Submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console • 2022 Update

Jan 21, 2022 | SEO

Submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console

Submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console is a great way for tell Google to recrawl your website. That way Google can notice changes you’ve made and decide whether to change your ranking in search results.

Once your sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console, they will tell you if there are any issues on your website that need addressing. Learn why your sitemap is important and how to find it.

What is a website sitemap?

A website sitemap is a list of a website’s pages which provides a clear structure for Google to crawl your website’s pages. Helping Google’s bots crawl your website, find changes you’ve made and decide whether to change your pages position in their search results.

A sitemap is important as it makes Google aware of all your pages you include in your sitemap which they may have missed if some pages don’t have internal links pointed to them.

“A sitemap tells Google which pages and files you think are important in your site, and also provides valuable information about these files. For example, when the page was last updated and any alternate language versions of the page.”

Google Search Central

Why it’s important to submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console

How to find your website’s sitemap

Your website’s sitemap is generally found at one of the below links.

WordPress sitemap links

If your website is build on WordPress, you may be able to find your sitemap here:

  • yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml (which is the index of the sitemaps)
  • yourwebsite.com/sitemap/ (which often redirects to your sitemap)
  • Online Growth Group example: onlinegrowthgroup.com.au/sitemap_index.xml

Shopify sitemap links

  • yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml

Conclusion

You now know:

  • why your website sitemap is useful
  • why submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console is good SEO practice
  • how to find your sitemap or WordPress or Shopify

Comment below if you do or don’t yet submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. I would love to hear.

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