How Find and Submit Your Shopify Sitemap To Google: Step by Step Guide 

This article will delve into the essential process of locating and submitting your Shopify sitemap to Google. 

Key Takeaways

• Shopify Sitemap: A crucial tool for enhancing SEO, a Shopify sitemap acts as a roadmap for search engines, guiding them through your store’s structure and content.
• Submitting Sitemap: Benefits include better SEO, accurate indexing, and improved rankings. Speeds up indexing for new and updated pages, efficient for more significant sites. Solves poor internal linking issues, ensuring comprehensive indexing. Sets the stage for adaptability as your store evolves.
• 3 Easy Steps: Finding, verifying, and submitting your sitemap is a simple process that enhances your store’s online presence.
• After Submitting: Google’s algorithms analyze content for accurate indexing. Results in increased visibility, prompt updates, and more traffic. Part of a broader SEO strategy for optimal results.

What is a Shopify Sitemap?

A Shopify sitemap is a crucial tool that plays a significant role in enhancing your online store’s search engine optimization (SEO). In simple terms, it’s like a map that guides search engines, notably Google, to navigate and understand the structure of your Shopify store. 

A Shopify sitemap is an XML file that contains a comprehensive list of all the pages on your Shopify store. Specific details about the content, hierarchy, and relationships between different pages accompany each page. This sitemap is a roadmap for search engine bots, also known as “spiders”, helping them effectively explore and index your online store.

With this information, search engines can prioritize and index your pages accurately. Without a sitemap, search engine bots might miss certain pages or misunderstand their relationships, potentially leading to incomplete or inaccurate indexing.

Why is Submitting a Shopify Sitemap Important?

Crafted as a roadmap for search engine crawlers, a sitemap helps search engines better understand and navigate your site’s structure. Let’s delve into why submitting a Shopify sitemap is crucial and how it can positively impact your online presence.

For better SEO

When you submit a Shopify sitemap to search engines like Google, you provide them with a comprehensive roadmap of your website’s structure. This roadmap guides search engine crawlers to navigate your site’s pages and understand their relationships. As a result, your website’s content is indexed more accurately and efficiently.

Proper indexing through a submitted sitemap enables search engines to rank your pages appropriately based on their relevance and quality. Higher-ranking pages are more likely to appear on the first page of search results, where users are more likely to click.

Submitting a sitemap provides search engines with valuable information about your website’s keywords, content, and structure. This aids in aligning your content with user searches, improving your chances of being discovered.

For faster ranking of new and updated pages

When you add new products, launch fresh blog posts, or update existing pages on your Shopify store, you want these changes reflected in search results as quickly as possible. Submitting a sitemap expedites the indexing process. It informs search engines about your changes, prompting them to crawl and index these new or modified pages promptly.

Search engines prioritize showing users the most current and relevant information. By submitting a sitemap, you ensure that the latest content you’ve added or updated receives swift attention from search engine crawlers. This is especially important for industries where currency and relevancy are paramount.

If your Shopify store hosts events, promotions, or time-sensitive offers, submitting a sitemap ensures that search engines promptly recognize these announcements. This is critical for attracting users who are actively searching for such events.

Users often search for the latest information, products, or updates. By ensuring that your new and updated content ranks quickly, you align with user intent and improve the chances of attracting engaged visitors to your site.

For efficient trawling of large sites

Large websites can be complex to navigate, both for users and search engine crawlers. A submitted sitemap acts as a comprehensive guide, helping search engine bots efficiently navigate through the intricate structure of your website. This ensures that all valuable pages are discovered and indexed.

With a sitemap, search engine crawlers can reach every corner of your large website. This could result in certain pages needing to be indexed or explored adequately. A sitemap streamlines the crawling process, preventing any bottlenecks in the path of search engine bots.

Comprehensive indexing is essential for large websites with numerous pages. A well-structured sitemap guarantees that all categories, products, services, and content pages are appropriately indexed. This prevents valuable content from getting lost in the vastness of your site.

Crawling through a large website can consume substantial time for search engine bots. A sitemap offers a quick overview of your site’s hierarchy, enabling crawlers to allocate their resources efficiently and index pages faster.

Specific pages might hold a higher importance within a large site than others. A sitemap provides a way to indicate priority pages or content, ensuring that they are crawled and indexed promptly. This strategic approach enhances the visibility of your key offerings.

For (slightly) remedying poor internal linking

Internal links are the pathways that connect various pages within your website. They facilitate user navigation and help search engine crawlers understand the relationships between different pages. However, if internal linking is not optimal, certain pages might be inaccessible to search engine bots, impacting indexing.

When internal links are sparse or improperly structured, search engine crawlers might need help discovering certain pages. A submitted sitemap is an additional navigational tool, guiding crawlers to these pages and compensating for inadequate internal linking.

A sitemap helps address the gaps left by poor internal linking. Even if a page lacks sufficient internal links, the sitemap ensures that it’s included in the indexed list. This allows valuable content to be noticed by search engines.

Internal linking can lead to search engine bots understanding page relationships. A sitemap provides a clear, structured overview of your website’s content, reducing the chances of incorrect indexing caused by inadequate internal links.

Poor internal linking can lead to search engine bots misunderstanding page relationships. A sitemap provides a clear, structured overview of your website’s content, reducing the chances of incorrect indexing caused by inadequate internal links.

While a sitemap helps address poor internal linking, improving your site’s internal linking structure is essential for long-term SEO benefits. A sitemap provides a temporary solution while you work on enhancing the navigational structure of your website.

For the future of your store

As your online store evolves with new products, content, and updates, it’s crucial to maintain consistent visibility in search engine results. Submitting a sitemap ensures that search engines remain informed about these changes, allowing your store to stay visible and accessible to potential customers.

The digital realm is dynamic, with evolving search algorithms, user behaviors, and technological advancements. A submitted sitemap positions your store to adapt to these changes by providing a clear blueprint of your website’s structure, making it easier for search engines to keep up with your updates.

Consistent indexing ensures that your latest offerings are accurately represented in search results as you add new pages or modify existing ones. This is essential for attracting users seeking relevant and up-to-date information.

Your store’s future might involve new directions, products, or target audiences. A well-structured sitemap helps search engines quickly discover and index these new additions, opening doors to new opportunities for growth.

Consistently submitting a sitemap showcases your commitment to providing accurate and updated information to search engine users. Over time, this can foster trust with search engines, potentially leading to higher rankings.

3 Easy Steps to Submitting a Shopify Sitemap to Google

Enhancing your Shopify store’s visibility on Google is within your reach. Follow these three straightforward steps to submit your sitemap and optimize your online presence smoothly.

Step 01: Finding your Shopify Sitemap

When locating your Shopify sitemap, rest assured that this task is more straightforward than you might think. This step is a fundamental one in optimizing your store’s online presence. Follow these easy steps to find your Shopify sitemap effortlessly:

1. Open Your Browser: Launch your preferred web browser on your computer or mobile device.
2. Enter Your Store’s URL: In the browser’s address bar, type the URL of your Shopify store. For instance, if your store’s URL is “yourstore.com,” type “yourstore.com.”
3. Add the Sitemap Extension: To find your sitemap, you only need to extend the URL slightly. After your store’s URL, add “/sitemap.xml” at the end. For example, if your store’s URL is “yourstore.com,” the complete entry would be “yourstore.com/sitemap.xml.”
4. Note: If your store has password protection enabled, accessing the sitemap might be restricted. In such cases, you can temporarily turn off password protection through your Shopify dashboard. Once you’ve viewed the sitemap and verified your store, you can safely re-enable the password protection.

You’ve successfully located your Shopify sitemap with just a few simple steps. This sitemap is a crucial component for search engines to understand and index the content on your store. The roadmap guides search engine bots through your store’s pages, ensuring that your products, pages, collections, and blogs are all accurately represented in search results.

Locating your Shopify sitemap is a pivotal foundation in optimizing your store for search engines. The following steps will involve verifying and submitting this sitemap to Google, ensuring your store gets the visibility it deserves in search engine rankings.

Step 02: Verifying your Shopify Store

Once you’ve successfully located your Shopify sitemap, registering your store with Google Search Console is the next crucial step. This platform is a central hub for Google’s indexing of your store, allowing you to enhance its visibility and ensure accurate representation on search engine result pages. Let’s explore the process of verifying your Shopify store through Google Search Console.

Navigating Google Search Console

As you arrive at Google Search Console, you’ll encounter two primary options for registration:

1. Domain Registration: Opting for domain registration enables Google to track data from all URLs on your website, including subdomains and protocols (such as m. // www. // http // https).
2. URL Prefix Registration: With URL prefix registration, Google only tracks data for a specific URL, excluding subdomains and protocols. This is ideal for monitoring particular sections of your site, like a blog.

For most scenarios, domain registration is preferred, as it ensures comprehensive indexing by Google. However, if you’re focusing on specific aspects of your store, URL prefix registration might be more suitable.

The Verification Process

For this example, we’ll proceed with domain registration to ensure every aspect of your store is indexed. Here’s how to verify your entire Shopify store through the domain option:

1. Type your store’s URL (without subdomains or protocols) into the domain box.
2. Follow the prompts to continue.

Managing Domain Settings

To complete the verification process, you’ll need to access your domain name provider’s settings:

1. Sign into your domain name provider account (e.g., godaddy.com).
2. Navigate to ‘My Products’ or a similar section where you manage your domains.
3. Locate the part you want to verify and access its ‘DNS’ settings.

Configuring DNS Records

Within the DNS settings, you’ll find a section labeled ‘Records.’ Here’s how to proceed:

1. Locate the TXT record type, often found near the bottom of the list.
2. Delete the existing TXT record for your domain.

Adding a New Record

Follow these steps to add a new TXT record:

1. Click ‘Add’ to create a new record.
2. Specify the following details:

• Type: TXT
• Host: @
• TXT Value: Copy and paste the TXT record from the Google Search Console pop-up.

Completing the Verification

Return to Google Search Console and click ‘Verify’ in the pop-up box. You’ll receive a confirmation message of your store’s ownership upon successful verification. A ‘Go to property’ button will guide you to your Google Search Console dashboard.

A Verified Path to Visibility

Verifying your Shopify store through Google Search Console is a pivotal step in enhancing online visibility. By following these steps, you’re establishing a direct line for Google to index and represent your store accurately in search results.

Step 03: Submitting your Shopify Sitemap to Google

After successfully verifying ownership of your Shopify store, the final step to enhance your online visibility is to link your Shopify sitemap to Google seamlessly. This process is remarkably straightforward and will yield faster indexing and improved visibility for your store.

A Smooth Process

1. Access Google Search Console Dashboard: Head to your Google Search Console dashboard. Locate the navigation menu on the left-hand side and click on “Sitemaps.”
2. Add Your Sitemap: In the “Add a new sitemap” box, paste the URL of your Shopify sitemap and submit. You discovered this URL by typing your store’s URL followed by “/sitemap.xml.”
3. Note: This process will be a breeze if you’ve diligently followed the previous steps.
4. Success Confirmation: Upon successful submission, you’ll receive a success message. This assures you that your Shopify sitemap is officially submitted to Google for indexing.

Monitor Your Progress

Beneath the “Submitted sitemaps” section, you can track the sitemaps you’ve submitted to Google Search Console and monitor their “success” status. This provides you with a clear overview of your submission progress.

Revel in the Benefits

Congratulations! You’ve successfully submitted your Shopify sitemap to Google by completing this final step. The result? Expect faster indexing, improved visibility, and a greater chance of appearing in relevant search results.

Professional Support

While the process might sound intensive to some merchants, professional help is readily available. You can opt to hire skilled Shopify experts from the Shopify Experts Platform. Additionally, consider using trusted Shopify SEO apps that assist in generating, maintaining, and optimizing your SEO XML sitemap.

A Brighter Digital Future

In conclusion, diligently following these steps has paved the way for your store to enjoy enhanced online presence and visibility. You’ve harnessed the power of Google’s indexing mechanisms, ensuring your store stands out in search engine results.

What’s Next after Submitting your Shopify Sitemap? 

Once you’ve submitted your sitemap, Google’s sophisticated algorithms will appear. The search engine bots crawl through the links on your sitemap, examining and analyzing the content of your store. This intricate process is essential for indexing your store’s pages accurately.

As Google’s bots analyze your content, your store gains recognition on the search engine. Your products, pages, collections, and blogs are all cataloged, enabling Google to present them in relevant search results when users search for related keywords.

Thanks to your meticulous efforts, your store’s content is now on the fast track for indexing. This means that new pages or updates you make to existing pages will be incorporated into Google’s search results more swiftly. Your store’s information becomes more up-to-date in search engine databases.

With faster indexing, your store’s visibility improves significantly. When users search for products, services, or information related to your niche, your store has a better chance of appearing in search results. This heightened visibility draws organic traffic to your store and potentially increases your customer base.

Consider this sitemap submission as part of a larger SEO strategy. Refine and optimize your store’s content, keywords, and meta information. Employ best practices such as creating high-quality and relevant content, building quality backlinks, and maintaining a user-friendly website.

Can we edit sitemap in Shopify?

No, you can’t directly change your sitemap or include your own sitemap using the platform. However, you can do something else. With Shopify, you have the option to prevent specific pages from being scanned, which stops Google from viewing them.

Bottom Line

The journey of submitting your Shopify sitemap is a strategic one, vital for enhancing your store’s online presence. So, don’t forget it!