=== Easy sitemap shortcode ===
Contributors: Azseoll
Tags: posts, pages, index, contents, list
Requires at least: 3.0.1
Tested up to: 4.6.1
Stable tag: 0.2
Create site map html by using shortcodes to display a filtered list of posts, grouped by category/tag, with optional thumbnails.
== Description ==
Create site map html by using shortcodes to display a filtered list of posts, grouped by category/tag, with optional thumbnails. provides additional shortcodes to include a list of posts within another post or page.
Key features are:
* Filter posts by a search query
* Filter posts by category, via an inclusion or exclusion list of categories
* Filter posts by tag, via an inclusion or exclusion list of tags
* Order posts by a post field of your choice
* Limit number in list, e.g. to show 10 most recent posts
* Group posts by category or tag, with subheadings displayed for category or tag
* Full control to configure list CSS styles, HTML per post and HTML at start and end
1. Upload the plugin files to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' screen in WordPress
3. Use the 'Settings->Html sitemap Lists' screen to configure the plugin
= Shortcode Usage =
The shortcode to use in your posts or pages is:
\[sitemapscseo_postlister\]
By default this will query all posts and sort by post title.
Below are some examples as to how each of the parameters can be used:
### List only posts that match the search keyword 'stuff' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister search='stuff'\]
### List only posts that match the search keyword 'stuff' but don't have the keyword 'rubbish' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister search='stuff \-rubbish'\]
### List only posts within the single category 'Spiders' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='Spiders'\]
A single category can be listed by name or by id.
### List posts within the categories Spiders or Dogs ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='Spiders,Dogs'\]
### List posts within the categories Spiders and Dogs ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='Spiders\+Dogs'\]
### List posts not within the categories 10 or 12 ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister notcat='10,12'\]
Categories to exclude must be listed as a comma separated list of id's.
### List posts with either the tags 'rain' or 'shine' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister tag='rain,shine'\]
### List posts with both the tags 'heavy' and 'metal' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister tag='heavy\+metal'\]
### List posts without the tag 'trouble' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister nottag='trouble'\]
### Limit the number of posts listed to 10 ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister maxposts=10\]
A value of -1 or the parameter omitted entirely mean all.
### Group posts by category. The category name will be inserted as a subheading at the start of the group ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister groupby=cat\]
### Group posts by tag ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister groupby=tag\]
### Order posts by post title (default behaviour) ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister orderby='title'\]
However you may order by 'ID', 'author', 'name' \(post slug\), 'date', 'rand' etc.
Of course you can mix an match many of these parameters to your hearts content.
Now that we’ve covered how you can optimize images in your website, let’s move on to understanding Sitemaps and its effects to your on site SEO structure. This is a Tutorial to Sitemaps.
What is a Sitemap?
In simple terms, a Sitemap is an XML file that is full of your individual webpage’s URLs. It’s like an archive of every webpage in your website. This file should be easily discoverable in your site in order for search engine crawlers to stumble upon it.
What is a Sitemap for?
google Sitemap spiderA Sitemap is usually used for the purpose of letting the search engine crawlers follow the links to all your individual webpages so that it won’t miss out on anything.
Sometimes we leave out URLs or hide them from all visible pages because we don’t exactly want some of the users to go there. As a result, some of these URLs are uncrawlable to search engine spiders.
We can still leave those URLs hidden from some users without having to lose out on those pages not being crawled by search engine spiders through including them in an XML Sitemap.
How do you create a Sitemap?
A Sitemap is pretty easy to create. For WordPress users, you can download the Google XML Sitemaps plugin to make it easier for you. This plugin helps you generate an XML sitemap without having to do anything but activating it.
After the plugin has generated your Sitemap, you can find the Sitemap at an address like this:
My Sitemap can be found at but I usually place the website’s Sitemap at the footer too so that it would have a stronger crawlable presence.
For those who are not using WordPress, you can use this online XML-Sitemaps generator tool. It’s pretty easy and they provide a step-by-step approach for you to implement your own Sitemap in your website.
How does your Sitemap affect your SEO?
Search engines should see all the pages that you want them to see. The more pages that they index from you, the more trust your site gains. It only means that your website has more information to offer.
Making sure the search engine spiders get to crawl all the stuff they need to crawl from your website is the exact purpose of a Sitemap. It’s not for navigation, it’s not for internal linking. It’s for the search engine spiders.
It won’t greatly boost your on-site SEO, but it would definitely help.
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== Installation ==
1. Upload the plugin files to the `/wp-content/plugins/fubaby_fastpostlists` directory, or install the plugin through the WordPress plugins screen directly.
2. Activate the plugin through the 'Plugins' screen in WordPress
3. Use the 'Settings->Html sitemap Lists' screen to configure the plugin
The options page allows you to manually enter some HTML to include at the start and end of the list, plus the exact
format of each list item. Additionally CSS styles can also be added through the options page as required.
The configured HTML per post uses a number of key values that will be substituted with data from each post. These are:
* \[title\] - the post title
* \[permalink\] - the post's permalink
* \[img\] - the first image attachment for the post (if any).
= Shortcode Usage =
The shortcode to use in your posts or pages is:
\[sitemapscseo_postlister\]
By default this will query all posts and sort by post title.
Below are some examples as to how each of the parameters can be used:
### List only posts that match the search keyword 'stuff' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister search='stuff'\]
### List only posts that match the search keyword 'stuff' but don't have the keyword 'rubbish' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister search='stuff \-rubbish'\]
### List only posts within the single category 'Spiders' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='Spiders'\]
A single category can be listed by name or by id.
### List posts within the categories Spiders or Dogs ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='Spiders,Dogs'\]
### List posts within the categories Spiders and Dogs ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='Spiders\+Dogs'\]
### List posts not within the categories 10 or 12 ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister notcat='10,12'\]
Categories to exclude must be listed as a comma separated list of id's.
### List posts with either the tags 'rain' or 'shine' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister tag='rain,shine'\]
### List posts with both the tags 'heavy' and 'metal' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister tag='heavy\+metal'\]
### List posts without the tag 'trouble' ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister nottag='trouble'\]
### Limit the number of posts listed to 10 ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister maxposts=10\]
A value of -1 or the parameter omitted entirely mean all.
### Group posts by category. The category name will be inserted as a subheading at the start of the group ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister groupby=cat\]
### Group posts by tag ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister groupby=tag\]
### Order posts by post title (default behaviour) ###
\[sitemapscseo_postlister orderby='title'\]
However you may order by 'ID', 'author', 'name' \(post slug\), 'date', 'rand' etc.
Of course you can mix an match many of these parameters to your hearts content.
There are many SEO tips and tricks that help in optimizing a site but one of those, the importance of which is sometimes underestimated is sitemaps. Sitemaps, as the name implies, are just a map of your site - i.e. on one single page you show the structure of your site, its sections, the links between them, etc. Sitemaps make navigating your site easier and having an updated sitemap on your site is good both for your users and for search engines. Sitemaps are an important way of communication with search engines. While in robots.txt you tell search engines which parts of your site to exclude from indexing, in your site map you tell search engines where you'd like them to go.
Sitemaps are not a novelty. They have always been part of best Web design practices but with the adoption of sitemaps by search engines, now they become even more important. However, it is necessary to make a clarification that if you are interested in sitemaps mainly from a SEO point of view, you can't go on with the conventional sitemap only (though currently Yahoo! and MSN still keep to the standard html format). For instance, Google Sitemaps uses a special (XML) format that is different from the ordinary html sitemap for human visitors.
One might ask why two sitemaps are necessary. The answer is obvious - one is for humans, the other is for spiders (for now mainly Googlebot but it is reasonable to expect that other crawlers will join the club shortly). In that relation it is necessary to clarify that having two sitemaps is not regarded as duplicate content. In 'Introduction to Sitemaps', Google explicitly states that using a sitemap will never lead to penalty for your site.
Why Use a Sitemap
Using sitemaps has many benefits, not only easier navigation and better visibility by search engines. Sitemaps offer the opportunity to inform search engines immediately about any changes on your site. Of course, you cannot expect that search engines will rush right away to index your changed pages but certainly the changes will be indexed faster, compared to when you don't have a sitemap.
Also, when you have a sitemap and submit it to the search engines, you rely less on external links that will bring search engines to your site. Sitemaps can even help with messy internal links - for instance if you by accident have broken internal links or orphaned pages that cannot be reached in other way (though there is no doubt that it is much better to fix your errors than rely on a sitemap).
If your site is new, or if you have a significant number of new (or recently updated pages), then using a sitemap can be vital to your success. Although you can still go without a sitemap, it is likely that soon sitemaps will become the standard way of submitting a site to search engines. Though it is certain that spiders will continue to index the Web and sitemaps will not make the standard crawling procedures obsolete, it is logical to say that the importance of sitemaps will continue to increase.
Sitemaps also help in classifying your site content, though search engines are by no means obliged to classify a page as belonging to a particular category or as matching a particular keyword only because you have told them so.
Having in mind that the sitemap programs of major search engines (and especially Google) are still in beta, using a sitemap might not generate huge advantages right away but as search engines improve their sitemap indexing algorithms, it is expected that more and more sites will be indexed fast via sitemaps.
Generating and Submitting the Sitemap
The steps you need to perform in order to have a sitemap for your site are simple. First, you need to generate it, then you upload it to your site, and finally you notify Google about it.
Depending on your technical skills, there are two ways to generate a sitemap - to download and install a sitemap generator or to use an online sitemap generation tool. The first is more difficult but you have more control over the output. You can download the Google sitemap generator from here. After you download the package, follow the installation and configuration instructions in it. This generator is a Python script, so your Web server must have Python 2.2 or later installed, in order to run it.
The second way to generate a sitemap is easier. There are many free online tools that can do the job for you. For instance, have a look at this collection of Third-party Sitemap tools. Although Google says explicitly that it has neither tested, nor verified them, this list will be useful because it includes links to online generators, downloadable sitemap generators, sitemap plugins for popular content-management systems, etc., so you will be able to find exactly what you need.
After you have created the sitemap, you need to upload it to your site (if it is not already there) and notify Google about its existence. Notifying Google includes adding the site to your Google Sitemaps account, so if you do not have an account with Google, it is high time to open one. Another detail that is useful to know in advance is that in order to add the sitemap to your account, you need to verify that you are the legitimate owner of the site.
Currently Yahoo! and MSN do not support sitemaps, or at least not in the XML format, used by Google. Yahoo! allows webmasters to submit “a text file with a list of URLs” (which can actually be a stripped-down version of a site map), while MSN does not offer even that but there are rumors that it is indexing sitemaps when they are available onsite. Most likely this situation will change in the near future and both Yahoo! and MSN will catch with Google because user-submitted site maps are just a too powerful SEO tool and cannot be ignored.
It won’t greatly boost your on-site SEO, but it would definitely help.
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== Frequently Asked Questions ==
= How do I display the 5 most recent posts in Category XYZ? =
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='XYZ' maxposts='5' orderby='date'\]
= How do I display all posts alphabetically in category 'Reviews', grouped by their tags =
\[sitemapscseo_postlister cat='Reviews' groupby='tag' orderby='title'\]
= How do I not display thumbnails images =
The purpose of a site map is to spell out your Web site’s central content themes and to show both search engine spiders and your visitors where to find information on your site.
Traditional site maps are static HTML files that outline the first and second level structure of a Web site. The original purpose of a site map was to enable users to easily find items on the Web site. Over time, they also became useful as a shortcut method to help search engines find and index all the parts of a site.
Today, you should have an XML site map, which effectively provides an easy-to-read link dump for the spiders to index. Although certain Web browsers can display an XML site map for users to read as well, you should offer both kinds of site maps (HTML and XML) if you want to be sure to cover both the search engines and your users.
A site map displays the inner framework and organization of your site’s content to the search engines. Your site map reflects the way visitors intuitively work through your site. Years ago, site maps existed only as a boring series of links in list form. Today, they are thought of as an extension of your site. You should use your site map as a tool to lead your visitor and the search engines to more content. Create details for each section and subsection through descriptive text placed under the site map link. This helps your visitors understand and navigate through your site and also gives you more food for the search engines.
A good site map does the following:
Shows a quick, easy-to-follow overview of your site.
Provides a pathway for the search engine robots to follow.
Provides text links to every page of your site.
Quickly shows visitors how to get where they need to go.
Utilizes important keyword phrases.
Site maps are very important for two main reasons. First, your site map provides food for the search engine spiders that crawl your site. The site map gives the spider links to all the major pages of your site, allowing every page included on your site map to be indexed by the spider. This is a very good thing! Having all of your major pages included in the search engine database makes your site more likely to come up in the search engine results when a user performs a query. Your site map pushes the search engine toward the individual pages of your site instead of making them hunt around for links. A well-planned site map can ensure your Web site is fully indexed by search engines.
Here are some site map dos and don’ts:
Your site map should be linked from your home page. Linking it this way gives the search engines an easy way to find it and then follow it all the way through the site. If it’s linked from other pages, the spider might find a dead end along the way and just quit.
Small sites can place every page on their site map, but larger sites should not. You do not want the search engines to see a never-ending list of links and assume you are a link farm. (More than 99 links on a page looks suspicious to a search engine.)
Most SEO experts believe you should have no more than 25 to 40 links on your site map. This also makes it easier to read for your human visitors. Remember, your site map is there to assist your visitors, not confuse them.
The anchor text (words that can be clicked) of each link should contain a keyword whenever possible and should link to the appropriate page.
When you create a site map, go back and make sure that all of your links are correct.
All the pages shown on your site map should also contain a link back to the site map.
Just as you can’t leave your Web site to fend for itself, the same applies to your site map. When your site changes, make sure your site map is updated to reflect that. What good are directions to a place that’s been torn down? Keeping your site map current helps make you a visitor and search engine favorite
In the plugin settings, edit the 'HTML for each post' config and remove the \[img\] keyword.
When it comes to improve your rankings, a XML sitemap can be a really good partner. This protocol helps Google and other main search engines to easily understand your website structure while crawling it. It was first introduced by Google in 2005, with MSN and Yahoo offering their support to the protocol a year later. Sitemaps are known as URL inclusion protocols as they advise search engines on what to crawl. It comes in opposition to robots.txt files that are an exclusion protocol as it tells search engines what not to crawl.
The website Blue Corona made a good comparison between a XML sitemap and a blueprint for a house.
Think of your website as a house and each page of your site as a room. You can think of a XML Sitemap like a blueprint for your house and each web page were a room, your XML Sitemap would be a blueprint—making it easy for Google, the proverbial home inspector of the web—to quickly and easily find all the rooms within your house
In other words, a XML sitemap will ease Google to find your pages when it crawls your website because all your pages could be ranked, not only your website as a domain. It informs search engines about pages on their sites that are available for crawling. While having no XML sitemap is not penalized, creating yours is highly recommended because it can improve your SEO.
Why should you get a XML sitemap
Like we said, having an efficient XML sitemap can improve your rankings. But this is particularly useful when:
You have a website with a complicated structure or many internal links
Your site is a new one or if you have just a few external links
Your site is consistent and have archived content
Your website has dynamic pages (mainly occurs for e-commerce website).
Benefits of having a XML sitemap
Having a sitemap on your site passes more data to search engines. So it also:
Lists all URLs from your site. And this includes pages that would not have been foundable by search engines
Gives engines page priority and thus crawl priority. You can add a tag on your XML sitemap saying which pages are the most important. Bots will thus first focus on this priority pages.
Gives temporal information. You can also include two other optional tags that will pass extra data to search engines to help them crawl your website. The first one, “lastmod’ informs them when a page last changed. The second one, “changefreq” tells how often a page is likely to change.
Gives you information back from the Google Webmaster Central. You can access googlebot activity for instance.
How to set up your XML sitemap
Creating your XML sitemap can be quite easy as many website content management systems offer the ability to automatically create yours. But if you use that solution, be sure that the output is in the correct format and is error-free. For Google, the required protocol is Sitemap Protocol 0.9. Your sitemap should:
Begin with an opening tag and end with a closing tag.
Specify the namespace (protocol standard) within the tag.
Include a entry for each URL, as a parent XML tag.
Include a child entry for each parent tag.
And use UTF-8 encoding
Then you must verify your XML sitemap with Google Webmaster Tool to ensure it is in the right format and correctly uploaded to your web server.
For small websites that do not have content uploaded that often, you can use the XML Sitemap Generator. It allows you to define how often your pages are updated and what modified date is used. Once the generator has created your sitemap, you need to upload it to the root of your domain e.g. www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml.
However, this tool is limited in many ways. You can only add five hundred pages, it defines the same “change frequency” for all URLs and is obviously not suitable for any website that publishes content every week as you want your home page spidered more frequently than other pages.
If you are under WordPress and already using the plugin WordPress SEO by Yoast, keep it to create your sitemap because it is deadly simple. The website Elegantthemes published a nice guide to set up your sitemap with WordPress.
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== Screenshots ==
== Other Notes ==
In the early days of search engines, I wasn’t much of a believer in XML sitemaps. But over time, I began to see first hand how they can benefit websites.
XML sitemaps serve as a way to communicate directly with the search engines, alerting them to new or changed content very quickly and helping to ensure that the content is indexed faster.
For content publishers, it’s become critical to help Google specifically understand if your site is the original publisher of content. Why? Panda.
Content Syndication, Duplicate Content & Panda
It’s not uncommon for publishers to syndicate their content on other websites. Further, it’s also not uncommon for publishers to have their site’s content “curated” by other websites without a formal syndication agreement.
Unfortunately, the definition of content curation is fuzzy at best. In a quick Google search for a recent Search Engine Land article, I found over 47 copies of the article on other sites. (Editor’s note: these are not authorized copies.)
For every publisher site offering syndicated content or having content curated by others (with or without permission), the stakes could not be higher with Google. The Panda algorithm update focused in part on removing duplicate content from search engine results pages — meaning that if a site is not deemed the content originator, it’s at risk of being excluded from the results altogether.
XML sitemaps are just one tool that can help content creators establish their stake as the content originator.
Just how profound can XML sitemaps be for indicating content origination?
In theory, the content originator would likely have the earliest indexed timestamp for the content. But take this example, from a publisher that is not using XML sitemaps, into consideration. The curating or syndicating site is having the same content indexed nearly 40 minutes earlier than the original content:
original_content_rgbcurated_site_example_rgb
How To Get Started
So, how should you get started? First, you’ll need to create an XML sitemap for your site. Some content management systems (CMS) have an integrated capability to auto-generate XML sitemaps. For WordPress users, I recommend using the Yoast SEO Plugin as WordPress does not have built in sitemap generation capability. (If you are already using Yoast for SEO, make sure you have updated to the most recent version.)
Ideally, you’ll want to use a plugin for your CMS (or innate CMS functionality) to create a sitemap because these tools normally will automatically update your sitemap as new content is added or content is changed. However if you don’t use a CMS or WordPress, you can also create an XML sitemap using various tools like xml-sitemaps.com; however, you’ll need to update your sitemap manually on a regular basis to ensure that its information is correct and up to date.
If you have a particularly large website, you may also need to employ a sitemap index. Search engines will only index the first 50,000 URLs in a sitemap, so if your site has more than 50,000 URLs, you’ll need to use an index to tie multiple sitemaps together. You can learn how to create indices and more about sitemaps at sitemaps.org.
After you’ve created your sitemaps (and potentially sitemap indices), you’ll need to register them with the various search engines. Both Google and Bing encourage webmasters to register sitemaps and RSS feeds through Google Webmaster Tools and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Taking this step helps the search engines identify where your sitemap is — meaning that as soon as the sitemap is updated, the search engines can react faster to index the new content. Also, content curators or syndicators may be using your RSS feeds to automatically pull your content into their sites.
Registering your sitemap (or RSS feed) with Google and Bing gives the search engines a signal that your content has been created or updated before they find it on the other sites. It’s really a very simple process with both engines. To submit a sitemap to Google:
Ensure that the XML Sitemap is on your web server and accessible via its URL.
Log in to Google Webmaster Tools.
Under “Crawl,” choose “Sitemaps.”
Click on the red button in the upper right marked “Add/Test Sitemap.” Enter the URL of the sitemap and click “Submit Sitemap.”
To register a sitemap with Bing:
Ensure that the XML Sitemap is on your web server and accessible via its URL.
Log in to Bing Webmaster Tools.
Click on “Configure My Site” and “Sitemaps.”
Enter the full URL of the sitemap in the “Submit a Sitemap” text box.
Click “Submit.”
Another great reason to register sitemaps with Google specifically is to catch Sitemap errors. Google Webmaster Tools provides great information about the status of each Sitemap and any errors it finds:
Mobile apps help small business owners stay ahead in the marketing game by providing a direct and cost-effective channel for consumer engagement and satisfaction.
To most people, apps are something of a novelty — a fun way to interact with friends or pass the time on your commute home from a long day at work. But to the small business owner, apps are a vital part of their ability to survive, providing intelligent, results-oriented marketing channels with relatively low operational overhead.
Here are just a few of the ways that mobile apps are helping SMEs stay afloat in the midst of heavy competition:
Direct Marketing Channels
Getting your app on a customer’s phone creates a unique opportunity for a more direct and meaningful level of communication. By sending customized (or even geo-tagged) push notifications, you can grab their attention at key moments and increase the likelihood of a sale.
Now, with the help of beacon technology, you can also send automated push notifications to announce the day’s specials as shoppers enter your store, or even let potential customers know you’re open for business as they pass through the neighborhood in their car.
Increased Visibility and Reach
Apps also have the ability to significantly increase your visibility. According to Flurry Insights, the average American spends over two hours perusing mobile apps each day, compared to a relatively meager 22 minutes spent browsing the traditional mobile web.
What’s clear is that limiting your efforts to mobile web optimization will likely get you lost in the shuffle — embracing the app platform maximizes the chance that consumers will actually look at and engage with your brand every day.
A Frictionless Purchasing Experience
Apps aren’t just more visible on a superficial level — they’re also a great tool for improving the customer experience. The Starbucks app, for example, allows customers to carry their loyalty card on their smartphone, adding a new dimension of convenience and simplicity to the purchasing process.
Target offers another great example — the company developed an app that help customers to shop more efficiently by pointing out the availability and in-store location of items on the customer’s list.
By adding value to the traditional shopping experience, you’re ultimately generating loyalty to you brand. Recognizing the needs and values of your consumer base and taking the necessary steps to address them will make your business stand out from the crowd, gaining you customers for life.
Built-in Metrics and Data Analytics
Apps also have built-in metrics and data analytics that can provide valuable insights into current market trends and the success of specific products and campaigns, which will come in handy when it comes time to assess and optimize your internal operations. This kind of real-time feedback is invaluable when you’re aiming to create a seamless customer experience.
Get an App!
While every small business would surely benefit from having a mobile app, many might be worried about the high costs associated with traditional mobile app development. Well, Infinite Monkeys provides a powerful and affordable app building solution to this longstanding problem.
For just $1 a month, anyone can build an app to reinvigorate and inspire their customer base, with no prior programming experience required. Now, you don’t have to spend big bucks to make your small business stand out — create an engaging app and let it do your marketing for you.
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== Changelog ==
= 0.2 =
First release
== Upgrade Notice ==
= 0.2 =
First release