How should I submit my sitemap to Google and Bing?

Search engines like Google and Bing use their own crawlers to scan the internet to index and deliver to their users. Site owners can rely on the crawlers' timelines for getting their sites out to the world -- or they can submit their own sitemaps! Here's how.


At Cornershop, when we launch a site, we make sure to add the Yoast SEO plugin. That plugin can create sitemaps for the various sections of your website and create a sitemap index. This means that when a page is added, removed, or edited, just the sitemap index needs to be updated. You can use Yoast SEO to enable sitemap indexing first and, if needed, customize your sitemap index for your website needs.


Then you can submit that sitemap index to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.


How to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console

  1. Sign in to Google Search Console.

  2. In the sidebar, select your website.

  3. Click on 'Index' to expand the section and then click on 'Sitemaps'.

  4. Remove outdated or invalid sitemaps (if any) like sitemap.xml

  5. Enter sitemap_index.xml into the text box that appears.

  6. Click Submit.

Submit your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools

If you haven't added your website to Bing Webmaster Tools, please follow these steps first.

  1. Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools.

  2. On the My Sites page, select your website.

  3. In the left sidebar, click Configure My Site and then Sitemaps.

  4. Remove outdated or invalid sitemaps like http://example.com/sitemap.xml

  5. Enter your sitemap URL into the text box at the top. Your sitemap URL will look like something like this: http://example.com/sitemap_index.xml.

  6. Click Submit.


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