To submit a sitemap to Google, open the Sitemaps report in Google Search Console, paste your sitemap's URL into the "Add a new sitemap" box and press Submit. You can also add a Sitemap line to your robots.txt file. Either way, a submission is a hint to Google, not a promise that your pages will be indexed.
What do you need before you submit?
Three things should be true first, because a sitemap that Google cannot fetch is the most common reason a submission fails.
- The sitemap is live at a public URL. Most sites use
/sitemap.xml, but any address works. Open it in a browser and confirm you see XML, not a 404 or a login page. - You have owner access to the property in Search Console. Google's Sitemaps report help page says submitting needs owner permissions on the property.
- Googlebot is allowed to fetch it. If your robots.txt blocks the sitemap's path, Google will report that it could not fetch the file. Check the live URL with the URL Inspection tool if you are unsure.
If you have not decided whether your site needs a sitemap at all, read do you need an XML sitemap first. This guide assumes you have one.
How do you submit it in Search Console?
- Open Google Search Console and choose your property.
- Go to Sitemaps in the left menu.
- Under "Add a new sitemap," enter the part of the URL after your domain, for example
sitemap.xml. - Press Submit.
Google's help page is blunt about what this does: "You cannot actually upload a sitemap to Google." You are telling Google where the file lives, and Google fetches it. That is why the file has to stay on your site and keep working.
How do you submit it through robots.txt?
You can also point crawlers at the file from robots.txt, with no Search Console account needed. Add one line anywhere in the file, using the full address:
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Google's sitemap documentation says it finds the line the next time it crawls robots.txt, and you can list more than one sitemap. This method also reaches other search engines that read robots.txt, so it is worth doing even if you submit in Search Console too. The two do not conflict.
The same documentation page lists a third method, WebSub, for sites that publish RSS or Atom feeds. Most small sites can ignore it.
Which method should you use?
| Method | Best for | What you get back |
|---|---|---|
| Search Console | Any site you own in Search Console | Fetch status, error list, discovered URL count |
| robots.txt line | Every site, and other search engines | Nothing reported, so you check by hand |
| Both | The default I would pick | Reporting from Google plus coverage elsewhere |
What do the sitemap statuses mean?
After you submit, the Sitemaps report shows one of three statuses. Google's help page defines them like this:
- Success. The sitemap was loaded and processed with no errors, and the URLs in it are queued for crawling.
- Has errors. The file could be fetched but has one or more errors. Google still queues the URLs that parsed cleanly. Open the report to see which lines failed.
- Couldn't fetch. Google could not retrieve the file at all. Look for a robots.txt block, a 404, a redirect loop or a server error.
"Success" describes the file, not your pages. It does not mean the URLs are indexed. Google's page says there is no guarantee that a URL found in a sitemap has been or will be crawled or indexed.
How long does it take?
Google's help page says it typically fetches the sitemap soon after you submit. Crawling the URLs inside can take longer, and the speed depends on the size, activity and traffic of your site. There is no published number you can plan around, so do not refresh the report every hour. Check back after a few days.
What are the limits?
Google's documentation says a single sitemap is limited to 50MB uncompressed or 50,000 URLs. A larger site splits its URLs across several sitemap files and lists them in a sitemap index file, then submits the index. A small site will not get near either limit.
What if the sitemap is fine but pages are not indexed?
This is the usual next problem, and the sitemap is rarely the cause. Walk through it in this order:
- Inspect one of the URLs with URL Inspection, as described in how to check if a page is indexed.
- If the status is "Crawled, currently not indexed," the issue is page quality or duplication, not discovery. See that status explained.
- Make sure the sitemap only lists URLs you want indexed. Redirected, noindexed or non-canonical URLs send mixed signals. The canonical URL guide and robots.txt vs noindex explain why.
- Link to the page from other pages on your site. A page that appears only in a sitemap is close to an orphan page.
How do you remove a sitemap?
Deleting a sitemap from the report does not make Google forget it. Google's help page says Google may still remember the file and its URLs. To stop Google using it, remove the file from your site (so it returns a 404) or block it with robots.txt. To stop specific pages being indexed, use noindex on those pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to submit a sitemap for Google to find my site?
No. Google finds pages mainly by following links. A sitemap speeds up discovery on new, large or poorly linked sites, but it is optional.
Do I need to resubmit after adding pages?
Not if your sitemap updates automatically. Google fetches the file you registered again over time. Resubmit only if you change the sitemap's address.
Can I submit more than one sitemap?
Yes. Add each one in Search Console, or list several Sitemap lines in robots.txt. A sitemap index file is tidier when you have many.
Why does Search Console say "Couldn't fetch"?
Google could not retrieve the file. The usual causes are a wrong URL, a robots.txt rule that blocks it, a redirect problem or a server error. Fix the cause and resubmit.
Does submitting a sitemap help my rankings?
No. It helps Google discover URLs. Ranking depends on the pages themselves.