A sitemap is a list of all the pages on your website. It helps Google discover new and updated pages more quickly, especially pages that have few links pointing to them.
Find your sitemap
The URL depends on how your website is built:
- WordPress without an SEO plugin: mycompany.com/wp-sitemap.xml
- WordPress with Yoast SEO or Rank Math: mycompany.com/sitemap_index.xml
- Other websites: often mycompany.com/sitemap.xml. Ask whoever built the site if you're not sure.
Open the URL in your browser. If you see a list of links, you've found it.
Submit it in Search Console
- Log in to Google Search Console. If you haven't added your website yet, see Add your website to Google Search Console.
- Select your website and click Sitemaps in the menu.
- Enter the sitemap URL, for example sitemap_index.xml, and click Submit.
After a short while, the status should show Success. You'll also see how many URLs Google has found.
Tips
- You only need to submit the sitemap once. Google will fetch it again automatically whenever it changes.
- Only use one method to generate a sitemap in WordPress. Having both Yoast and another sitemap plugin active can result in duplicates.
- A sitemap doesn't guarantee that all pages will be indexed, but it does make Google aware of them. If a page isn't being indexed, see My website isn't showing up on Google.
More about sitemaps, robots.txt, and URL structure can be found in the article Technical SEO basics.
How to find your sitemap in other publishing tools
Joomla
Joomla doesn't generate a sitemap on its own. A popular free extension is OSMap.
- Log in to the Joomla administration and go to System, then Install, Extensions.
- Install OSMap.
- Go to Components and OSMap. A ready-made sitemap will be there. Choose which menus to include.
- Click the link for the XML version and copy the URL. That's the one you submit in Search Console.
Drupal
- Install the Simple XML Sitemap module. If the site uses Composer, ask whoever built it to add the module.
- Enable it under Extend.
- Go to Configuration, Search and metadata, and Simple XML Sitemap, and choose which content types to include.
- The sitemap will be available at mycompany.com/sitemap.xml.
Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify
The sitemap is generated automatically and is available at mycompany.com/sitemap.xml. You just need to submit it in Search Console.
Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify run on their respective providers' own servers, not on web hosting. Menu names can change between versions, so check their help centres if you can't find the setting.
Menus in Joomla and Drupal usually have the same names in English as in Swedish. If your control panel looks different, it may be due to the version you're using.