Home Guides Glossary

Working with Sitemaps in the Hosting Control Panel

A Websitemap informs search engines that individual pages on your Website are new or updated and are available for crawling. The Hosting Control Panel, provides a way to quickly create a Websitemap for your primary domain, subdomains, or aliased domains in your Shared Hosting account.

Creating Websitemaps in the Hosting Control Panel

To Create Websitemaps in the Hosting Control Panel

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Web Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. Click the Sitemaps icon in the Tools section of the Hosting Control Panel.
  5. Select the domain you want to update.
  6. Click Create.
  7. Provide the requested information:

    File name — Create a name for this Websitemap file or accept the suggested file name. The Websitemap protocol creates the file as an XML document. Therefore, your file name should have the .xml file extension.

    Compress file — Select this option to compress your Websitemap file. If you choose this option, the file will be compressed with gzip and will include the .gz file extension.

    Access log parse — This option is available only on Linux Shared Hosting accounts. On Windows Shared Hosting accounts, this will display as "No recent logs to parse."

    Web Crawl — Select this option to have the system crawl your hosting account and collect URLs within it. Selecting this option enables the two following options.

    • Maximum # of URLs to crawl — Select how many URLs you would like to crawl. The default number of URLs is 100, which is sufficient for most personal and basic business Websites.
    • Maximum Crawl Depth — Select how many levels deep you would like the search engine to crawl your Website. You can select from 1 to 8 levels, where "1" is equal to your main URL and subsequent numbers equal the depth at which you've linked other pages within your Website.
  8. Click OK. A status window displays.

    This process may take several minutes for larger Websites.

  9. Click Close when the system completes collecting URLs. The details of your Websitemap display.
  10. Click Save.
  11. Click Done to return to the main Websitemap page.

Adding URLs to a Websitemap in the Hosting Control Panel

Using the Websitemap Manager, located in the Hosting Control Panel, you can add new URLs to the Websitemaps associated with your website.

To Add URLs to a Websitemap in the Hosting Control Panel

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Web Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. Click the Sitemaps icon in the Tools section of the Hosting Control Panel.
  5. Select the Websitemap you want to update, and then click Edit.
  6. Click the Add URLs button, and then complete the following options:

    Access log parse — Select this option to obtain URLs from the web server access logs. This option is available only for Linux Shared Hosting accounts. Windows Shared Hosting accounts will display "No recent logs to parse."

    Web Crawl — Select this option to have the system crawl your hosting account via the Web and collect URLs within it. Selecting this option enables the two following options.

    Maximum # of URLs to crawl — Select how many URLs you would like to crawl. The default number of URLs is 100, which is sufficient for most personal and basic business Websites.

    Maximum Crawl Depth — Select how many levels deep you would like the search engine to crawl your Website. You can select from 1 to 8 levels, where "1" is equal to your main URL and subsequent numbers equal the depth at which you've linked other pages within your Website.

  7. Click OK. A status window displays.

    This process may take several minutes for larger Websites.

  8. Click Close when the system completes collecting URLs. The details of your Websitemap display.
  9. Click Done to return to the main Websitemap page.

Editing Websitemaps in the Hosting Control Panel

Using the Websitemap Manager, located in the Hosting Control Panel, you can edit Websitemaps associated with your website. Specifically, you can update URL settings, such as which URLs are included in the Websitemap, the date URLs were last modified, the frequency at which you update your Website, and the priority of specific URLs. You can make different updates to individual URLs in the list or make the same changes to a bulk selection.

To Edit Individual URLs

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Web Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. Click the Sitemaps icon in the Tools section of the Hosting Control Panel.
  5. Select the Websitemap you want to update.
  6. Click the Edit icon. Your list of URLs is displayed.
  7. Select the URLs that you want to update. If you need assistance focusing your selection, see Working with Websitemaps in the Hosting Control Panel.

    You can clear your selections at any time by clicking the Refresh List button in the action bar above the URL list.

  8. For each URL in the list, edit the settings that you would like to update:

    Last Modified — The date you last updated the selected URLs. You can enter a date in the YYYY-MM-DD format or click the calendar to select a specific date.

    Change Frequency — A frequency at which you update the selected URLs. You can select from always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never.

    Priority — The priority level, relative to other URLs, to apply to the selected URLs. This option ranges from 0.1 (lowest) to 1.0 (highest) priority.

    Status — This uneditable field displays "New" if the URL was collected during the most recent crawl and log parse or "Old" if a URL existed in the Websitemap previously.

    Source — This uneditable field displays icons to denote whether the URL was located in a log file, a Web Crawl, or both.

    Date Added — This uneditable field displays the date that the URL was initially located.

    Included — The status of whether the URLs are included in or excluded from the Websitemap XML file.

    You can change the Included status for multiple URLs by selecting all URLs to be updated and clicking the Include or Exclude button in the action bar above the URL list.

  9. Click Save. Your Websitemap edits are saved.
  10. Click Done to return to the main Websitemap page.

To Edit Multiple URLs

  1. With your list of URLs is displayed, select the URLs that you want to update. If you need assistance focusing your selection, see Filtering Websitemap URLs.
  2. Click the Edit icon.
  3. Edit the settings that you would like to update:

    Last Modified — The date you last updated the selected URLs. You can enter a date in the YYYY-MM-DD format or click the calendar to select a specific date.

    Change Frequency — A frequency at which you update the selected URLs. You can select from always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, or never.

    Priority — The priority level, relative to other URLs, to apply to the selected URLs. This option ranges from 0.1 (lowest) to 1.0 (highest) priority.

    Included — The status of whether the selected URLs are included in the Websitemap XML file.

    Any field you leave set to "Do Not Modify" will leave each of the selected URL's files unchanged for that setting.

  4. Click OK.
  5. Click Save. Your Websitemap edits are applied to all selected URLs.
  6. Click Done to return to the main Websitemap page.

Including and Excluding Websitemap URLs in the Hosting Control Panel

Once you compile a list of Websitemap URLs, you might decide to exclude some of them from the Websitemap or to include URLs that were previously excluded. Using the Websitemap Manager, located in the Hosting Control Panel, you can update these URL settings for the Websitemap associated with your website.

To Include or Exclude Websitemap URLs in the Hosting Control Panel

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Web Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. Click the Sitemaps icon in the Tools section of the Hosting Control Panel.
  5. Select the Websitemap you want to update.
  6. Click the Edit icon.
  7. Select the URLs you want to include or exclude from the Websitemap. If you have new URLs to add to the list, see Working with Websitemaps in the Hosting Control Panel.
  8. In the Filter section on the left side of the screen, you can narrow the list of URLs that are included in your displayed list by:
    • Adding keywords in the URL contains field.
    • Selecting whether to display included, excluded, or all URLs in the Included list.
    • Selecting whether to include logged, crawled, or all URLs in the Source list.
    • Selecting whether to include Only New URLs. This setting refers to URLs collected during the most recent crawl and log parse.
  9. Select all URLs you want to edit. There are three ways to select multiple items:
    • Click the checkmark icon to select or deselect all URLs.
    • Select each URL.
    • Select one item, and then, holding down the Shift key on your keyboard, select another item from the list to continue your selection. The two chosen items and all items between them are selected.
  10. Click Include or Exclude, depending on whether you want to include or exclude the selected URLs in your Websitemap.
  11. Click Save. Your list of included and excluded URLs is updated.
  12. Click Done to return to the main Websitemap page.

In the Include column on the right, all included URLs are represented by a check mark. All excluded URLs are represented by a hyphen.

Renaming a Websitemap in the Hosting Control Panel

You can rename a Websitemap associated with your website using the Websitemap Manager located in the Hosting Control Panel.

To Rename a Websitemap in the Hosting Control Panel

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Web Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. Click the Sitemaps icon in the Tools section of the Hosting Control Panel. This action opens the Sitemap Manager.
  5. Select the Websitemap you want to update.
  6. Click the Rename icon.
  7. In the Rename Websitemap area, rename the Websitemap file.
    • File name — Enter a name for the Websitemap file or accept the suggested file name. The Websitemap protocol creates the file as an XML document. Therefore, your file name should have the .xml file extension.
    • Compress file — Select this option to compress your Websitemap file. If you choose this option, the file will be compressed with gzip and will, therefore, include the .gz file extension.
  8. Click OK.

Filtering Websitemap URLs in the Hosting Control Panel

To help focus the list of URLs in your Websitemap, so you can perform edits on specific URLs, you can use the Filter tool in the Websitemap manager. You can filter URLs by including keywords and by selecting the URL's source, whether to view included/excluded URLs, and whether to include only recently collected URLs in your list. For example, you could choose to display only URLs from crawl logs that are already included in your list and that include the term "products."

To Filter Websitemap URLs in the Hosting Control Panel

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Web Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. Click the Sitemaps icon in the Tools section of the Hosting Control Panel.
  5. Select the Websitemap you want to update.
  6. Click the Edit icon.
  7. Select the URLs you want to include or exclude from the Websitemap. If you have new URLs to add to the list, see Working with Websitemaps in the Hosting Control Panel.
  8. In the Filter section on the left side of the screen, you can narrow the list of URLs that are included in your displayed list by:
    • Adding keywords in the URL contains field.
    • Selecting whether to display included, excluded, or all URLs in the Included list.
    • Selecting whether to include logged, crawled, or all URLs in the Source list.
    • Selecting whether to include Only New URLs. This setting refers to URLs collected during the most recent crawl and log parse.
  9. Select all URLs you want to edit. There are three ways to select multiple items:
    • Click the checkmark icon to select or deselect all URLs.
    • Select each URL.
    • Select one item, and then, holding down the Shift key on your keyboard, select another item from the list to continue your selection. The two chosen items and all items between them are selected.

In the Include column on the right, all included URLs are represented by a check mark. All excluded URLs are represented by a hyphen.

Deleting a Websitemap in the Hosting Control Panel

If you no longer want to use an existing Websitemap associated with your website, you can easily delete it using the Websitemap Manager located in the Hosting Control Panel.

To Delete a Websitemap in the Hosting Control Panel

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. Click Web Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
  4. Click the Sitemaps icon in the Tools section of the Hosting Control Panel. This action opens the Sitemap Manager.
  5. Select the Websitemap you want to update. By selecting multiple Websitemaps, you can delete them all at once.
  6. Click the Delete icon.

    If you do not have a Websitemap, or have received an error, the Delete icon will not be enabled.

  7. Click OK.

Your Websitemap is deleted.

This action only deletes the Websitemap file. Any URLs that were collected prior to deletion will remain available if you create a new Websitemap for this domain.

Domain Registration

Pay less for website domain names. Register your own .com, .net or .org for as low as $10.18 per year. We have everything you need to get online with your new domain.

Website Builder

Build an amazing website in just under an hour with Website Builder. Take advantage of designs created just for your industry and then customize them to reflect your one-of-a-kind idea.

Website Security

Protect your website and keep customers safe. Your comprehensive Website Security solution. Get peace of mind by securing your websites.

cPanel Hosting

Everything needed to give your website the high-performance home it deserves.  Protect transactions and secure your customer's data with a SSL Certificate
Copyright © 2005 - 2024.  All rights reserved.  Privacy Policy