Best Online Course Platforms for 2021 (Compared) appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 15, 2021 at 06:00PM

What is an XML Sitemap? How to Create a Sitemap in WordPress?

Are you wondering what is an XML sitemap, and how to add it to your WordPress website?

An XML sitemap helps search engines easily navigate through your website content. It gives them a list of all your content in a machine-readable format.

In this article, we will explain what is an XML sitemap, and how to easily create a sitemap in WordPress.

What is an XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap is a file that lists all your website content in an XML format, so search engines like Google can easily discover and index your content.

Back in the early 2000s, government websites used to have a link on their main pages, titled “Sitemap”. This page usually contained a list of all the pages on that website.

While some websites still have HTML sitemaps today, the overall usage of sitemaps have evolved.

Today sitemaps are published in an XML format instead of HTML, and their target audience is search engines and not people.

Basically, an XML sitemap is a way for website owners to tell search engines about all the pages that exist on their website.

It also tells search engines which links on your website are more important than others, and how frequently you update your website.

While XML sitemaps will not boost your search engine rankings, they allow search engines to better crawl your website. This means they can find more content and start showing it in search results thus resulting in more search traffic, and improved SEO rankings.

Why You Need an XML Sitemap?

Sitemaps are extremely important from a search engine optimization (SEO) point of view.

Simply adding a sitemap does not affect search rankings. However, if there is a page on your site that is not indexed, then sitemap provides you a way to let search engines know about that page.

Sitemaps are extremely useful for when you first start a blog or create a new website because most new websites don’t have any backlinks. This makes it harder for search engines to discover all of their content.

This is why search engines like Google and Bing allow new website owners to submit a sitemap in their webmaster tools. This allows their search engine bots to easily discover and index your content (more on this later).

Sitemaps are equally as important for established popular websites as well. They allow you to highlight which part of your websites are more important, which parts are more frequently updated, etc, so search engines can visit and index your content accordingly.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to create XML sitemap in WordPress.

How to create a Sitemap in WordPress?

There are several ways to create an XML sitemap in WordPress. We will show you three popular methods to create an XML sitemap in WordPress, and you can choose one that works best for you.

• How to create an XML sitemap in WordPress without a plugin
• Creating an XML sitemap in WordPress using All in One SEO
• Creating an XML sitemap in WordPress using Yoast SEO
• Submit your XML sitemap to search engines
• How to utilize XML sitemaps to grow your website

Method 1. How to Create an XML Sitemap in WordPress without a Plugin

This method is very basic and limited in terms of features.

Until August 2020, WordPress didn’t have built-in sitemaps. However in WordPress 5.5, they released a basic XML sitemap feature.

This allows you to automatically create an XML sitemap in WordPress without using a plugin. You can simply add wp-sitemap.xml at the end of your domain name, and WordPress will show you the default XML sitemap.

This XML sitemap feature was added to WordPress to make sure that any new WordPress website does not miss out on the SEO benefits of an XML sitemap.

However, it is not very flexible, and you cannot easily control what to add or remove from your XML sitemaps.

Luckily, almost all top WordPress SEO plugins come with their own sitemap functionality. These sitemaps are better, and you can control which content to remove or exclude from your WordPress XML sitemaps.

Method 2. Creating an XML Sitemap in WordPress using All in One SEO

The easiest way to create an XML sitemap in WordPress is by using the All in One SEO plugin for WordPress.

It is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market offering you a comprehensive set of tools to optimize your blog posts for SEO.

First, you need to install and activate the All in One SEO plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: Sitemap feature is also available in AIOSEO Free version. However to get advanced news sitemap and video sitemaps, you’ll need the Pro version.

Upon activation, go to the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page to review sitemap settings.

By default, All in One SEO will enable the Sitemap feature for you and replace the basic WordPress sitemaps.

You can click on the ‘Open Sitemap’ button to preview it to see what it looks like. You can also view your sitemap by adding ‘sitemap.xml’ to the URL such as https://ift.tt/XxxkvM.

As a beginner, you don’t need to do anything as the default settings would work for all kinds of websites, blogs, and online stores.

However, you can customize the sitemap settings to control what you want to include in your XML sitemap.

Simply scroll down to the Sitemap settings section.

This section gives you options to manage sitemap indexes, include or exclude post types, taxonomies (categories and tags). You can also enable XML sitemaps for date-based archives and author archives.

All in One SEO automatically includes all your WordPress content in XML sitemaps. However, what if you have stand-alone pages like a contact form, a landing page, or Shopify store pages that are not part of WordPress?

Well, AIOSEO is the only plugin that lets you add external pages in your WordPress sitemap. Simply scroll to the Additional Pages section and turn it on. This will show you a form where you can add any custom pages that you want to include.

You simply need to add the URL of the page that you want to include and then set a priority where 0.0 is the lowest and 1.0 is the highest, if you are unsure then we recommend using 0.3.

Next, choose the frequency of updates and the last modified date for the page.

You can click on the ‘Add New’ button if you need to add more pages.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Excluding Specific Posts / Pages from your XML Sitemap

All in One SEO allows you to exclude any post or page from your XML Sitemaps. You can do this by clicking on the Advanced Settings section under the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page.

You can also remove a post or page from your XML sitemaps by making it no-index and no-follow. This will block search engines from showing that content in search results.

Simply edit the post or page that you want to exclude and scroll down to the AIOSEO Settings box below the editor.

From here you need to switch to the Advanced tab and check the boxes next to ‘No Index’ and ‘No Follow’ options.

Creating Additional Sitemaps

All in One SEO allows you to create additional sitemaps like a video sitemap or a news sitemap.

You can create a video sitemap if you regularly embed videos in your blog posts or pages. It allows search engines to display posts in search and video search results along with a video thumbnail.

You can also create a News sitemap if you run a news website and want to appear in Google News search results.

Simply go to All in One SEO » Sitemaps and switch to the Video Sitemap or News Sitemap tabs to generate these sitemaps.

Overall, AIOSEO is the best WordPress plugin because it gives you all the flexibility and powerful features at a very affordable price.

Method 3. Creating an XML Sitemap in WordPress using Yoast SEO

If you are using Yoast SEO as your WordPress SEO plugin, then it also automatically turns on XML sitemaps for you.

First, you need to install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to SEO » General page and switch to the ‘Features’ tab. From here, you need to scroll down to the ‘XML Sitemap’ option and make sure that it is turned on.

Next, click on the save changes button to store your changes.

To verify that Yoast SEO has created an XML Sitemap, you can click on the question mark icon next to the XML Sitemap option on the page.

After that, click on the ‘See the XML Sitemap’ link to view your live XML sitemap generated by Yoast SEO.

You can also find your XML sitemap by simply adding sitemap_index.xml at the end of your website address. For example:

https://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml

Yoast SEO creates multiple sitemaps for different types of content. By default, it will generate sitemaps for posts, pages, author, and categories.

How to Submit Your XML Sitemap to Search Engines

Search engines are quite smart in finding a sitemap. Whenever you publish new content, a ping is sent to Google and Bing to inform them about changes in your sitemap.

However, we recommend that you submit the sitemap manually to ensure that search engines can find it.

Submitting Your XML Sitemap to Google

Google Search Console is a free tool offered by Google to help website owners monitor and maintain their site’s presence in Google search results.

Adding your sitemap to Google Search Console helps it quickly discover your content even if your website is brand new.

First, you need to visit the Google Search Console website and sign up for an account.

After that, you will be asked to select a property type. You can choose a domain or a URL prefix. We recommend choosing URL prefix as it is easier to setup.

Enter your website’s URL and then click on the continue button.

Next, you will be asked to verify ownership of the website. You will see multiple methods to do that, we recommend using the HTML tag method.

Simply copy the code on the screen and then go to the admin area of your WordPress website.

If you’re using AIOSEO, then it comes with easy webmaster tools verification. Simply go to All in One SEO » General Settings and then click the Webmaster Tools tab. After that, you can enter the code from Google there.

If you’re not using AIOSEO, then you need to install and activate the Insert Headers and Footers plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page and add the code you copied earlier in the ‘Scripts in Header’ box.

Don’t forget to click on the save button to store your changes.

Now, switch back to the Google Search Console tab and click on the ‘Verify’ button.

Google will check for verification code on your site and then add it to your Google Search Console account.

Note: If the verification is unsuccessful, then please make sure to clear your cache and then try again.

Now that you have added your website, let’s add your XML sitemap as well.

From your account dashboard, you need to click on ‘Sitemaps’ from the left column.

After that, you need to add the last part of your sitemap URL under the ‘Add new sitemap’ section and click the Submit button.

Google will now add your sitemap URL to your Google Search Console.

It will take Google some time to crawl your website. After a while, you would be able to see basic sitemap stats.

This information includes the number of links Google found in your sitemap, how many of them got indexed, a ratio of images to web pages, and more.

Submitting Your XML Sitemap to Bing

Similar to Google Search Console, Bing also offers Bing Webmaster Tools to help website owners monitor their website in the Bing search engine.

To add your sitemap to Bing, you need to visit the Bing Webmaster Tools website. Here, you’ll see two options to add your site. You can either import your site from Google Search Console or add it manually.

If you’ve already added your site to Google Search Console, we suggest importing your site. It saves time as your sitemap will automatically be imported for you.

If you choose to add your site manually, you need to enter your site’s URL and then verify the site.

Bing will now ask you to verify the ownership of your website and will show you several methods to do that.

We recommend using the Meta tag method. Simply copy the meta tag line from the page and head over to your WordPress admin area.

Now, install and activate the Insert Headers and Footers plugin on your website.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page and add the code you copied earlier in the ‘Scripts in header’ box.

Don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your changes.

How to Utilize XML Sitemaps to Grow Your Website?

Now that you have submitted the XML sitemap to Google, let’s take a look at how to utilize it for your website.

First, you need to keep in mind that the XML sitemap does not improve your search rankings. However, it does help search engines find content, adjust crawl rate, and improve your website’s visibility in search engines.

You need to keep an eye on your sitemap stats in Google Search Console. It can show you crawl errors and the pages excluded from search coverage.

Below the charts, you can click on the tables to view actual URLs excluded or not indexed by Google.

Normally, Google may decide to skip duplicate content, pages with no content or very little content, and pages excluded by your website’s robots.txt file or meta tags.

However, if you have an unusually high number of excluded pages, then you may want to check your SEO plugin settings to make sure that you are not blocking any content.

For more details, see our complete Google Search Console guide for beginners.

We hope this article helped answer all your questions about XML sitemaps and how to create an XML sitemap for your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to quickly increase your website traffic with step by step tips, and our comparison of the best keyword research tools to write better content.

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The post What is an XML Sitemap? How to Create a Sitemap in WordPress? appeared first on WPBeginner.

January 14, 2021 at 04:45PM