Understanding Sitemaps & Search Engines
A sitemap is an XML file listing the key URLs of your website, letting search engine bots know how your pages are structured and related, and when they were last updated. Every site built on WebsHigher features a dynamic sitemap that updates automatically whenever changes are published.
Search engines such as Google use this sitemap index to efficiently crawl and index websites. WebsHigher automatically keeps your sitemap in sync with your latest modifications, ensuring search crawlers always receive the most up-to-date representation of your site.
Pro Tip: View Your Sitemap
You can inspect your live sitemap index by adding /sitemap.xml to the end of your custom domain name in your browser's address bar. For example: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
Automating Sitemap Submission with WebsHigher SEO
When you connect your custom domain and set up your site using the integrated WebsHigher SEO Setup Checklist, WebsHigher automatically registers and submits your sitemap directly to Google Search Console on your behalf.
Once connected, any changes or additions you make to your pages will automatically trigger a sitemap update. There is no need to manually resubmit the sitemap after editing your pages.
Important Requirement
To connect your site to Google Search Console via the WebsHigher SEO Checklist, you must have an active Premium Plan and a custom domain connected to your site (either registered through WebsHigher or configured via a third-party domain host).
Note on Crawling Times
It can take anywhere from a few hours to several days for search engines to reflect your changes in search results. If you want changes to appear more quickly, you can manually request indexing for individual pages inside Google Search Console.
Manually Submitting Sitemaps to Search Engines
Different search engines use distinct tools and dashboards for manual sitemap submissions. To register your sitemap manually, access the respective Webmaster portal and follow their submission steps.
Domain Ownership Verification Required
Before you can submit a sitemap file to any search engine, you must first verify your ownership of the connected domain name. This is typically done by adding an HTML verification tag or TXT record in your DNS settings.
Submit Your Sitemap to Major Search Engines:
- Google: Submit your XML sitemap URL via the 'Sitemaps' section inside Google Search Console.
- Bing & Yahoo: Register and submit your sitemap using the Bing Webmaster Tools panel.
- Yandex: Access the Yandex.Webmaster dashboard and submit your sitemap index.
- Naver: Log in to Naver Search Advisor and submit your sitemap under the 'Crawl' section.
Submitting Individual Page URLs
If you've updated a specific page (such as editing a blog post, changing service pricing, or updating contact details), submitting the individual page URL is more efficient and faster than re-indexing your entire sitemap.
Each search engine provides tools to submit and inspect single URLs. For Google Search Console, simply paste the full URL into the "URL Inspection" search bar at the top of the dashboard and click "Request Indexing".
Verify Ownership First
As with sitemap submissions, you must have verified ownership of the website inside the search engine's tools before you can manually request indexing for individual page URLs.
