Creating a sitemap and getting it listed on Google is an important early step in getting optimized for search engines so that you can start getting more traffic. We’re going to look at how to register with Google and submit your sitemap automatically, so that you can help Google list all your pages as quickly as possible.
Why are sitemaps so important?
A sitemap is like a map of all the pages and topics on your website, and it lists all the different pages on your site to help Google categorize them. When Google knows about your sitemap, it will recognize any changes or new pages on your site quickly so that it can list them. Google’s search bots trawl the Internet for sitemaps and changes to ones they know about.
Creating a sitemap helps improve the visibility of your site and makes sure all new content is listed on Google as quickly as possible. Getting your sitemap listed is crucial for a new website, and it’s also important for sites that have just posted a lot of new content, or tend to post lots of content quite often.
How to get your sitemap listed with Google
Submitting your sitemap to Google is a reasonably simple step. Here’s how you do it:
- First you need to sign up to Google Search Console. Go to https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en and follow the sign-up instructions. If you haven’t already signed up to Google Analytics, it might be a good idea to do so before signing up to Google Search Console. If you already have a Google Analytics account, you can log in with the same information. Otherwise, follow the simple steps by adding your email address and other information.
- Click the Add a property button inside the Google Search Console. This is where you add your website URL so that your site is connected to the platform. After this, you’ll have to verify that the site is yours. You’ll be given a choice of how to confirm your site — pick whichever one you prefer. Some of the methods will require you to upload a file to your site, but if this is too complicated the easiest method is probably using your existing Google Analytics Tracking ID.
- Select your site inside the Google Search Console.
- Click Crawl, then click Sitemaps, then click Add/Test Sitemap. Next, enter the name of your sitemap filename next to your web address. It should be something like sitemap.xml. Finally, click Submit Sitemap. Simple! Your sitemap is now registered with Google.
These steps should get your sitemap registered with Google quickly and easily so you can start seeing results straight away.
While setting up sitemaps yourself is relatively easy, if you want to really take your ranking potential to the next level, try one of the SEO experts featured on BestSEOCompanies.com.
