Description
Details
Improve your SEO results by providing more accurate update information in your XML Sitemap!
The XML Sitemap functionality in Magento (aka Google Sitemap) is a pretty powerful tool to get your store properly indexed by major search engines.
However by default Magento generates the sitemap that has last modification date for every single page in your store set to the date when you generated the sitemap. This is a major drag on your web site as Google (or other search engines) do not know which products are new ones, and which are old ones. So they have to re-scan your entire web site to get the products indexed. The unwanted side effect of this is that it takes up to two weeks to have your new products to appear on Google.
The XML Sitemap Magento Extension by Activo replaces the default Magento sitemap functionality, and includes the <lastmod> (last modification date) attribute with the correct date when each product or category was last updated.
This helps Google, Bing and other search engines to know which products are new to index them first. As a result of this your new products will appear in search results much faster since Google will crawl and index them first!
This is a must have for any serious store owner and it is FREE!
Highlights
- Improves Magento default XML Sitemap functionality.
- Fixes the
<lastmod>paramater to show the real date the product or page was last updated. - New products appear much faster in search results at Google, Bing and other search engines.
- 100% FREE and open source!
Installation
XML Sitemap Magento Extension by Activo (FREE) uses Magento Connect Manager interface.
Installation process is very simple. Just follow these steps:
- Once you went through the checkout process, download the installation package by logging into your account and going to My Downloadable Products section.
- After you downloaded the installation package, log in to your store admin interface and go to System / Magento Connect / Magento Connect Manager.
- At the "Direct package file upload" section click on "Choose file" button, select the package file you just downloaded and click "upload".
- After upload is done, go back to the admin panel by clicking "Return to Admin" link at the top right.
- Go to System / Cache Management and refresh the Configuration cache.
Please read this first if you are using Apple Safari to download the installation package. By default Safari tries to open the "safe" file extensions, this includes the .tgz packages. Therefore it will uncompress the package upon download and will make it unfit for Magento Connect. To prevent this behavior in the menu bar, go Safari -> Preferences. In the "General" tab, uncheck "Open 'safe' files after downloading". This will stop Safari from automatically unzipping the files. Read more on Stack Exchange here.
More detailed installation instructions and a screencast are available here:
Installing Magento Extensions Using Connect Manager
Configuration
There is no configuration options for this extension. Once installed, it just changes the Magento XML Sitemap behavior behind the scenes.
After installing the XML Sitemap extension you might want to go to the Catalog / Google Sitemap and click "Generate" next to your main store sitemap to make sure you generate the latest sitemap using the new functionality.
Magento Editions Compatibility
Community Edition: 1.5 and above (now includes Magento 1.7+ CE branch compatibility as well)
Enterprise Edition: 1.8 and above
License
This extension is released under the Open Software License v. 3.0 (OSL-3.0). Please read the full license agreement here: https://www.opensource.org/licenses/OSL-3.0.
Community Support Forum
Have any questions about this extension? Need help with installation and/or configuration? Have some good tips and tricks about using it? Please visit Activo Extensions support forum here.
Reviews
- Working with Magento 1.9Review by Frank
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I've downloaded the latest version 1.1.0 and installed it on Magento 1.9 with no issues. Checked <lastmod> after installation and it is properly being updated. (Posted on 5/19/2014)Value
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License Agreement
Professional Extensions License Agreement
All Professional Magento Extensions (i.e. paid) from Activo Extensions are subject to the terms and conditions of our License Agreement. You can find the latest copy of our license agreement here: https://extensions.activo.com/license_professional
In short, you are required to purchase a separate license for each of the domains (stores) you are running this software on (excluding common variations, like adding 'www.' to the domain name). However you can run this software on multiple servers, provided that you have a separate license for each of the domains (for instance in configurations with load balancers).
You can also use a copy of this software for free on one development or one staging server per license purchased in addition to your production servers, provided that this development or staging server is not used for any live sales transactions.
Free Extensions License Agreement
All Free Magento Extensions from Activo Extensions are released under the Open Software License v. 3.0 (OSL-3.0). Please read the full license agreement here: http://www.opensource.org/licenses/OSL-3.0.
All purchases are subject to the terms and conditions outlined in our Terms of Service document. Please read it carefully.
