By Stephanie Design 

If you’re new to the web design industry, you may not be as familiar with the lingo. This is no worry! Im here to educate you as I want your website project to go as smoothly as possible! 

One of the key features of any website is a Sitemap. A sitemap is simply the structural outline of the pages you’ll include on your website. 

I work with service-based businesses, so the sitemap won’t stray too far from the conventional pages you’d find in these kinds of sites (and your sitemap may differ a bit from another site – especially if you have many offers and don’t want to display them all on a single page!),  however it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with the terminology for when it comes time for Google to index and crawl your site efficiently. 

And another point to consider – you have a blog you update regularly, the sitemap uses to index all of those individual pages. A search would also use a sitemap if you have a recently transferred blog with archived posts from another domain.

Why a sitemap is crucial for your website 

Your sitemap is needed so Google knows how to index your Website. You want a healthy amount of traffic to reach your site – that’s why you’re in business. And you can’t grow your business if Google doesn’t know your website exists – hence why Sitemaps are really important for a fresh, flourishing web presence!

How to Submit a Sitemap to Google

I’ll outline below the steps to submit your sitemap Showit generated for you, to Google Search Console. And then I’ll show you how to submit your sitemap if you’re blogging with WordPress (a different step!)

From Google Search Console’s home screen, click ‘Sitemaps’ from the left-hand menu as shown below. With the Sitemap page now active, simply add in your sitemap url in the field shown.

For Showit users, you’re URL will be: yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

For WordPress/Showit Bloggers: head over to your WordPress account and download the free Yoast plugin. Click on the ‘SEO’ section then click “Features.” Make sure that “XML Sitemap” is turned on. You can then locate this sitemap at yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

For an overview of how Showit generates a sitemap for its users, you may refer to this article

Hopefully you’re able to submit your Showit sitemap successfully following these instructions! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out!