How to submit a sitemap to Google
Three ways that work today: the Sitemaps report in Search Console, a line in robots.txt, and Bing Webmaster Tools. Plus what the report tells you afterwards, and why the old ping no longer works.
Last updated
How do you submit a sitemap in Google Search Console?
Paste the sitemap’s address into the Sitemaps report and click Submit. In Google’s words: “paste it into the Add a new sitemap box in the Sitemaps report, then click Submit” (the Search Console Sitemaps report help). You need to be an owner of the property in Search Console.
- Check the sitemap first. Open it in a browser and run it through the sitemap validator.
- Open Search Console and choose the property for your site.
- Go to Sitemaps in the menu, paste the sitemap URL into “Add a new sitemap” and click Submit.
- Come back later to read its status.
Submit it once. You do not need to resubmit every time the sitemap changes; Google rereads sitemaps it already knows on its own schedule.
Should you add the sitemap to robots.txt?
Yes. A Sitemap: line in robots.txt lets every crawler find it, not only the search engines where you have an account. Google lists it as one of the ways to submit (Google’s guide to building a sitemap).
robots.txt
User-agent: * Disallow: Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
The line can go anywhere in the file, and you can have several. The robots.txt generator adds it for you.
What does the Sitemaps report tell you?
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Success | The sitemap was “loaded and processed successfully with no errors”. |
| Has errors | It “could be fetched, but has one or more errors”. Open it to see which. |
| Couldn’t fetch | It “could not be fetched for some reason”: check the address, that it is not blocked, and that it returns 200. |
“Last read” is “the last time the sitemap was fetched by Google”. Google controls when that happens, and resubmitting does not make it reread on a schedule. And a listed URL is not a promise: “There is no guarantee that a page URL discovered in a sitemap has been or will be crawled or indexed” (the Search Console Sitemaps report help). Google calls a submitted sitemap “merely a hint”.
What happened to the sitemap ping?
Google retired it. On 26 June 2023 it announced it was “deprecating our support for sitemaps ping and the endpoint will stop functioning in 6 months”, after which pings return a 404 (Google’s June 2023 announcement). Bing removed anonymous sitemap submission in May 2022 (Bing’s 2022 announcement). If a plugin or script still pings, it does nothing; use the methods on this page instead.
How do you submit a sitemap to Bing?
Add the site in Bing Webmaster Tools and submit the sitemap there, or rely on the robots.txt line. Bing also supports IndexNow, which tells Bing and other participating engines about new or changed URLs as they happen, up to 10,000 URLs per request; it does not replace the sitemap.
Frequently asked questions
How long until Google reads my sitemap?
Google fetches it on its own schedule, usually soon after submission. The Last read date in the Sitemaps report shows when it last did.
Do I need to resubmit after changes?
No. Google rereads sitemaps it knows about. Keep the lastmod dates accurate so it can tell what changed.
Can I submit more than one sitemap?
Yes. Submit each one, or submit a sitemap index that lists them. Search Console accepts up to 500 sitemap index files per site.
Why does Search Console say a URL in my sitemap is not indexed?
Listing a URL is a hint, not an instruction. Check the page itself: noindex, a canonical pointing elsewhere, thin or duplicate content, or a robots.txt block are the usual reasons.