Hi,
I'm just about ready to submit a new site to Google Sitemaps and have a couple of questions.
Sitemaps
a) I see the sitemap.php file in root directory. In the past I've always submitted sitemap.xml files in Google Sitemaps, should I just submit sitemap.php for this site?
b) If I've used product mapping what will actually appear in the sitemap? All of the 'raw products' or the 'master product' after mapping?
Google Analytics
a) Where should I paste my Google Analytics code so that I can track user stats?
Using search queries as navigation
a) I have a site with around 6 big product feeds. The resulting categories aren't very user friendly, even after category mapping. I was thinking of just hard coding a sidebar navigation using search queries - like:
<a href='http://www.mysite.com/search.php?q=blue+widget'>Blue Widget</a>
<a href='http://www.mysite.com/search.php?q=red+widget'>Red Widget</a>Many thanks,
Neil
Hi Neil,
sitemap.php actually returns an XML document, so Google is perfectly happy with it. The filename that you register doesn't have to end in XML as long as it returns XML, that's all that matters! When using product mapping, only the master product name appears in the database and is therefore what will appear in the sitemap.
I would paste your Google Analytics code into the bottom of html/footer.php, just BEFORE the closing html tag, e.g.
... paste Google Analytics code here ...</html>
There's no problem at all hard coding category links to search.php in your menu bar, in fact, this is the way that I recommend it is done for large sites where it is not feasible to have a dynamic menu...
Cheers,
David.