To submit a sitemap in Google Search Console, first confirm that your site has a valid, publicly accessible sitemap, then open the Sitemaps report for the right property, enter its URL, and select Submit. Submission tells Google where to find the file; it does not upload the sitemap to Google or guarantee that Google will crawl or index every listed page.
Check whether your site already has a sitemap
Many website platforms generate a sitemap automatically. Check your platform’s documentation and look for its published sitemap URL before creating another file. Google says a site with about 500 pages or fewer may not need a sitemap if its pages can be reached by following links from the homepage. That is a general guideline, not a reason to skip checking how your platform manages sitemaps.
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Google’s overview explains when a sitemap can help and what to check: Google Search Console Help: Sitemap.
Prepare and publish a sitemap Google can fetch
If you need a sitemap, use a format Google supports and follow its syntax rules. For an XML sitemap, use valid XML, the proper sitemap namespace, and escape special characters in URL values. Put the sitemap at the site root when practical; a hosted platform may manage it or specify a different location.
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- Publish the sitemap on your site before submitting it.
- Make sure it can be fetched without a login and is not blocked to Googlebot by robots.txt.
- Check that it lists URLs on the appropriate host and within the sitemap’s permitted location.
- Use URL Inspection to check whether Google can fetch the sitemap URL successfully.
Google’s guidance on access and sitemap requirements is in the Sitemaps report documentation and its overview of possible indexing problems.
Submit the sitemap in Search Console
- Sign in to Search Console and select the property that matches the site where the sitemap is published.
- Open Sitemaps in the property’s navigation.
- Enter the sitemap URL you verified is live and publicly fetchable.
- Select Submit.
You need owner permissions on the property to submit a sitemap through the report. Submission means telling Google where the file is; it is not an upload to Google. If you do not have owner permissions, Google documents listing the sitemap URL in your site’s robots.txt file as an alternative way to help Google discover it.
Know when to split a large sitemap
Google allows up to 50,000 URLs and a maximum uncompressed file size of 50 MB in one sitemap. If your sitemap exceeds either limit, divide the URLs among multiple sitemap files and list those files in a sitemap index. An index can list up to 50,000 sitemap files, but it cannot list another sitemap index.
| File | Google’s stated limit |
|---|---|
| One sitemap | Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed |
| One sitemap index | Up to 50,000 sitemap files; nested sitemap indexes are not allowed |
See Google’s documentation for sitemap indexes and the Sitemaps report’s file limits and errors.
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Read the Sitemaps report and fix errors
After submission, use the Sitemaps report to review the submission and any errors Google encountered fetching or parsing the file. Match the fix to the specific error rather than repeatedly submitting an unchanged sitemap.
- Fetch or access problem: Confirm the file loads publicly, does not require login, and is not blocked by robots.txt. A temporary fetch failure may be retried automatically by Google.
- Parsing or format problem: Correct malformed XML, unescaped characters, unsupported formats, or an empty sitemap.
- URL or location problem: Check for URLs on a different host, URLs outside the permitted sitemap location, or URLs that redirect.
- Size or count limit: Split the URL set and list the resulting sitemap files in an index.
Once the underlying issue is corrected, resubmit when appropriate and check the report again.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Understand what submission does—and does not do
A sitemap helps Google discover URLs; it does not compel Google to crawl them, and it does not guarantee that they will appear in search results. Google may fetch the sitemap promptly, but crawling the listed pages can take time, and Google may not crawl every URL.
If a page remains absent, check the Sitemaps report, inspect the URL, and review the Page indexing report for issues such as access failures, robots.txt blocks, a noindex directive, duplication, or canonicalization. Google advises allowing at least a week after submitting a sitemap or requesting indexing before assuming a recently published page has a problem. See Why a page may be missing from Google Search and the Page indexing report.
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