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How-to guide · 4 steps

How to Submit a Sitemap to Google and Bing

Submitting a sitemap tells search engines exactly which pages you want indexed — and helps them find those pages faster than waiting for Googlebot to discover them naturally. It's a short job and can help new pages get discovered sooner. Here's the process.

How a sitemap reaches search engines

sitemap.xml (or a sitemap index)

  • robots.txt

    • A Sitemap: line any crawler can read

  • Google Search Console

    • Submit once
    • Status and errors reported

  • Bing Webmaster Tools

    • Submit separately
    • Also feeds Bing-powered search
One sitemap file, three discovery routes. Submission helps discovery; it does not guarantee indexing.

  1. Step 1: Generate your XML sitemap

    Your sitemap should list every page you want indexed with its last-modified date. If you're on WordPress, a plugin handles this automatically. For custom sites, generate it programmatically or use an online sitemap generator for small sites.

    Tool for this stepRank Math Pro

    from €7.99/mo billed yearly

    Rank Math generates a dynamic XML sitemap in WordPress and updates it automatically every time you publish — no manual regeneration needed. Seobility's audit verifies your sitemap is correctly formatted.

    Rank Math Pro plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)

  2. Step 2: Submit to Google Search Console

    Log into Google Search Console, select your property, and click 'Sitemaps' in the left nav. Enter your sitemap URL in the 'Add a new sitemap' field and click Submit. Google will show the submission status and how many URLs it discovered.

    Tool for this stepRank Math Pro

    from €7.99/mo billed yearly

    Rank Math's Search Console integration shows sitemap status directly in your WordPress dashboard. SE Ranking's site audit verifies that your submitted sitemap is being crawled and processed correctly.

    Rank Math Pro plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: SE Ranking (from £95/mo)

  3. Step 3: Submit to Bing Webmaster Tools

    Bing is easy to overlook, and its index also feeds other search services, including Yahoo. Go to webmaster.bing.com, verify your site via XML file or meta tag, then submit your sitemap URL in the Sitemaps section.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Site Audit checks robots.txt rules and crawlability issues that affect every search engine, so it's a useful check before you submit to Bing as well as Google.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)

  4. Step 4: Fix common sitemap errors

    Common sitemap problems: including 4xx pages, listing URLs that are canonicalized to a different page, including noindex pages, or having a sitemap over 50MB/50,000 URLs (split into a sitemap index in this case). Your Search Console report will flag these.

    Tool for this stepSemrush

    from $139/mo

    Semrush's Site Audit includes a dedicated sitemap health check — it validates your sitemap format, cross-checks submitted URLs against crawl data, and flags URLs that shouldn't be in the sitemap.

    Semrush plans and catches

    Alternative to consider: Seobility (from €59.90/mo)