Submitting your sitemap helps search engines crawl and index your website more efficiently. Below are the instructions to submit a sitemap to Google and Bing.
There are other search engines, but these are the most important. Both Google and Bing provide results to many other search services (like DuckDuckGo). Submitting to these two giants will get you the most impact for least effort.
What is a SiteMap?
Sitemaps are text-based files optimised for search engines. They tell the search engine which pages you want to appear on the Search Ending Results Page. Search Engines love sitemaps.
How to Submit Your Sitemap
- Create a Google Search Console account
Visit: https://search.google.com/search-console
Sign in with your Google account and add your website. - Verify your website
Choose a method (HTML file upload, DNS record, Google Analytics, etc.) and follow the instructions to verify ownership. - Submit your sitemap
- In the left sidebar, go to “Sitemaps”.
- Enter the full URL of your sitemap (e.g.,
https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml) - Click “Submit”.
- Check status
Google will start processing the sitemap. Check back to see crawl stats or any errors.
Bing (also covers Yahoo!)
- Go to Bing Webmaster Tools
Visit: https://www.bing.com/webmasters/
Sign in with your Microsoft, Google, or Facebook account. - Add your site and verify ownership
Just like Google, use one of the recommended methods to prove you own the site. - Submit your sitemap
- From the dashboard, select your site.
- Go to “Sitemaps” in the menu.
- Enter your sitemap URL and click “Submit”.
- Monitor progress
Bing will analyse the sitemap and report any issues.
Top Tip
Check a link to your sitemap appears in your robots.txt file like this:
Sitemap: https://little-fire.com/sitemap_index.xmlMost website builders will do this automatically. This will help other search engines discover your XML sitemap.