Learning Hub · Beginner · 15 minutes
How to Submit a Sitemap to Google
Everything you need to give search engines the complete map of what to crawl — the steps, the gotcha, and the tip the support desk gives everyone.
The short answer
Goal: give search engines the complete map of what to crawl. Time needed: 15 minutes. Difficulty: beginner.
The walkthrough below covers each step, the mistake most people make, and the shortcut worth knowing. On HostingAlly plans, several of the steps are handled for you — we note where.
Beginner
Difficulty
15 minutes
Time needed
5
Steps
24/7
Help if you're stuck
You don't need to be technical for this — the walkthrough is written for first-timers, tested against our own platform, and honest about which parts are genuinely fiddly versus merely unfamiliar.
Rule of the road: read the gotcha section before you begin, not after — it's harvested from the support tickets of people who didn't.
Overview before the detail
Here's the complete route: locate the generated sitemap, verify the site in search console, submit the sitemap url, read the coverage feedback and repeat for bing.
Each stage is a few minutes of focused clicking — the elapsed time mostly depends on how familiar the control panel already feels. The detailed steps are listed further down this page; skim the whole route once before starting.
The mistake almost everyone makes
Submitting once and never reading coverage — the sitemap report lists exactly which pages Google declined to index and why; the answer to most 'why isn't my page ranking' questions has been sitting in that tab all along.
Forewarned is genuinely forearmed here — this exact mistake accounts for most of the frustration this topic produces, and it's entirely avoidable once named.
The pro tip worth stealing
The sitemap should list only canonical, indexable pages — tag archives and thin pages in the map dilute the signal; a good SEO plugin's defaults curate this correctly.
Small habits like this are the real difference between people who find hosting easy and people who find it stressful — the tools are identical; the workflow isn't.
Where our platform does this for you
Several steps in this guide exist because hosting historically made you do them — on our plans, SSL issues itself, backups run daily without being asked, and one-click installers replace manual setup entirely. What remains is the genuinely-yours part of the task.
Stuck mid-task at an odd hour? That's what 24/7 human support is for — describe where you are in this guide and we'll take it from there.
Guides are easier on a good platform
Tutorials age badly when they're written against imaginary hosting. These are written against ours — the same panel, installer and defaults you'll actually see.
Renewal prices match signup prices, so the year-two invoice is the most boring email you'll get from us.
- Step-by-step, tested as written
- The gotcha flagged before you hit it
- Automation covers the boring steps
- 24/7 support if you get stuck
Why HostingAlly
What you get with every plan
Written from real tickets
Our guides come from the support desk — the gotchas are the ones people actually hit.
The undo is always named
Where a step could bite, the guide says so and gives the reversal.
Automation where it belongs
SSL, backups and installs run themselves here — the guide covers only what's genuinely yours to do.
No jargon tax
Terms are explained in place or linked to the glossary — nothing assumes you already know.
Help on standby
Stuck at step three at midnight? Support answers around the clock, mid-guide included.
Works as written
Every step tested on our own platform — no 'your host may vary' hand-waving.
Getting Started
How to get going
- 1
Locate the generated sitemap
SEO plugins (and WordPress core) generate XML sitemaps automatically — typically at /sitemap.xml or /sitemap_index.xml; visit the URL to confirm it renders.
- 2
Verify the site in Search Console
Domain-level verification via DNS TXT record covers all variants at once — the property through which Google reports back to you.
- 3
Submit the sitemap URL
Search Console → Sitemaps → paste the path — one submission; the crawler refetches it on its own schedule thereafter.
- 4
Read the coverage feedback
Discovered/indexed/excluded counts with reasons — the report that turns 'is Google seeing my site' from anxiety into data.
- 5
Repeat for Bing
Bing Webmaster Tools imports from Search Console in minutes — the second submission that most sites skip and shouldn't.
Included
What's covered on our plans
- 24/7 support from real people
- Free domain for the first year on annual plans
- Free SSL certificate on every plan, renewed automatically
- One-click installer for WordPress and 400+ apps
- DDoS protection at the network level
- Email accounts on your own domain
- Daily automatic backups with self-service restores
- Free website migration handled by our team
- LiteSpeed server-level caching
- cPanel — the industry-standard control panel
FAQ
Your questions, answered
Does submitting a sitemap make Google index everything?
It's an invitation, not a command — Google crawls from the map but indexes on its own judgment of value and duplication. Pages listed-but-not-indexed need content or internal-link strengthening, which the coverage report flags.
How often should the sitemap update?
Automatically on every publish — which generated sitemaps do without intervention. The submission is one-time; the file stays perpetually current as the plugin regenerates it.
Will you move my existing website for free?
Yes — open a ticket with your current host's access details and we handle the whole move: files, databases, email and configuration, verified by you before DNS switches. The old site keeps serving until the new copy takes over, so visitors never see a gap.
Are backups included, and can I restore them myself?
Daily automatic backups are standard, restorable from the panel in minutes — files, databases or both, at 3am without a ticket if that's when you need it. For extra cover, you're welcome to run your own offsite copies alongside.
Can I host more than one website on a plan?
On the Pro tier and above, yes — multiple sites with their own domains, email and SSL under one account. If the extra sites belong to clients rather than you, reseller hosting gives each one proper isolation instead.
Where is your company based?
HostingAlly is a trading name of Bohzo Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales — a real, verifiable business with published terms under English law, which is worth checking about any host before you hand them your domain.
Is SSL really included at no cost?
On every plan, with no exceptions — certificates are issued automatically when your domain points to us and renew themselves before expiry. The encryption is identical to paid DV certificates; paid tiers exist only for wildcard convenience or organisation-level validation.
Keep exploring
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Protect the account that owns every site inside it — beginner level, 30 minutes.
How to Set Custom Error Pages
Turn dead ends into branded, useful detours — beginner level, 30 minutes.
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