Submitting a sitemap to google is pretty easy and straight forward, you just need to grab and copy your sitemap file 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. so let’s see in detail how to submit sitemap to google using google search console in detail below.
How to Submit Sitemap to Google using 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 list all URLs in sitemap file and google bot will crawl and discover all those URLs which are submitted in sitemap file and will be list all URL in sitemap section.
That’s it, this is how you submit sitemaps to google.
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.
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.
Why to Submit Sitemap to Google?
On your website submitting if you update your sitemap regularly then whenever google bot visits your website it will crawl your website and index your website using URLs which are submitted in sitemap file. 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.
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.
Does Google Bot Discovers pages without Sitemap file?
Yes ! Google bot will discover your pages and if you are having a large website then providing sitemap file will make it easier to discover your pages on your website and index. Large website should have a sitemap file listing all the URLs of 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.
FAQ:
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.