Learning to Easily Create Sitemaps for Your E-commerce Website

Creating a sitemap is a crucial step for e-commerce websites to help search engines index their pages effectively. A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the pages and products on your website, making it easier for search engines like Google to find and display them in search results. In this article, we will explore how to create sitemaps for four popular e-commerce platforms: Magento, PrestaShop, Shopware, and Shopify. We will discuss the built-in mechanisms and third-party modules available to automate and perfect this process.

Moving Inside the Sitemap Universe

A sitemap’s role is to inform search engines about your website's structure, making it easier for them to find and index your pages. By providing a clear structure, a sitemap can improve your website's visibility in search results, leading to higher traffic and sales for your e-commerce store.

How to Create a Sitemap for Your E-commerce Website

Magento Sitemap

To create a sitemap on Magento, follow these steps:

Log in to the Magento Admin panel and navigate to Stores Settings Configuration. Under the General section, find the Google Sitemap settings and configure as needed. You can customize the frequency and priority for categories, products, CMS pages, and store URLs. Set the availability update time frequency and error email template recipient and sender. Limit the file size and the number of URLs per it. Enable submission of the sitemap to robots.txt for better indexing.

For advanced customization, consider using third-party extensions like XML Google Sitemaps by Amasty. This extension, available for $109 in the first year and $69 annually, offers faster indexing, inclusion or exclusion of link groups, individual setup of frequency and priority, and even the ability to add images with titles and templates.

PrestaShop Sitemap

Unlike Magento, PrestaShop lacks an in-built sitemap creation tool. To create a sitemap, you can use one of the available modules from the official marketplace. Here’s a step-by-step guide using the basic and free module:

Log in to the PrestaShop Admin panel and navigate to Modules Modules and Services. Type “Google Sitemap” into the search bar and install the module. Choose and mark the pages you do not want to include in the sitemap (e.g., authorization page, shopping cart, personal page, order history, and service pages as 404). Click on Generate Sitemap and receive the sitemap address. Save the sitemap into your Google Search Console account and Robots.txt.

While the basic module is free, the comprehensive and expensive SEO Pack Premium by PrestaShop, costing €546 in the first year and €156 annually, includes features like automatic ALT and SEO tagging, social media sharing, and redirection to the store.

Shopware Sitemap

Shopware automatically generates a basic sitemap.xml file by default, making it suitable for all relevant search engines. Here’s how to create and manage a sitemap:

Log in to the Shopware administration panel and navigate to Settings Shop Sitemap. Set the time and strategy for the sitemap update. Shopware provides several strategies: Scheduled means the sitemap is automatically generated at a fixed time regularly and stored in the file system. Live will create a new sitemap if it's the first one and then update it based on the Refresh time. Manual allows you to generate a sitemap by running the command: php bin/console sitemap:generate. You should run this command whenever there are URL changes.

Shopify Sitemap

Shopify, like Magento and Shopware, enables webstores to generate a sitemap.xml file. This file will include links to products, primary product images, pages, collections, and blog posts. For Basic, Advanced, and Plus plans, the features of the international domain are available to create region- or country-specific domains.

Sitemaps are generated automatically and can be found in the root directory. They will be updated by default whenever you add a new webpage, product, collection image, or blog post to the webstore.

Conclusion

By learning how to create sitemaps for your e-commerce website, you can ensure that your content is easily indexed by search engines. This article has provided detailed instructions on how to create sitemaps for Magento, PrestaShop, Shopware, and Shopify, including the use of third-party extensions and tools. Implementing these sitemaps can significantly improve your website's visibility and, ultimately, drive more traffic and sales to your online store.