I’m guessing you put a LOT of work into your website so people could find you, become obsessed with you, and hire you, right? But if your pages aren’t indexed, Google will never find them.
Let me de-jargon that for you, real quick: “Index” is just a fancy way of saying “Google knows it exists.”
So if you haven’t indexed your website pages yet, then Google doesn’t know they exist…
Which means no one will ever find them organically…
So you’ll need to spend all your free time posting on social media instead, sharing direct links to your website for your followers to (hopefully) click…
Orrrr you could just find your Showit sitemap and send it off to Google.
I’ll take option two, please!
Want to skip ahead to what you need?
In this post, I’m walking you through what a sitemap is, why you need one, where to find yours, and how to submit it to Google—or more specifically, Google Search Console.
Click a heading below to jump to that section, or keep reading:
- What is a sitemap
- Why you need a sitemap
- How to know if your content is indexed
- How to find your Showit sitemap
- How to submit your Showit sitemap to Google Search Console
- How often you should submit your sitemap to Google Search Console
What is a sitemap?
Your sitemap is an outline of the pages on your website.
In tech-speak, this is called an ‘xml sitemap’. But I’ll stick with ‘sitemap’.
Your sitemap lists every page that you want Google to know about (including the ones that aren’t linked in your main navigation).
Why do I need a sitemap?
In the simplest terms, you need a sitemap so Google can start crawling (aka reading) these pages and tracking your optimization efforts.
Your website includes your main navigation — which typically includes pages like home, about, services, blog, contact — but it probably also has pages that aren’t linked in your navigation. These “unlinked” pages often include a resources page, specific service pages, a pricing page, blog posts, freebie opt-in pages, and others.
Even though these unlinked pages aren’t in your navigation, there’s still an opportunity for them to rank on Google. But only if Google knows about them.
With a sitemap, you’re showing Google all of the pages that exist within your website, so Google can start indexing your content (aka listing your content in its search results).
(If you don’t want a page to be discoverable — like private pages for onboarding clients, 404 error pages, or legal policy pages — you’ll need to ask Google not to track those pages. You can do this in the backend of Showit by clicking on that page, selecting the “Advanced Settings” tab on the right-hand side menu, and scrolling to the bottom to check the checkbox that says “Ask Google to ignore this page.” See photo below for reference.)
How do I know if my content is indexed?
To check if a page is indexed, open up Google and search: “site:[yourdomain]”.
So, using Showit as an example, I’d type “site:showit.com” into Google. You can see Showit has 1,930 pages indexed:
If you search your domain and your pages aren’t showing up, your content isn’t indexed.
How do I find my Showit sitemap?
Your Showit sitemap will follow this formula: https://yourdomain/siteinfo.xml
But if you also have a blog on your Showit website, you’ll need to submit a second sitemap. The Showit blog sitemap will follow this formula: https://yourdomain/sitemap_index.xml
Now it’s time to submit your sitemap(s) to Google Search Console.
How do I submit a Showit sitemap to Google Search Console?
I don’t ever want to write something SEO-related that leaves you feeling less than crystal clear on what it means and how it applies to your business. Which means I will never not explain what the heck I’m talking about.
SEO is full of jargon, but it really doesn’t need to be. Most of it is smoke and mirrors to make you feel like we can’t do it yourself.
(Pssst—you can. So let’s get back to it.)
Before you submit your Showit sitemap to Google Search Console, you need to know what it is.
Google Search Console is a free analytics tool that helps you figure out what keywords Google associates with your website. You can also use it to find errors that you need to fix, and submit new content to be indexed (aka ranked) by Google.
Remember, “index” is just a fancy shmancy way of saying that Google knows it exists.
So after your Showit website is published, the very first thing you need to do is submit your sitemap to Google Search Console. Here’s how:
Skip right to Step 3 if you’re already set up Google Search Console.
STEP 1. OPEN GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE
Head to http://search.google.com/search-console/welcome to begin using Google Search Console.
STEP 2. VERIFY SITE OWNERSHIP
Verify site ownership so Google Search Console can start monitoring your data.
There are two methods to do this:
- “Domain” uses DNS verification & is best for tracking an entire site (plus its subdomains).
- “URL Prefix” is best for tracking a single URL or subdomain.
I recommend using the “Domain” option to keep everything on Google’s radar. This will require a little bit of technical expertise as you verify your DNS, but once you’ve done it, you won’t need to do it again.
STEP 3. LOCATE YOUR SHOWIT SITEMAP URL(S)
Open up a browser tab and enter your Showit sitemap URL. It will follow this formula: https://yourdomain/siteinfo.xml
If you have a blog, open another tab and enter your blog sitemap URL. It will follow this formula: https://yourdomain/sitemap_index.xml
Keep these handy until you’re ready for Step 4.
STEP 4. PASTE YOUR SITEMAP URL(S) INTO GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE.
Navigate to the “Sitemaps” tab on the left-hand side menu of Google Search Console.
Paste your Showit sitemap URLs (one at a time if you have two) where it says “Add a new sitemap” and click “Submit.”
If a “Success” message doesn’t pop up straight away, refresh the tab or check back shortly. Sometimes it just takes a few minutes.
How often should I submit my sitemap to Google?
Now that you’ve set up your sitemap, you might be wondering if you ever need to re-submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.
The answer is… maybe.
If you’ve added new pages, removed old ones, or rebranded and relaunched your site, you’ll want to resubmit your sitemap.
If you haven’t updated your content, there’s no need to re-submit your sitemap.
And that’s it! You’ve officially submitted your Showit sitemap to Google Search Console and can start optimizing.
I hope you found this tutorial helpful and learned something about SEO. Now that you’re on Google’s radar, my Showit SEO services can help you get more of the right eyes on your work, more bookings, and more profit in your pocket.
Head back to the blog for more DIY SEO for small businesses.
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