Generate a website sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console

Definitions

Website sitemap: A website sitemap is a roadmap to your website. It informs search engines about the pages on your website that are available for crawling to facilitate indexing on search engines.

Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your website’s presence on Google Search results.

Before you start

❗ You need a Google Search Console account and a verified website before generating and submitting a sitemap to it. If you do not, complete these steps first: Verify your website on Google Search Console.

ℹ️ Generating a sitemap depends on your website type. WordPress sites can use a plugin, while non-WordPress sites can use an online tool. Steps for both are provided below.

🚨It can take a while for Google to see submissions, as it depends on their algorithms and indexing schedule. It’s important to be very patient when it comes to search engine results.

Step by step

Generate a sitemap for your website

⚠️ Note: This guide uses the ‘Yoast’ plugin to generate a sitemap. If you use a different SEO plugin, it likely has a similar feature. Use these steps as a general guideline and consult your plugin’s documentation for specifics.

WordPress websites

1. Log in to your WordPress admin dashboard

2. If you haven’t already, go to Plugins > Add New Plugin, search for Yoast SEO and install it

3. After installation, click on the Activate button

4. Hover over Yoast SEO on the WordPress menu and click on Settings

5. Look for the APIs section and make sure the XML sitemaps toggle is enabled

6. Click on View the XML sitemap button

7. When the page loads on your web browser, go to the address bar. There, you will see your website sitemap URL, copy and paste the URL down on a secure note.

8. Go to the ‘Submit your Sitemap to Google Search Console’ section of this guide and complete the steps

All other website types

⚠️ Note: If you have a non-WordPress website, you will use an online sitemap generator and upload your sitemap to your hosting account before submitting it to Google Search Console.

1. Go to the XML-Sitemaps website

2. In the Your Website URL field, type in your website URL, with the https:// or http:// included – as an example, our URL would be: https://cloudhelpcenter.com

3. Click the Start button

4. Let the sitemap creation process run. Once completed, click the View Sitemap Details button.

5. Click on the Download Your XML Sitemap File and save the sitemap file to your computer, it will be called sitemap.xml

6. Find the sitemap.xml file on your computer, normally it’ll save in your Downloads folder or directly on your Desktop. Once you’ve found it, go to the ‘Upload your sitemap to your hosting account’ section right below and complete the steps.

Upload your sitemap to your hosting account

🚨 Note: Complete these steps only if your website is not built on WordPress. WordPress users should go directly to the ‘Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console’ section further below.

1. Complete all steps in this guide to upload your sitemap.xml to your website public_html folder: Upload files to your public_html folder

2. After you upload the sitemap.xml file to your website public_html folder, you can now construct a URL for your sitemap.xml using the format below:

https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

⚠️ Note: Make sure to replace yourdomain.com with your website domain name.

For example, the sitemap URL for the cloudhelpcenter.com website would be:

https://cloudhelpcenter.com/sitemap.xml

3. Once you’ve created your sitemap URL, note it down on a secure note

4. Go to the ‘Submit your Sitemap to Google Search Console’ section of this guide and complete the steps

Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console

🚨 Note: You need a Google Search Console account and a verified website before completing this section. If you do not, please complete these steps first: Verify your website on Google Search Console.

1. Go to your Google Search Console account where your website is connected and verified

2. In your Google Search Console account, click on Sitemaps

3. Look for the Add a new sitemap section and paste your website sitemap URL into the provided field and click the Submit button, here are visual examples:

WordPress website version using the Yoast plugin sitemap URL:

All other website websites types using a custom sitemap URL:

4. Google will now begin crawling and indexing your website. Google indexing is an ongoing process and relies entirely on Google’s infrastructure on algorithms, however, you should start seeing indexing results a few weeks or months after your sitemap submission.