How to Submit a Sitemap to Google Search Console (Step-by-Step Guide 2025)

Sitemap is a great way to tell google bot that your website is having how many links and tell google to index these pages in google search. All website URL’s should list in sitemap file that you want to index and prepare .xml file. Most the CMS like WordPress, Jooma, Drupal and others provide plugins to generate sitemap file, if you are CMS, then you don’t need to worry much, but sometimes you may get to see errors like sitemap couldn’t fetch, or any other errors which is very common and can be fixed easily as well.

Submitting a sitemap to google is pretty easy and straight forward, you just need to grab and copy your sitemap file URL ( .xml format url) and login to search console and paste sitemap URL(without Base URL) and click on submit. Google will crawl and process your sitemap file and it will index your website pages automatically. So. let’s see in detail how to submit sitemap to google search console in detail below.

Submit Sitemap to Google Search console

Step 1: Login to your google search console account and choose your website property.

Step 2: On the left side menu -> Under Index Coverage section->Click on sitemap.

Step 3: On the right side sitemap section you need to add your sitemap file URL which will be in .xml format. For example : https://www.asavvyweb.com/sitemap_index.xml is your sitemap URL then you need to omit the base URL and submit sitemap_index.xml
and click on submit button.

Step 4: Once you hit submit button, then google bot will crawl your sitemap file and process list of all URLs present on sitemap file and google bot will crawl and discover all those URLs which are submitted in sitemap file and will be list all URL it discovered when fetching sitemap file.

Step 5: After submitting sitemap file, you need to wait for few days and let google bot fetch your sitemap file (be patient here). Few sites it will fetch quickly and for new websites, it takes time, but dont worry if you see error like “couldnt fetch sitemap file” – this is not an error.

How to Update sitemap file in robots.txt?

Open robots.txt file on your website and at the bottom of robots.txt file, provide URLs of your sitemap and make sitemap files available as well to crawl sitemap files and providing sitemap files in robots.txt makes it easier to find your sitemap file.

How to Check Submitted Sitemap in Google search console?

Step 1: Login to search console->Sitemap

Step 2: Scroll down in sitemap section.

Step 3: Under submitted sitemaps section you will see a list of submitted sitemaps.

Step 4: Click on the submitted sitemap file to check the status and discovered URLs from sitemap file.

Is Submit Sitemap to Google is Really Important?

Short answer is Yes! and its extremely helpful for large websites. Submitting sitemap to google is an easy way to tell google about your pages on your website and google bot is capable of crawling and indexing pages which are not submitted in sitemap file as well, but submitting sitemap file makes easier and fast to get your pages discoverable by google and index them on Google Search.

Can Google Find Pages Without Sitemap file on Website?

Yes! Google bot can find pages and index them when visiting your website, when google bot sees anchor links from one page to another, google bot will extract links and follow anchor links and crawl the pages on website. In some cases, if Google bot cant find more pages on website or want to find more urls, it may visit sitemap file and to fetch all links at a time and this makes easier for google bot to crawl and understand your website structure as well and index pages.

Why to Submit Sitemap to Google?

If you submit and update your sitemap regularly then whenever google bot visits your website, it will crawl your website and index your website using URLs with last modified date, which tells google that the page has been modified and it will look for new information. Google likes the content on your website to be fresh and content freshness. So, its mandatory for any small website or big website to have a sitemap file on their website and update sitemaps regularly and you need to submit your website sitemap in google search console to tell google about your sitemap file if possible or google bot will decide it depending on crawl budget and website importance and how often website is publishing new content.

When to Submit Sitemap to Google?

If you have modified your website page or you have published a new page on your website, then you need to update and submit your sitemap file to tell google that you have updated the page. Sitemap is the only place where google bot looks for when crawling a website for new URLs and modified pages on your website.

How to Generate Sitemap File Online?

You can generate sitemap file online using xml sitemap generator which is free up to 500 pages and update sitemap file on your website or you can build your sitemap on your own with detailed instructions here by Google.

Most Common Sitemap Errors and Its Troubleshooting Guide

Sitemap File Couldn’t Fetch Error

Many site owners, see this error as soon as they submit sitemap file to google, in search console sitemap section you will see this error. This error is often mistake, and this couldnt fetch means that google did not fetch your sitemap file yet. If you see this error, then you need to give sometime and after few days google bot will fetch sitemap.

In Search console sitemap errors – couldn’t fetch is most misunderstood error and most confusing and initially it does scares website owners. Everything will be fine but error triggers, but don’t worry give sometime for google bot to fetch and it will be gone.

Sitemap Could Not Be Read

This error is most common as well, sitemap could not be read error, if it is a sitemap index file then you can see this error most often, this is also not an actual error and this simply means that google bit did not read this sitemap file. If you see this error, then you need to click on open sitemap on top here and if you are able to see your sitemap file in browser then you are good and if you are seeing 404 or some other error then there is an issue, and this error can be ignored and the issue is with google systems here, not on your website.

Solution for this sitemap could not be read is wait for sometime and see, google bot will read and process sitemap file, make sure that your website is active and publishing new content.

The above are most commonly seen error and there are many errors you can see, depending on how google bot sees your website sitemap file, like if you are having sitemap syntax error, it will list the syntax error line number, and how to fix it and more. For every website sitemap errors will be different.

FAQ: on Sitemap File on Website

What is sitemap?

Sitemap is a file where you list all your website URLs, whether it may be modified URLs or published URLs or it can be media files like image or video URLs.

How Much time it takes Google to Index Sitemap URLs

There is no fixed time frame for google to index discovered urls from sitemap file. It depends on quality of the website and content freshness and helpful content to users. If content is helpful to users then it will rank. Google will test and there are many ranking factors to index your website urls.

Google Not Indexing Website URLs after Submitting sitemapl also?

Google Index content on your website depending on how helpful your content is for users, not by number of urls that you have on your website. Focus on helpful content, not writing content for bots.