Looking for a way to submit a sitemap to Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex? Submitting an XML sitemap is an important step in SEO.
Although, search engine crawlers can easily find your pages through internal links or links from other websites(backlinks). However, it is recommended SEO practice to submit an XML sitemap so crawlers can regularly crawl and index your website’s new pages.
If you are using WordPress, then you can use any of these WordPress XML sitemap plugins to generate a sitemap.
If you are using some other Content Management System (Shopify, Drupal, etc…), then you can read their documentation. You can also create an XML sitemap manually.
When you are finished creating a sitemap, you can submit the sitemap using the given process.
What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is mostly used to tell search engines about webpages that are available to crawl on a website.
It is a collection of URLs in an XML format. Sitemaps can also be used to provide additional information such as how frequently a page gets modified, when was the last time these pages updated, and which pages are more important by giving them a priority.
Submit XML Sitemap to Google
Step 1: Create an XML sitemap manually or through the use of a plugin or an extension.
Step 2: copy the end URL sitemap.xml or sitemap_index_xml. It depends on which method you chose to create a sitemap. Make sure that using the complete URL you are landing on the XML sitemap.
Step 3: Go to Google Search Console > Crawl > Sitemap. Enter the URL of your sitemap and press the submit button.
Step 4: Refreshing this page will show you how many pages submitted from your website.
Note: Google will take some time to crawl and index those pages. It depends on the number of pages that are needed to be crawled. Read my Google Search Console guide to follow the latest process.
Submit XML Sitemap to Bing
Step 1: Generate a sitemap and copy the URL. Login to your Bing Webmaster Tools Account.
Step 2: Look for the property where you want to submit the sitemap.
Step 3: Look for the option from the sidebar menu ‘Configure My Site’ and then click on Sitemaps. Here you will find a box that says submit a sitemap. You can paste your complete sitemap URL and click the submit button.
Wait for a few weeks and Bing will start indexing your website’s pages.
Submit XML SItemap to Yahoo
You don’t need to submit a sitemap to Yahoo if you have already added a sitemap to Bing.
If you specifically want to add a sitemap to Yahoo then there is no such process available. Follow the Bing submission steps if you want to add a sitemap to the Yahoo search engine.