How to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console

Why submit your sitemap to Google?

To submit a sitemap to Google, open Google Search Console, select your verified property, click Sitemaps in the left sidebar, paste your full sitemap URL (usually ending in /sitemap.xml) into the "Add a new sitemap" field, and click Submit. Google reads it once, then re-checks it on its own schedule as long as the URL stays the same.

This is a quick-start. For the complete walkthrough — verification methods, index coverage, troubleshooting, and reading the results in detail — see submitting a sitemap to Google Search Console.

Once you have a sitemap, submitting it to Google Search Console tells Google exactly where to find it. This speeds up discovery of new pages and helps Google understand your site structure. You only need to submit it once. After that, Google will check it regularly on its own schedule — as long as the URL stays the same.

Step 1: Get your sitemap URL

If you are using Indexly, your sitemap URL is on your site dashboard. It looks like this:

https://cdn.indexly.dev/sitemaps/{user_id}/{site_id}/{crawl_id}/sitemap.xml

Copy that URL. You will need it in the next step.

If you generated your sitemap manually, it is typically at https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml.

Step 2: Open Google Search Console

Go to Google Search Console and select your property. If you have not verified your site yet, you will need to do that first — Google provides several verification methods including HTML file upload, DNS TXT record, and Google Analytics.

Step 3: Submit the sitemap

1. In the left sidebar, click Sitemaps
2. In the "Add a new sitemap" field, paste your sitemap URL
3. Click Submit

Google will process the sitemap and show you how many URLs were submitted and how many have been indexed. This can take a few days for a new site.

Step 4: Check the result

After submitting, the Sitemaps report shows a status of "Success" plus a discovered-URL count. That confirms Google read the file. Indexing itself takes longer, and the numbers in the report tell you how the two compare. A large gap between submitted and indexed usually means some pages have quality issues, are blocked by robots.txt, or return error codes.

Reading that report closely is its own skill — the full guide to reading the sitemaps report in Search Console covers every status and what it means.

Don't stop at Google

Bing runs the second-largest search index and also powers results in tools like ChatGPT and Copilot. Submitting there takes the same few minutes — see submitting your sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools.

Keeping it current

You submit the URL once, but the sitemap behind it should keep changing as your site does. If your sitemap goes stale, Google re-reads an outdated map of your site — see why your sitemap is out of date. With Indexly, automatic crawls update the content at the same URL after every crawl, so you never resubmit. For important new pages, you can trigger a re-crawl in Search Console using the URL Inspection tool.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Submitting a sitemap with errors: Google will report these in Search Console. Fix errors before resubmitting.
• Blocking the sitemap in robots.txt: Make sure your sitemap URL is not disallowed.
• Using relative URLs: All URLs in the sitemap must be absolute (https://yoursite.com/page, not /page).
• Forgetting to update after major site changes: If you restructure your site, trigger a new crawl to regenerate the sitemap.

FAQ

Where do I submit my sitemap in Google Search Console?

Open Search Console, select your verified property, and click Sitemaps in the left sidebar. Paste your full sitemap URL into the "Add a new sitemap" field and click Submit. The URL must be absolute and start with https. Google reads the file within a day or two and reports how many URLs it discovered.

How long does it take Google to index a sitemap?

Google usually reads a submitted sitemap within a day or two, which the Sitemaps report shows as "Success". Indexing the pages inside it takes longer — anywhere from days to a few weeks for a new site. The discovered and indexed counts in the report show how far along the process is.

Do I need to resubmit my sitemap after updating it?

No. Once a sitemap URL is submitted, Google re-reads it on its own schedule as long as the URL stays the same. You only resubmit if you change the sitemap's location. Update the file's contents freely; keep the URL stable and Google keeps checking it.

What sitemap URL should I submit?

Submit the full, absolute URL of your sitemap file, typically ending in /sitemap.xml. If you use a sitemap index, submit the index URL and Google reads every child sitemap it lists. With Indexly, copy the hosted sitemap URL shown on your site dashboard.

Generate your sitemap with Indexly