How to submit a sitemap to Google Search Console

How do I submit a sitemap to Google Search Console?

To submit a sitemap to Google Search Console, verify your site, open the Sitemaps report under Indexing, enter your sitemap path (usually sitemap.xml) and click Submit. Google will fetch it, show a 'Success' status, and start discovering the listed URLs. Submit the same sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools, and keep the file limited to canonical, 200-status URLs so crawlers do not waste budget on redirects or errors.

Before you submit: create a clean sitemap

Include only canonical URLs that return HTTP 200 — no redirects, 404s or noindex pages.
Use absolute URLs with your final host and slash convention.
Keep each sitemap under 50,000 URLs / 50MB; use a sitemap index file if larger.
Reference the sitemap in robots.txt with a 'Sitemap:' line too.

Submit it to Google Search Console

Verify your site in Search Console (DNS, HTML file, or tag) if you have not already.
In the left menu, under Indexing, click Sitemaps.
In 'Add a new sitemap', type the path after your domain, e.g. sitemap.xml, and click Submit.
Wait for the Status to read 'Success' and check the 'Discovered URLs' count.
Return in a few days to confirm the URLs move into the Page indexing report.

Submit it to Bing too (and ping IndexNow)

Add the same sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools under Sitemaps. Bing powers several engines and ChatGPT search, so it is worth the two minutes.

For individual new or updated URLs, do not wait for the next sitemap crawl — submit them via IndexNow so Bing and Yandex re-crawl within minutes.

Fix common sitemap errors

'Couldn't fetch': wrong path, robots.txt blocking it, or a server error — open the URL in a browser to confirm it loads.
'Has errors': malformed XML or non-200 URLs listed — regenerate the file.
Submitted but not indexed: discovery is working; the blocker is page-level (links, quality, canonical), not the sitemap.

Put it into practice

Generate your IndexNow key, build the submission payload and check index status — free, in your browser.

Open the free tool

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find my sitemap URL?+

Most sites expose it at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. CMSs and frameworks like WordPress, Next.js and Shopify generate one automatically — check your SEO plugin or framework docs if the default path is different.

Does submitting a sitemap guarantee indexing?+

No. A sitemap helps Google discover URLs faster, but indexing still depends on crawlability, internal links, content quality and canonical signals. It removes discovery as a blocker, not quality checks.

How often should I resubmit my sitemap?+

You rarely need to resubmit manually — Google re-fetches it periodically. Resubmit only after major structural changes. For individual fresh URLs, IndexNow is the faster signal.