How to Submit a Sitemap to Google

A sitemap is a file listing every page you want search engines to know about. Submitting it through Search Console doesn't guarantee indexing, but it gives Google a clear, direct list to work from instead of relying purely on discovering links on its own.

1. Confirm your site generates a sitemap file, usually at a URL like /sitemap.xml.
2. Open Search Console and go to the Sitemaps section for your property.
3. Enter the sitemap path (just the part after your domain, like sitemap.xml) and submit it.
4. Check back after a few days to see how many URLs were discovered versus how many actually got indexed.
5. Re-submit if you make major structural changes to your site later on.

Has my sitemap actually been picked up by Google?

Ask datanephew to check your sitemap status — it reads and parses your sitemap as part of checking overall site health.

Some pages in my sitemap aren't indexed — why not?

Ask datanephew to check the index coverage status for those specific pages — being in a sitemap gets a page noticed, but Google still decides separately whether to index it.