Until today I had the privacy setting for the blog set to keep out the search engines. I wanted to get some things set up first. I wanted to get some posts written and add a few pages and a few categories before I really launched this site. I also wanted the site to look like it has been thought about. If I visit a blog that looks tossed together I don’t usually take time to examine the site. So today was the day. There is still a lot to do but I am confident that My Newbie Blog can help people start a blog from scratch. To change the privacy setting on your blog just go to the WordPress dashboard and press Options and Privacy. Change the privacy setting to allow searches.

You should also check to make sure that your posts are pinging.  This means that when you publish a post the search engines are notified.  WordPress does this for you automatically but you need to check to make sure it is set up.  Go to the WordPress Dashboard and then Options and Writing.  Scroll down to the bottom of the page and in the Update Services box you should see:

If the http://rpc.pingomatic.com/ is not in the box type it in now.  I have been working on adding pages to the blog. I have spent time visiting other sites to see what kind of pages people have on blogs. I have added a page called “Cool Tools” where I am listing some of the tools that are available to help you get a focus for your blog. I added a page called “Plugins” where I am listing the plugins that I install on the site. Another page titled “Products” has been added. I plan on developing this page in the future to show you how shopping carts work. I also added a page titled “Site Map” and this will be the subject of our starting a blog from scratch post today.

Adding More Pages

Let’s start by adding the page called “Site Map“. We discussed how to add a page in a post called 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog From Scratch - Part3. If you need to review the process go ahead and do that and then come back and we can continue. Writing a page is just like writing a post. If you need more information on using the WordPress writing editor go and read the post called “Using the WordPress Wrte Post and Write Page Editor“. Once you have the Site Map Page created we can install the plugin that will generate our site map for us.

Installing the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator

Before we begin the process I want to briefly explain the difference between an HTML site map (which is what we are installing now) and an xml site map (which we will install later). An HTML site map shows actual links that people can click on. Check out my site map and you will see what I am talking about. An xml site map isn’t for your readers at all. It is a list to help get all the pages of your site indexed and included in Google’s search results. We will use the Google Sitemaps plugin to create an xml site map in a later post.

As we begin to install the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator plugin you might want to review the 50 Things to Do to Start a Blog from Scratch - Part 3 post to make sure you remember the process. Go ahead and click on the Dagon Design Sitemap Generator plugin link and you will get the following screen.

Click on the Latest Release download and save the file on your computer. The instructions from the Dagon Design site are good. I have printed them here for you to follow.

Once you have the plugin activated go to the WordPress dashboard and select Manage and then Pages. You are going to want to edit the Site Map page you created earlier. Switch the mode from Visual to Code and then enter in the small piece of code you see above. Save the change and then go to your Site Map page. You should see your Site Map. Mine looks like this:

What a nice plugin. Big thanks to DagonDesign. I am going to add the site to my helpful blogs list.