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Shopify Sitemap: How to find and submit it to any search engines

Shopify Sitemap: How to find and submit it to any search engines

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Finding and submitting a Shopify sitemap is an important part of making sure that your site is being indexed and ranked properly by search engines. Not only does a proper sitemap make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content, but it can also help you spot problems with your website architecture that might be preventing your pages from being found and ranked. In this article, we'll show you how to quickly create a Shopify sitemap and have it verified by Google and Bing.

Where to find your Shopify sitemap?

All Shopify merchants can access the sitemap files by adding /sitemap.xml at the end of your domain. For example, my store's domain is https://boost-pfs-demo.myshopify.com, I'll find my sitemap at https://boost-pfs-demo.myshopify.com/sitemap.xml.

This URL will lead you to what's called the Parent sitemap, linking to additional sitemaps for products, collections, and pages.

Shopify automatically generates the sitemap and keeps it up to date in real-time. You won't have to and won't be able to edit it manually.

One thing to note is that password-protected stores can't view sitemap files using this method. Neither Google nor other sitemap readers can access it if your website is password protected. Therefore, remember to disable your store password, if any, before submitting the Shopify sitemap.

Stores with multiple domains for international selling will have dedicated sitemaps for each domain. However, if you don't use these domains for international targeting, you can set up redirects to the primary domain. This way you will have a universal sitemap and only need to submit one.

How to submit your Shopify sitemap to any search engines

People in different regions tend to use different search engines to look for products online. However, the F4 of online search which includes Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Yandex has remained pretty much the same over the years. Hence, we’ll guide you through how to get these 4 search engines to verify the sitemap for your Shopify store.

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Submit a Shopify sitemap to Google

To get Google to validate your sitemap, you need to log in to Google Search Console. If you don’t have an account on Search Console, you will need to add domain properties and verify your site with Google.

Verify your site with Google

There are 2 property types to choose from here.

  • Domain: Google will track data from all URLs across all subdomains (m., www. ...), and all protocols (HTTP or HTTPS). This requires DNS verification.
  • URL Prefix: Google will track data only from the URLs under entered address, and/or only URLs under the specified protocol. This allows for multiple verification methods namely: Upload an HTML file to your website, Add a meta tag to your site's homepage, Use your Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account, and Associate a DNS record with Google.

If you have subdomains, choose the former. Otherwise, use the URL Prefix property as this is much simpler. Connecting your Google Analytics or Google Tag Manager account is the easiest way to register URL Prefix. However, if you are completely new to all Google Webmaster Tools, you can try the meta tag option.

how to register shopify store on google search console

After copying the HTML tag:

  1. Go to Online Store > Themes on your Shopify admin
  2. Click Actions > Edit code on your live theme
  3. On the left sidebar, click theme.liquid under Layout
  4. Paste the meta tag below the opening <head> tag
  5. Click Save and return to Search Console then click Verify

how to add meta tag to register shopify store with google search console

In case your Shopify store has subdomains and you need to do ​​DNS verification, follow the instructions here.

The verification process normally takes several minutes to complete. If there are any errors, you should wait for 15 minutes before submitting another verification.

Submit Shopify sitemap

After your site is verified, uploading your sitemap is a piece of cake.

  1. Go to Sitemaps on the left-hand menu
  2. Enter the sitemap file name which is https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
  3. Click Submit
how to submit shopify sitemap on google search console

Submit a Shopify sitemap to Bing & Yahoo

Because Yahoo uses Microsoft's Bing search engine to power results, you just need to submit the sitemap on Bing Webmaster Tools to make both search engines recognize your online store.

Like Google Search Console, the first step is to verify your site with Bing. However, it's far easier once you have verified your site with Google. You can choose to import your sites from Google Search Console.

how to register shopify website with bing webmaster tool

After connecting Search Console data with Bing Webmaster Tools:

  1. Click Sitemaps on the left-hand menu
  2. Find and click the Submit sitemap button in the top right-hand corner
  3. On the Submit sitemap popup, enter your sitemap in this format https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
  4. Click Submit to finish

Submit a Shopify sitemap to Yandex

Registering your site on Yandex Webmaster is similar to verifying your site with Google. There are 3 options: HTML file, Meta tag, and DNS record.

You can follow the steps for Google Search Console verification to get your site registered on Yandex. Remember to double-check the meta tag for Yandex as it can be easily confused with the meta tag for Google Search Console. The Yandex meta tag for verification looks like this <meta name="yandex-verification" content="635bec0dd4e40ced" />.

When you finish adding the tag under the <head> section on theme.liquid, click Check to start the verification process.

 how to register shopify website with yandex

After your Shopify site is successfully added to Yandex Webmaster, locate Indexing > Sitemap files on the left side menu. Insert the XML Sitemap URL and click Add. That's it!

how to add shopify sitemap to yandex

Some Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I customize the Shopify sitemap?

No. As mentioned above, your Shopify sitemap is automatically generated and doesn’t allow manual editing. However, there is a workaround for you to exclude certain pages from being indexed. Go to <head> section in theme.liquid and do the following:

  • Add this code to exclude the search template:

{% if template contains ‘search’ %}<meta name="robots" content="noindex">{% endif %}

  • Employ this code to exclude a specific page:

{% if handle contains ‘page-handle-you-want-to-exclude’ %}

<meta name="robots" content="noindex">

{% endif %}

Note: replace ‘page-handle-you-want-to-exclude’ with your actual page handle.

2. Do I need to re-submit the sitemap after I make changes to my Shopify store's pages?

No. Shopify sitemaps are automatically updated in real-time so you don't have to re-submit them.

3. My store has international domains, do I need to submit a sitemap for each domain?

Yes. Shopify stores with international domains are required to submit the sitemap file for each domain.

4. My store has multiple languages, do I need to submit a sitemap for each language?

No. Stores with multiple languages won’t have to as these languages are added automatically to the sitemap files for each of your domains.

5. Why is the status of my sitemap submission “Couldn't fetch"? Why isn’t Google indexing my site after I’ve successfully submitted my sitemap?

Check if your store has a password active. If yes, disable the password and verify the sitemap again. To learn more or to troubleshoot, visit Google Search Console Help.

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Author

Ellie Ho
eCommerce Enthusiast
A digital nomad that is engrossed with online selling, best practices, and tips to grow sales through website optimization. Love learning, sharing, and connecting with similar minds.
A digital nomad that is engrossed with online selling, best practices, and tips to grow sales through website optimization. Love learning, sharing, and connecting with similar minds.