How to Submit Your XML Sitemap to Google

If you’ve been told to “submit your sitemap to Google” and you’re not totally sure what that means—this is the step-by-step guide.

A sitemap is basically a “list of pages” on your website. Submitting it to Google helps Google find and understand the pages you want indexed (especially new or updated pages).

For this walkthrough, we’ll use this example sitemap:

https://www.theaspdemoshow.co.uk/sitemap.xml

And for clarity: your website content is edited in your CMS, ShowOff — that’s where pages/articles/products (whatever your site uses) are created, updated, and published.

What marketers need to know about ShowOff + sitemaps

• ShowOff is where you edit the content (pages, articles, etc.).

• The sitemap is a “directory-style file” that usually reflects what’s live/published on the site.

• When you publish or update content in ShowOff, your sitemap typically updates automatically (depending on how your site is set up).

• Your job is usually not to build the sitemap manually — it’s to submit the sitemap link to Google once, and then keep publishing content as normal in ShowOff.

The main way to submit your sitemap (recommended): Google Search Console

Google Search Console is Google’s free tool for managing how your site appears in Google search.

Step 1: Open Google Search Console

Log in to Google Search Console using your work Google account.

If your website isn’t set up in Search Console yet, someone will need to add it and verify ownership (often a developer or whoever manages the domain).

Step 2: Choose the correct website

In the top-left dropdown, select the correct website property (your domain).

For our example, it should match:
theaspdemoshow.co.uk (ideally the HTTPS version)

Step 3: Go to the Sitemaps screen

In the left-hand menu, click:

Indexing → Sitemaps

Step 4: Submit the sitemap

You’ll see a box that says something like “Add a new sitemap”.

In most cases, you only need to type:

sitemap.xml

Because Search Console already knows your domain.

Then click Submit.

✅ That submits the full URL (for our demo):
https://www.theaspdemoshow.co.uk/sitemap.xml

Step 5: Confirm it worked

After submission, Google will show a status.

You want to see:

• ✅ Success (perfect — you’re done)

If you see:

• ⚠️ Couldn’t fetch

• ⚠️ Has errors

Don’t panic—those are common and usually quick to fix.

Quick “marketer test” before submitting (takes 10 seconds)

Open this link in your browser (or incognito/private window):

https://www.theaspdemoshow.co.uk/sitemap.xml

If it loads and you see a page of “code-looking text” (XML), that’s usually a good sign that Google can access it too.

If Google says “Couldn’t fetch” or “Has errors” (what to do)

If it says “Couldn’t fetch”

This normally means Google tried to open the sitemap but couldn’t reach it.

Common causes:

• The sitemap link doesn’t load in a browser

• The website is blocking Google (security settings, firewall, etc.)

• Something about the site setup is restricting access

What to send to your developer/IT:

“Google Search Console says it couldn’t fetch the sitemap. Can you confirm the sitemap is publicly accessible at /sitemap.xml and not blocked?”

If it says “Has errors”

This usually means Google found the file but doesn’t like the format.

What to send to your developer/IT:

“Search Console shows sitemap errors. Can you validate the XML sitemap output and ensure it’s generating correctly?”

Where ShowOff fits into this (the practical workflow)

Here’s the simple workflow most teams follow:

1. Content team (you) updates content in ShowOff
   (new pages, updated pages, new posts, etc.)

2. The site publishes those updates live

3. The sitemap updates automatically (in many setups)

4. Google revisits the sitemap over time

Important note for marketers:

You usually do not need to re-submit the sitemap every time you publish in ShowOff.

What you should do is:

• Submit the sitemap once

• Check Search Console occasionally (weekly/monthly) for errors

• If you launch a major new section of the site, it’s worth checking the sitemap is still being read successfully

Optional “backup method” (nice extra): add sitemap to robots.txt

This isn’t required if you’ve submitted via Search Console, but it can help.

A developer can add this line to the site’s robots.txt file:

Sitemap: https://www.theaspdemoshow.co.uk/sitemap.xml

Copy/paste checklist for your internal documentation

1. Log into Google Search Console

2. Select the correct website property

3. Go to Indexing → Sitemaps

4. Under Add a new sitemap, enter: sitemap.xml

5. Click Submit

6. Confirm status shows Success

7. Continue publishing/updating content in ShowOff as normal