A sitemap is essentially a machine-readable table of contents for your site. It tells Google what you have on your site and helps them find everything.

Usually search engines crawl from link-to-link. So in order for search engines to find all your pages, they would all have to be linked together – which they are not, natively.

In order for search engines to find all your pages- you can submit a sitemap.

Note: It is best practices to be intentional and clear about your navigation and linking.

To Create a Sitemap in WordPress

If you are using the SEO Plugin that we recommend – SEO for WordPress by Yoast – the sitemap is created for you by default. The address, by default will be:

yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml

To Add your Sitemap to Google Search Console

  • Log into https://www.Google.com/webmaster with your google username and password.
  • Select your site from the list (if there’s a list)
  • Click “Crawl”
  • Click “Sitemaps”
  • Enter the sitemap URL

Conclusion

Is this the most important piece of SEO? No – not by a long ways. But it is one more thing that you’ve likely heard and can easily do in a few seconds. AND a sitemap by Yoast is set-it and forget-it!

Gotta love that!

Video Explanation of Sitemaps

& Submitting them to Google Search Console

Beginner Checklist

If you’re starting out, you’ll love our comprehensive 52 point checklist for your website! Read through once, and then work on items one at a time as it comes up!

52 Edits Checklist – beginners categories

Cathy Mitchell

Single Mom, Lifelong Learner, Jesus Follower, Founder and CEO at WPBarista.