How to submit your XML sitemap to Google
Your XML sitemap contains a list of all the pages in your store. Submitting it to Google can help your search engine rankings and increase your traffic.
Submit it from your account
This is the easy way, and it takes one click.
- Go to Stores and open your store.
- Open Traffic > Google > Sitemap.
- Click Submit sitemap.
The button changes to Resubmit once it is done. The same tab shows whether the sitemap has been submitted and any issues Google reported with it.
You need to connect and verify your store with Google first. See How to add your store to Google.
Bing works the same way, under Traffic > Bing > Sitemap.
Submit it in Google Search Console instead
You do not need this if you used the steps above. If you manage the property in Google Search Console yourself, you can submit the sitemap there.
Make sure your store URL is correct. If it shows https://mystore.com in FreshStore and https://www.mystore.com in your Google Search Console, your XML sitemap will fail.
Log in to your Google Search Console account and select the store you are working on. Navigate to Indexing > Sitemaps and enter the following when prompted to "Add a new sitemap":
sitemap.xml
Click on "Submit" and you should see the following or similar:
When you click "Dismiss" on this notification, you might see an error like below. This is normal and nothing is wrong with your sitemap:
Refresh the page if you see this "Couldn't fetch" message or similar. You should then see the following:
If you still don't see the "Success" message, don't worry! Google is still updating and it might take a little time.
To make it faster, you can try deleting and re-adding the sitemap. To do that, click the three dots as shown in the screenshot above, and then:
If you still see an error message, make sure you have entered the sitemap correctly (see the first step above) and then wait 24 hours.
When your sitemap is submitted, Google will now check your store more thoroughly and will be notified when you have new articles, products, categories etc.
This is a step towards better search engine rankings and traffic. Make sure to follow our other SEO guides to make even more progress with your store SEO.