INTRODUCTION

A sitemap offers Google the information about the pages and files that you consider essential in your site, and also gives valued information about these files. A sitemap is known as a file where you give information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the connections between them. When you submit sitemap to Google different search engines like Google use this file to crawl your site more effectively.

The sitemap tells Google which pages and files in your consideration are important in your site and it also provides important information about these files. For example, it tells when the page was last restructured and any other language types of the page. Submitting a sitemap directly helps Google’s crawl bots index your site, understand your website’s significance, and regulate the ranking of your site.

TYPES OF SITEMAPS

There are two types of sitemaps:

1. XML: Only search engine bots read this type of format of sitemaps.
2. HTML: Both the users and bots browse this format of sitemaps. 

By the help of a webpage, HTML sitemaps become accessible on the website when you submit sitemap to Google. They often look as a group of links to chief pages on your site. They’ll helpful for obtaining page rank throughout your website, as they link with other pages with fewer internal links. 

ROLE OF GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Google suggests the Google Search Console to assist you in tracking your website’s indexing status and increase its visibility. You can also use it to submit your sitemap to Google so Google will know how to crawl your website. Google will likely crawl your site ultimately, but submitting a sitemap speeds up the process of crawling.

You can also use Search Console to:

1. To review your site post for discovery of any errors
2. To test the mobile usability of your site
3. Optimizing your content with data generated from Search Analytics 

WHY TO SUBMIT SITEMAP TO GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Sitemaps are a vital tool for if you want that the search engines reveal your website. You can also include a sitemap to Google’s Search Console for enhancing the indexing of your site. When you submit sitemap to Google, it helps in improving the traffic of your website so that rank higher in different search engines.

STEPS IN SUBMITTING A SITEMAP TO GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

Here are the following steps by which you can submit a sitemap to google search console

Finding sitemap for your site

Every site does not contain the sitemap at the same location and does not have the same URL structure. If you have an HTML page which is available to the visitors who visit your site that works too, these are often in the note. You can also create your robots.txt file and see if the sitemap is connected with them

LOCATING YOUR CORRECT PROPERTY IN GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE

It’s imperative to make sure that you find the stuff for the exact domain for which you want to submit a sitemap for so the one that is also available to visitors who visit your site. You also need to remember that http:// and https:// are not the alike and that example.com and www.example.com are also not the similar either.

Navigate to “Sitemaps” in “Index” on the left side of  navigation pane.

Remove the old, out-of-date sitemaps if you have submitted any of them. Click on the three horizontal dots in the top right corner of your website to find this option. Under the option of “Add a new sitemap” you can add your sitemap URL and then you have to click submit.

You just only need to submit the last of the URL, not the part which contains domain. Soon, the sitemap file is saved on the domain that equals your Search Console property. Google will check whether the sitemap can be establish and read. It may take a little time before the search engines crawl your sitemap.

WHAT TO INCLUDE IN SITEMAPS

Here are some things that you can include in your sitemaps

1. Post your sitemap at the site origin (as a substitute of the main domain) if you want that your sitemap should work for the whole site. When you submit sitemap to Google, the sitemaps affect only posterity of the parent directory.
2. Also tell Google about alternative language versions of a URL by using hreflang tags.

BENEFITS OF USING SITEMAPS

Following are the advantages of adding sitemaps to Google search console

Quickly inform search engines about the changes

 A sitemap, which informs search engines right away about changes made in the sitemap, can possibly get changes indexed faster.

Help with canonical URLs
With a sitemap, Google can decide what is the main URL of the page that may help in solving certain canonical issues. Of course, redirect is a better solution for that, but the submission of a sitemap can also help the process.

Improved website planning
A sitemap helps you in planning your site before you even start generating it. Think of it like a building. It’s a most easy way to build once you have created a layout for the structure. A sitemap can help you in the same way, helping designers know the number of pages on the site and how they are arranged.

Forward-thinking development
Most of the search engine sitemap programs are still growing, but as they are improving, sitemaps are becoming a more important part of the indexing process. It’s advantageous, therefore, to already have sitemaps as part of your SEO collection.

CONCLUSION

Sitemaps are taken an important feature of both your website and SEO policy, so it’s best to have one. Both the XML format and the HTML formats have their benefits and uses, so inspect your SEO strategy and choose one or both. When you submit sitemap to the Google Search Console, whether not necessary, can speed up the procedure of crawling and indexing your website. It is also helpful in increasing the raking of your website in different search engines.