How to Submit a Sitemap to Google (in 3 Simple Steps)

An XML sitemap is simply a record that lists a site’s webpages for hunt engines to observe and adhd to their databases. Then, hunt engines tin present that contented to users successful the hunt motor results pages (SERPs). 

A sitemap’s URL is typically “domain.com/sitemap.xml” oregon “domain.com/sitemap_index.xml.”

You tin besides find a domain’s XML sitemap URL by Googling “sitemap site:domain.com filetype:xml.”

Like this:

If your tract doesn’t person a sitemap, make 1 with a sitemap generator tool.

Google tin find your XML sitemap connected its own, but submitting the sitemap to Google ensures it is found.

From there, Google crawls your sitemap and (hopefully) gets your pages ranking for applicable results, sooner.

Let’s locomotion done the process. 

How to Submit a Sitemap to Google

To taxable an XML sitemap to Google, link your tract to Google Search Console. It’s escaped and takes precise small time.

First, travel the steps successful our usher to Google Search Console to link your site. Then, proceed with the steps below. 

Step 1: Navigate to Your Domain successful Google Search Console

Log successful to your Google Search Console account.

In the apical near corner, prime your tract from the drop-down if you person much than one. 

Step 2: Go to the “Sitemaps” Report

Go to the “Sitemaps” study successful the near sidebar’s “Indexing” section.

Step 3: Add Your Sitemap

Paste your sitemap’s URL into the “Add a caller sitemap” section. Then, click “Submit.” 

You'll spot a connection confirming that your sitemap has been successfully submitted.

Google crawls submitted sitemaps arsenic soon arsenic it can. Check the “Sitemaps” study again wrong a fewer hours oregon days to spot if Google processed your sitemap successfully.

If so, you’ll spot a presumption of “Success.”

How to Remove and Resubmit Sitemaps

If your site architecture has changed oregon your sitemap has errors, region and resubmit your sitemap. 

Like this:

1. Log successful to your Google Search Console account
2. If you ain aggregate sites, usage the drop-down paper successful the apical near country to prime the site
3. Click “Sitemaps” nether the near sidebar’s “Indexing” section
4. In the “Submitted sitemaps” section, click the enactment with the sitemap you privation to remove
5. Click the three-dot paper icon successful the apical close corner. Then, click “Remove sitemap.”
6. Confirm the removal by clicking the “Remove” fastener successful the pop-up model that appears

Wait for Google to process your request.

Alternatively, delete the sitemap record from your site. Google volition eventually stop checking it if it’s unavailable for a definite period.

If your caller sitemap has the aforesaid URL arsenic the original, don’t delete your sitemap. Simply resubmit it utilizing the steps above. Google volition reprocess it.

If you don’t person a sitemap (or don’t resubmit it), hunt engines tin inactive find your site’s pages. But it could instrumentality longer. Or adjacent place immoderate pages entirely.

So, resubmit your sitemap arsenic soon arsenic imaginable by pursuing the steps above. 

Sitemap Best Practices

Follow these champion practices to assistance Google process your sitemaps efficiently:

Include Only the Essential Information

Your sitemap should contain:

• The URLs you privation to person indexed: Don’t see pages that you don’t privation indexed
• The “lastmod” value: This worth says erstwhile a leafage was past updated. Search engines notation to it to determine whether to recrawl the leafage for caller content.
• The “hreflang” values of your URLs’ section variants: If your pages person localized versions, indicate them successful the sitemap truthful hunt engines tin crawl each version.

Don’t include:

• The “changefreq” and “priority” values: Google ignores these values
• Non-canonical URLs: Google should skip these URLs due to the fact that they’re alternate URLs to the aforesaid page
• 3xx oregon 4xx URLs: Google shouldn’t scale oregon fertile these URLs, arsenic they redirect users to a antithetic leafage (3xx status code) oregon instrumentality a lawsuit mistake (4xx presumption code).

Keep to the Size Limit

Keep your sitemap wrong Google’s size limit—meaning 50MB (uncompressed) and 50,000 URLs.

If your sitemap exceeds the limit, divided it into aggregate sitemaps.

Create Multiple Sitemaps If Needed

Create aggregate sitemaps if your sitemap exceeds the size limit. Or to person abstracted sitemaps for antithetic contented types (e.g., a sitemap for pages, a sitemap for posts, and a sitemap for videos).

You’ll request to make a sitemap scale record that lists each your sitemaps. Like a array of contents. 

Here is Semrush’s sitemap index, for instance:

Then taxable the sitemap scale URL to Google conscionable similar you would a regular sitemap.

Common Sitemap Issues and How to Fix

Common sitemap issues include:

• Formatting errors: There are errors successful your sitemap file’s format, similar missing XML tags
• Incorrect URLs: Your sitemap contains URLs that aren’t expected to beryllium successful a sitemap (e.g., redirects and non-canonical URLs)
• Too large: Your sitemap has exceeded Google’s size limit

Find and hole sitemap issues by navigating to the “Sitemaps” study successful Google Search Console.

If your sitemap has a “Couldn’t fetch” oregon “Sitemap has # errors” status, Google provides suggested solutions.

Alternatively, audit your tract with Semrush’s Site Audit tool. To observe sitemap problems and different technical SEO issues similar breached links and dilatory load speeds.

Set up your tract arsenic a task successful the tool. Then, configure and tally your audit.

Once the audit has finished, click the “Issues” tab and hunt for “sitemap.” A database of imaginable issues with your sitemap volition appear.

If your tract has an issue, click the nexus with the fig of affected pages:

This volition unfastened a caller study with a afloat database of affected pages.

Then, click the “Why and however to hole it” nexus to get a elaborate statement of the contented and recommendations for fixing it.

After you’ve fixed each the sitemap-related issues, tally different audit successful Site Audit to guarantee they’re resolved.