Creating a blog sitemap with Movable Type

Choose an easy to understand Template Name — for example Sitemaps — and an easy to remember file name — for example sitemap.xml. Allow Movable Type to rebuild the template automatically when rebuilding index templates and fill the Template Body textarea with the following code

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84">
<url>
<loc><$MTBlogURL encode_xml="1"$></loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.simonecarletti.com/blog/index.xml</loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.simonecarletti.com/blog/atom.xml</loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<MTEntries lastn="9999">
<url>
<loc><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$></loc>
<lastmod><$MTEntryModifiedDate utc="1" format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"$></lastmod>
</url>
</MTEntries>
<MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled archive_type="Category">
<MTTopLevelCategories>
<MTIfNonZero tag="MTCategoryCount">
<url>
<loc><$MTCategoryArchiveLink$></loc>
</url>
</MTIfNonZero>
<MTSubCatsRecurse>
</MTTopLevelCategories>
</MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled>
<MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled archive_type="Monthly">
<MTArchiveList archive_type="Monthly">
<url>
<loc><$MTArchiveLink$></loc>
</url>
</MTArchiveList>
</MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled>
</urlset>

Please note that bold styled strings must be replaced with your own values. Save the new template and... your new sitemaps is created.

That's all! Now login into your Google Account, go to the Sitemaps admin panel and submit your sitemap to Google.

Before closing this article, let give a look at the template code.

First of all, according to Google Sitemap Specifications, you need to declare the XML file and schema.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap/0.84">

Now you are ready to start your URL list.
Add your blog main URL using <$MTBlogURL encode_xml="1"$> template tag. Set the higher priority value and (if needed) and update frequency.

<url>
<loc><$MTBlogURL encode_xml="1"$></loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>

Then list the Atom and RSS feeds

<url>
<loc>http://www.simonecarletti.com/blog/index.xml</loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>
<url>
<loc>http://www.simonecarletti.com/blog/atom.xml</loc>
<priority>1.0</priority>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
</url>

and all entries.

<MTEntries lastn="9999">
<url>
<loc><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$></loc>
<lastmod><$MTEntryModifiedDate utc="1" format="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ"$></lastmod>
</url>
</MTEntries>

Finally, complete the recipe with all category indexes

<MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled archive_type="Category">
<MTTopLevelCategories>
<MTIfNonZero tag="MTCategoryCount">
<url>
<loc><$MTCategoryArchiveLink$></loc>
</url>
</MTIfNonZero>
<MTSubCatsRecurse>
</MTTopLevelCategories>
</MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled>

and monthly archives, if they are enabled.

<MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled archive_type="Monthly">
<MTArchiveList archive_type="Monthly">
<url>
<loc><$MTArchiveLink$></loc>
</url>
</MTArchiveList>
</MTIfArchiveTypeEnabled>
</urlset>

Note.. The original tutorial was posted by Nial Kennedy. The code published above is an updated version based on the original one.

Italian version: Crea la tua sitemap con Movable Type.