How to import a Google Sitemap XML file?
Importing sitemap XML file feature uses the website crawler and is only available to Pro, Team and Agency users.
To import a Google XML sitemap, follow these steps:
- In the dashboard, click on the New Project button, or open an existing project, but please note that importing an XML file will overwrite your current sitemap.
- Click on the Import button on the toolbar.
- In the import panel, from the available import options select XML File.
- Click on the Select File button to locate the text file on your local computer, or drag & drop the sitemap XML file.
- You may select additional options to go with your imported sitemap:
- Cell Text
- Click Use File/Directory name to include file/directory name in your sitemap page label.
- Click Use H1 to include the main header in your sitemap page label.
- Click Use Page Title to include page title in your sitemap page label.
- Exclude Common Text Pages On Import – this option will remove common recurring text from imported titles that recur throughout your website. For example, you can remove repetitive SEO text strings like “| Company Name” that proceeds or follows the title text.
- Other
- Check Add Links to add a link to your sitemap.
- Add Meta Description Note to add a note with the content from the <meta description> tag.
- If your website is password protected select Use HTTP Basic Authentication and enter your username and password (Note: currently it works only with the HTTP Basic Auth method).
- Check the Ignore ROBOTS.TXT file rules option if your server has a restrictive file that disallows any web crawlers to access your website.
- Ignore HTTP Cookies option disregards cookies that your website tries to store.
- Use a custom User Agent string – some websites have custom firewalls which blocks everything with ‘crawler’ in its name. This option by default is pre-populated with your browser’s name, so our crawler will pretend to be a real browser, and your firewall system will not block it.
- Import SEO metadata to Content Planner imports SEO details (metadata and URL slug) about each page to Content Planner tool.
- Render JavaScript Content – check this option if your website has a JavaScript-generated dynamic content
- Import Into a Section will import a sitemap as a section of a certain page without overwriting the whole project.
- Cell Text
- Click Import when completed.
After several seconds, you will see the message saying your sitemap was successfully imported.
Note: For security reasons site crawler is limited to 10 000 pages (you can fetch up to 10 000 pages during one crawling process).