Chapter 2 · 2.5
Submitting your sitemap
A sitemap tells Google which pages you want in the search results. Google can find your pages without one, but a sitemap makes it easier. You only submit it once. After that, Google reads it again by itself.
What is the address of your sitemap?
| Your site | Sitemap address |
|---|---|
| AI Builder | https://jouwdomein.nl/sitemap.xml (see Sitemap and robots.txt with the AI Builder) |
| WordPress without an SEO plugin | https://jouwdomein.nl/wp-sitemap.xml |
| WordPress with an SEO plugin | the address in the plugin's settings, for example sitemap_index.xml (see Sitemap and robots.txt for WordPress and your own site) |
| Other sites | look in https://jouwdomein.nl/robots.txt for the line Sitemap: |
Open the address in your browser first. Do you see a list of addresses from your site? Then it's working.
How to submit it
- Open your property in Google Search Console.
- In the menu on the left, click Sitemaps.
- Under Add a new sitemap, enter the address of your sitemap.
- Click Submit.
Reading the status
In the table of submitted sitemaps, you'll see your sitemap with a status:
| Status | What does it mean? | What should you do? |
|---|---|---|
| Passed | Google has read the sitemap. | None. |
| Has errors | Google could read it, but something is wrong with it. | Click the sitemap to see the errors. |
| Couldn't fetch | Google couldn't open the sitemap. | Open the address in your browser. Check the spelling and make sure your robots.txt isn't blocking the sitemap. |
Under Discovered pages, you can see how many addresses Google found in the sitemap. These aren't automatically the pages that appear in Google. You can see those in the Page indexing report (see Reading the Performance and Page indexing reports).
Tip: You don't need to resubmit the sitemap after every change. Google reads it again by itself. Only after a big change, such as a new site, might you want to submit it again.