Before you submit
An XML sitemap lists the URLs you want crawled. Check three things first. The file loads in a browser at a public address such as https://example.com/sitemap.xml. It lists only canonical URLs that return a normal page, not redirects or error pages. And it stays within the standard limits of 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file; larger sites split it into several files and list them in a sitemap index.
It also helps to add a line to your robots.txt so any crawler can find the sitemap without you submitting it:
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xmlSubmit by hand
- Google. In Search Console, choose your property, open the Sitemaps report, enter the sitemap path and submit. Google lists the status and the number of discovered URLs.
- Bing. In Bing Webmaster Tools, choose the site, open the Sitemaps section and submit the full sitemap URL. The site must already be added; see import your sites into Bing.
- Yandex. In Yandex Webmaster, choose the verified site, open the sitemap files section under indexing and add the sitemap URL. See add a site to Yandex Webmaster if the site is not there yet.
Submit from your assistant
With mowteng connected, one request can do all three. These are write actions, so a good assistant asks before running them.
| Engine | Submit | Check |
|---|---|---|
gsc_submit_sitemap | gsc_list_sitemaps | |
| Bing | bing_submit_sitemap | bing_list_sitemaps |
| Yandex | yandex_submit_sitemap | yandex_list_sitemaps |
Submit https://example.com/sitemap.xml to Google, Bing and Yandex for example.com, then list the sitemaps in each one and tell me about any errors or warnings.
Bing and Yandex are optional sources you connect on the account page. Google's list shows submitted and indexed counts plus errors and warnings, which makes it the quickest way to see whether the file was read.
Removing a sitemap
gsc_delete_sitemap removes a sitemap from Search Console. Pages that are already indexed stay indexed, so deleting a sitemap is a clean-up step, not a way to remove pages from search.
You do not need to resubmit every change
Search engines re-read a known sitemap on their own. Update the lastmod dates when pages really change. For urgent changes, ask for a crawl of single URLs instead; ask Google, Bing and Yandex to crawl a page explains what each engine accepts. To check a sitemap's health across engines, see sitemap health.