How to create an XML sitemap and submit it to Google [Instructions]

What is the XML sitemap of a website?

The XML sitemap (also index sitemap or index map) is a file in XML text format that contains a page overview of your website.

In addition to the overview of your pages, you can also create an image sitemap, a video sitemap or sitemaps for individual categories.

The aim of these sitemaps is to show a search engine such as Google which websites and which content should be searched by so-called search engine web crawlers.

In addition, the Google crawler is told which files on the pages you consider important and then provides helpful information about them.

How important is the sitemap really?

The sitemap plays an essential role in the indexing of a website or its subpages. This is especially true for large sites.

For small websites with only a few subpages and good quality internal links - i.e. if the individual pages are well linked - it is usually no problem for Google's web crawlers, for example, to gain access and search all subpages.

For large pages, a sitemap is a support for Google or the Googlebot to ensure a complete crawling and thus the complete indexing of a website.

After the basic information, I would now like to show you how you can create an overview of your website yourself.

How do I create a sitemap?

Create sitemaps with the sitemap generator

I will now show you how to easily create your sitemap. You can either create it using plugins in a content management system (Joomla/WordPress) or manually.

If you don't use a CMS and still want to create your "own" sitemap, you can find countless sitemap generators on the internet. For example: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

Simply enter your URL in the form and click on "Start"

The creation process will then take a few minutes, depending on the size of your website.

You will then see the following page:

You can download your XML sitemap or view a preview.

You can also download other formats, such as an HTML sitemap, or have it sent to you by email.

All you have to do is upload the generated XML sitemap file to your root directory using an FTP client. That's basically it. We will discuss everything else later.

Now let's take a look at how to create your sitemap with the CMS Joomla and WordPress.

Creating sitemaps for Joomla! websites

It is also advisable to create an XML sitemap for the Joomla CMS, as these pages are also crawled by search engine bots.

But how do I create one correctly?

In principle, you can use a sitemap generator to create your sitemap, as shown above. To do this, simply enter "sitemap generator" in your favourite search engine and a list of different generators will be displayed.

However, we use a plugin (extension) for Joomla to create the sitemap.

How do you install the plugin to create a sitemap in Joomla?

One of the best known and simplest sitemap plugins for Joomla is the "OSMAP" plugin.

Here I would like to briefly show you how to install one.

1. Log into your Joomla backend
2. Under Manage extensions Install you will find the plugins
3. Enter "OSMAP" in the search field.
4. Click on the preview to open the information and installation.
5. Click on "Install" to install the plugin without further ado.

The following video explains step by step how to create and install a suitable sitemap for Joomla.

Create sitemaps for WordPress websites

Of course, there are also promising plugins for WordPress that can save you a lot of time and work when creating a sitemap.

Here's the easiest way to do it.

Creating sitemaps is no magic trick, even with WordPress. One of the best plugins for WordPress beginners, but also advanced WordPress users, is the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress.

It is one of the easiest ways to add a sitemap to WordPress and it also gives you the opportunity to improve the SEO of your site.

However, before we can work with this plugin, we first have to install it on the desired page. And this is how it works:

1. Log into your WordPress backend.
2. Click on "Plugins" - Install in the vertical menu on the left
3. Enter "Yoast SEO" in the plugin search field
4. Now select the Yoast SEO plugin in the search results and install it by clicking on "Install now"

How to create the sitemap with Yoast SEO

1. Log in to your WordPress website. When you are logged in, you will be in your "Dashboard".
2. Click on "SEO"and you will see a menu on the left-hand side. Click on "SEO" in this menu.
3. Click on "General". The "SEO" settings will be expanded and offer you additional options. Click on "General".
4. Click on the "Functions" tab.
5. Toggle the "XML sitemaps" switch. To activate the function, switch the switch to "On". To deactivate the function, switch the switch to "Off".
6. Click on "Save changes".

That's it already. Yoast SEO generates your sitemap for you, which you can access at your.domain/sitemap.xml.

To show you everything about Yoast SEO plugins, I have added a video on this topic. You can also read our article Yoast SEO - tutorial and video guide.

Types of sitemaps

There are different sitemap formats. Basically, HTML sitemaps or XML sitemaps are used.

Both types get their name from the format of the file that is used to store them. For example, an HTML sitemap would be saved in the form of an HTML file under Sitemap.html and an XML sitemap - as the name suggests - as an XML file under Sitemap.xml.

But what is an HTML sitemap? What is an XML sitemap? And what is the difference between HTML sitemaps and an overview in XML format? I'll give you all this information now!

What is an HTML sitemap?

An HTML sitemap is basically used for visitor orientation and is linked in the website. You can also think of it as a large table of contents.

Here is the HTML sitemap of our website:

The HTML sitemap is often linked in the menu and graphically prepared for the user and visually adapted to the rest of the website.

The HTML sitemap is entered in a separate subpage and all URLs of the website are recorded here. A single click then takes the user to the desired website.

What is an XML sitemap?

XML stands for Extensible Markup Language and is used to display hierarchically structured data in the format of a text file. An XML sitemap is therefore a hierarchical representation of the content of a website in text format.

The content of an XML sitemap is intended purely for the search engine bots and is used to make it easier for the bots to index the websites and subpages.

At the beginning of the XML sitemap is the version of the extensible markup language and the character encoding used (xml version 1.0 encoding utf 8)

In addition, information about a website is also provided for the search engine. This information usually consists of the change frequency <changefreq>, the priority <priority> and the date of the last edit <lastmod>.

This is what the above XML sitemap looks like for the crawler:

Now we come to the last point on our list. What do you do with the finished sitemap?

How to submit the XML sitemap to Google

Of course, you could simply wait until the Google bot visits you. With a bit of luck, this will only take a few days (without any additional effort on your part). But if you're unlucky, it could take several weeks.

So don't leave the indexing of your site to chance and "ask" your search engine to crawl your site as soon as possible by submitting your sitemap.

Submit individual URLs using the Google Search Console:

In Google Search Console, you have two options if you want to submit individual URLs:

Firstly, you can use the URL check tool.

This tool is particularly suitable if you have newly created individual pages or simply revised an old page.

This is how it works:

1. Log in to the Search Console.
2. Select the appropriate property.
3. In the left navigation you will find the item "Check URL"
4. Click on this item once and enter the URL of your optimised page.
5. The data will now be retrieved live from the Google index.
6. When the message "URL is on Google" appears, your work is done and the URLs have been submitted.

What to do if the message does not appear?

In this case, you should not immediately hang your head. Because even in this case it is not a big effort.

Click on "Request indexing". Google will now perform a live query of the indexability of the URL. This could take a few minutes.

A popup will then open with the message "Indexation has been requested".

Now follow these steps for each of your optimised URLs.

Submit the entire sitemap to Google:

In the case that you have a brand new website or have made countless changes, it is easier for you to resubmit the entire sitemap. To do this, you need to ask Google to crawl all of your subpages.

And it's that simple:

1. Log in to the Google Search Console
2. Select the appropriate property.
3. Click on "Sitemap" to access the settings
4. Enter your sitemap URL in the "Add new sitemap" search field.
5. Click on "Submit"
6. You can now see your submitted sitemap and the "Successful" status in the "Submitted sitemaps" table

Create XML sitemaps and submit them to search engines - Conclusion

To summarise once again.

A sitemap acts as a kind of table of contents of your website's page structure. It is a file in which all subpages of a website are summarised. You should have such a file to ensure that all subpages are found and indexed by the search engine bots.

You can create such a sitemap for search engines using a sitemap generator or use a plugin for CMS.

If there are only a few URLs involved, you can do this using the URL check tool.

However, if there are several pages, it would be easier to submit the complete sitemap by asking Google to crawl all subpages.

The advantage of the sitemap for your SEO

Because the Google bot constantly registers all your old and new pages and all updates through the sitemap, these are immediately visible and effective in the index.

Without a sitemap, you would have to wait until the search engine crawler "accidentally" visits your website.

The frequency can vary greatly. Depending on the internal and external links, it can take a long time for Google and other search engines to crawl your website. Time in which you could generate website visitors from the organic search results through a good ranking on Google or other search engines.

Everything clear?

OK, then that's it for today.

If you're still having problems creating and submitting your sitemap, give us a call on +43 1 353 2 353 or send us an email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. We will be happy to help you.