Today’s tip will walk you through two things:
A sitemap is like a roadmap of your website that helps search engines find and crawl all your important pages efficiently. Submitting your sitemap to Google is one of the first steps to boost your website’s visibility in search results.
- How to find your sitemap
- How to submit it to Google using Search Console
Step 1: How to Find Your Sitemap
Most websites automatically generate a sitemap, especially if you’re using a CMS like WordPress, Shopify, or Wix.
Try visiting any of the following common URLs:
https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xmlhttps://yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xmlhttps://yourdomain.com/sitemap
If you’re using a WordPress SEO plugin like Yoast SEO, your sitemap is usually located at:
https://yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
If you can’t find it:
- In WordPress: Go to your SEO plugin settings and check the sitemap section.
- In Shopify: Your sitemap is at
/sitemap.xmlby default. - You can also create a sitemap using free tools like XML-sitemaps.com or SEO software like Screaming Frog.
Step 2: Submit Your Sitemap to Google
Once you have your sitemap URL, follow these steps:
- Go to Google Search Console.
- Select your website property (make sure it’s verified).
- In the left menu, click on “Sitemaps”.
- Under “Add a new sitemap”, paste your sitemap URL (e.g.,
sitemap_index.xml). - Click Submit.
That’s it!
Google will now know exactly where to look when indexing your pages.
Bonus Tip:
Even though submitting a sitemap is optional, it speeds up indexing and gives Google valuable insights into your website structure, especially if:
- You’ve launched a new site
- You’ve added new pages
- Your site uses a lot of dynamic or non-linked content
Final Thought:
Submitting your sitemap is a quick win in SEO. It’s simple but powerful. Don’t skip it—this one move could get your pages indexed faster and more accurately.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s tip!
For more daily SEO strategies, visit Alneeko.com.