How to submit a sitemap to Google

A file that lists the pages on your site you want Google to find. Google accepts XML sitemaps, RSS, mRSS and Atom feeds, and plain text files with one URL per line.

• Each sitemap can hold up to 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed. Larger sites split them and can list them in a sitemap index file.
• Use full, absolute URLs (https://www.example.com/page, not /page) and UTF-8 encoding.
• List the versions of your pages you want shown in results.
• Google ignores the priority and changefreq tags, and only uses lastmod if your dates are consistently accurate.

Sources: Google Search Central: Build and submit a sitemap, checked 15 October 2026; Search Console Help: Sitemaps report, checked 15 October 2026

Google says many website platforms, including WordPress, Wix and Blogger, create sitemaps automatically or offer plugins for them, so check your platform's help pages before making one by hand. Feeds generated by these platforms usually list only recent pages.

• Host the sitemap at your site's root if you can. Unless it's submitted in Search Console, a sitemap only covers pages in its own folder and below.
• Open the sitemap's address in a browser to check it loads.

Source: Google Search Central: Build and submit a sitemap, checked 15 October 2026

You need to be an owner of the property. If you aren't, add the sitemap to your robots.txt file instead (see below).

1. Make sure the sitemap is live on your site and free of errors.
2. Optional: paste the sitemap's address into the URL Inspection bar, run a live test and check Page fetch says Successful.
3. Open the Sitemaps report from the Search Console menu.
4. Paste the sitemap address into Add a new sitemap and select Submit.
5. If the status isn't Success, select the row to see the error details.

Source: Search Console Help: Sitemaps report, checked 15 October 2026

• The report only shows sitemaps submitted through the report or the API, for the property you have open.

Source: Search Console Help: Sitemaps report, checked 15 October 2026

Yes. Google lists three besides the Sitemaps report:

• Add a line to your robots.txt file: Sitemap: followed by the sitemap's full URL. You can add more than one.
• Submit it programmatically through the Search Console API.
• For RSS or Atom feeds, use WebSub to notify search engines of changes.

Source: Google Search Central: Build and submit a sitemap, checked 15 October 2026

Google's most common causes:

• Your robots.txt blocks the sitemap. Remove the blocking rule.
• The address is wrong and returns a 404. Open it in a browser to check.
• Your site has an unresolved manual action. Fix it in the Manual actions report, then resubmit.
• Relative URLs, redirects or pages on a different domain or protocol in the file. Use the final, absolute URLs.
• Mismatched www: the sitemap is on www and the URLs aren't, or the other way round.
• Dates in the wrong format. Use W3C Datetime, such as 2026-10-15.
• If fetching keeps failing, Google retries for a few days and then stops, so fix the problem and resubmit.

Source: Search Console Help: Sitemaps report, checked 15 October 2026

In the Sitemaps report, select the sitemap, select the more options button on its details page, then Remove sitemap. Google says this doesn't make it forget the sitemap or its URLs. To stop Google visiting them, block them in robots.txt, delete the file or pages, or use a noindex response header.

Source: Search Console Help: Sitemaps report, checked 15 October 2026

Disclosure: this is our product. A sitemap helps Google find your pages; posts help customers find them. Zolyp writes and designs Google Business updates and events in your brand's style and publishes them to your connected profile once you approve. It doesn't edit your website or sitemap. There's a 3-day free trial, no card required.