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How to Submit Shopify Sitemap & Verify Google Search Console!

Your Shopify store is like a tiny little world all its own. You've built it from the ground up, and you're constantly adding new products, pages, and blog posts. 

However, no matter the effort you put into your store, it won't be successful unless potential customers can actually find it. For them to do this, search engine spiders must first crawl and index your site. This is where Shopify sitemaps come in.

A sitemap is a file that contains all of the URLs for your store's content, and it tells search engine spiders which pages on your site they should crawl. Submitting a sitemap to Google is a quick and easy way to ensure that your store's pages are being indexed and appearing in search results.

This article shows you how to generate a Shopify sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console. We also show you how to verify your site in Google Search Console so that you can begin tracking your store's search performance.

What Is Google Search Console?

shopify site map

Google Search Console is a free platform that allows you to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site's presence on Google Search. You can use it to see how often your site appears in search results, which queries bring people to your site, the click-through rate for each query, and much more.

You can also use Google Search Console to submit your sitemap and individual URLs for crawling, which can help you get your store's pages indexed more quickly.

Why Do You Need Google Search Console?

There are many reasons why you should use Google Search Console, including:

Ensure Google Can Find, Crawl, and Rank Your Store

One of the reasons you want to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console is to ensure that the search engine can find, crawl, and rank your store.

If you don't have your store properly set up with the right sitemaps and robots.txt files, then it's likely that Google (and other search engines) will have a hard time finding, crawling, and indexing your store. This leads to lower traffic levels and sales.

Help You Identify and Fix Technical SEO Issues

You may use the best Shopify Theme for SEO, engage in the latest SEO optimization for Shopify, and install the best SEO apps for Shopify but still have technical SEO issues that may jeopardize your efforts. 

Google Search Console can help you identify these technical SEO issues so that you can fix them and improve your store's ranking.

Some of these issues that Google Search Console can help with include:

  • Crawl errors: These are errors that Google crawlers (or robots) encounter when trying to index your store.
  • Sitemap errors: These are errors with your sitemap that prevent Google from properly indexing your store.
  • Robots.txt file issues: The robots.txt file is a text file that tells Google (and other search engines) which pages on your site they should and shouldn't crawl. Some of the issues that can arise with this file include blocking pages that you actually want to be indexed or not blocking pages that you don't want to be indexed. 
  • AMP errors: AMP errors range from pages that are not AMP-compliant to pages where the AMP version cannot be found. They are caused by incorrect AMP code on your store or by server-side issues.

Google Search Console can also help you find out if there are any duplicate titles or meta descriptions, which can hurt your click-through rates.

sitemap shopify

Help Analyze and Increase Traffic

Google Search Console can help you analyze your store's traffic so that you can make informed decisions about how to increase it.

The platform provides data on:

  • Clicks: How many times your store appears in Google search results and how often those listings are clicked on
  • Impressions: How often your listing appears in Google search results (whether it's clicked on or not)
  • CTR: Click-through rate, which is the number of clicks divided by the number of impressions
  • Average position: The average ranking position of your listing in Google search results

Google Search Console can also help you find out which keywords people are using to find your store, as well as the pages on your site that are getting the most clicks. This data can be incredibly valuable when it comes to making decisions about how to optimize your website for better traffic and sales.

Remember, apart from reading reliable Shopify SEO tips to help boost your traffic, you should also consider an agency that offers extensive SEO services for Shopify. At GoldenWeb, we perform a comprehensive SEO audit of your store and develop a solid plan to help you improve your ranking and traffic. Our process covers everything, from keyword research and on-page optimization to link building and technical SEO.

Enhance Your Overall SEO Strategy

Google Search Console can also help you enhance your overall SEO strategy. For example, you can use the data provided by Google Search Console to: 

Determine which keywords are driving traffic to your store: You can use this data to inform your keyword research and help you come up with a better list of keywords to target.

Find out which pages on your store are getting the most traffic: You can use this data to improve those pages or create new content around similar topics.

Monitor your store's progress over time: Google Search Console helps track your store's progress over time and ensures that you are on the right track with your SEO efforts.

Google Search Console is a powerful tool that can help you improve your store's ranking, traffic, and sales. If you're not already using it, then now is the time to start.

shopify sitemap url

How to Make a Shopify Sitemap

You don't need to use a third-party sitemap generator to generate sitemaps on Shopify because the platform automatically generates them for you. This sitemap contains all the pages, products, collections, and blog posts on your Shopify store.

How to Find a Shopify Sitemap

To find your sitemap:

  • Log in to your Shopify admin panel
  • Click Online Store > Navigation
  • Under the "Sitemaps" heading, click Sitemaps

Your sitemap file is named sitemap.xml and is located in the root directory of your server. For example, if your shop's domain name is myshop.com, then your sitemap would be located at myshop.com/sitemap.xml

If you want to generate a sitemap for a specific section of your shop, you can use a filter to create a sitemap that contains only the pages, products, collections, or blog posts that you want. For example, if you only want to include products in your sitemap, you would use this filter: ?type=product.

How to Verify Shopify in Google Search Console

There are two ways to verify Shopify in Google Search Console as shown below:

  • Domain Name System (DNS) Verification: This method is recommended if you're using a custom domain. You can add a DNS record to your domain's DNS settings. When you add this record, Google can verify that you own or control the domain.
  • URL Prefix: This method is recommended if you use the .myshopify.com domain. You can add your shop's URL prefix to your Google Search Console account. For example, if your shop's URL is myshop.com, then you would add the URL prefix myshop.com/. When you add this prefix, Google can verify that you own or control the domain.
how to make a shopify site map

DNS verification is a complex process, which may require the input of a professional. If you're not comfortable verifying your domain using DNS, then we recommend that you use the URL prefix method. To do this:

  • Go to your Google Search Console account
  • Open Menu
  • Click the Add a Property button
  • Choose the URL Prefix as the Property Type
  • Enter your Conical URL in the format myshop.com/
  • Click Continue
  • Under Verification Methods, choose the HTML Tag option
  • Click Copy to clipboard

To copy the code to your store:

  • Log in to your Shopify admin panel
  • Click Online Store
  • Click Themes
  • Click Actions>Edit code
  • In the Layout folder, click theme.liquid to open the file in the online code editor
  • Paste your Google Site verification code after <head> and before <body>
  • Click Save

Go back to Google Search Console:

  • Click Verify
  • Your site will now be verified in Google Search Console!

You can now start using the features and tools in Google Search Console to optimize your Shopify store for Google search.

Note: You may need to repeat this process several times to claim all your URL prefixes, e.g HTTP/HTTPS, WWW/non-WWW, with and without trailing slash. etc.

How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console

shopify xml sitemap

Once you’ve verified your Shopify store in Google Search Console, it's time to submit your sitemap. This allows Google to crawl and index your shop so that it appears in search results.

To submit your sitemap:

  • Log in to your Google Search Console account
  • Click Sitemaps from the left sidebar
  • Enter sitemap.xml in the text box and click Submit
  • Your sitemap will now be submitted to Google Search Console!

You now need to verify that your sitemap has been successfully submitted. To do this:

  • Log in to your Google Search Console account
  • Click Sitemaps from the left sidebar
  • Under the "Sitemap" column, click on the sitemap you submitted (sitemap.xml)

You should see a "Success" message next to the sitemap. This means that your sitemap has been successfully submitted and verified.

And that's it! You have now successfully submitted your Shopify sitemap to Google Search Console.

How to Use Google Search Console for Better Insights

Now that you know how to submit your Shopify sitemap and verify Google Search Console, you can start using it to get better insights into your traffic and keywords.

Google Search Console has a Performance Dashboard that shows your website's performance on Google search.

The Performance Dashboard shows you three key metrics:

  • Position: The average position of your website's URLs in Google search results.
  • Views: The number of times your website's URLs have been seen in Google search results.
  • Clicks: The number of times people have clicked on your website's URLs in Google search results.

These metrics help you understand how well your website is performing on Google SERP and which keywords are driving the bulk of traffic to your site.

To get started, simply log in to Google Search Console and click on the "Performance" tab.

From here, you can view your website's performance over time, as well as see which keywords are driving traffic to your site. You can also use the "Search Queries" report to see which keywords people are using to find your website on Google.

shopify sitemaps

By looking at these insights, you can start to optimize your website for better performance on Google searches. 

For instance, if you see that certain keywords are driving a lot of traffic to your site, you can start to optimize your website for those keywords. In the same breath, if you see that your website's average position is low for certain keywords, you can start to optimize your website for those keywords as well.

Bonus! Common Issues & How to Fix Them

In this section, we explore some of the most common issues you may encounter when setting up Google Search Console for your Shopify store, as well as how to fix them.

Your Theme Changed

If you had a migration or changed your theme, you must re-add an HTML meta tag to your store's code. To do this, locate the theme.liquid file in your code, and add the following line of code to the bottom of the file:

{{ shop.metafields.google-site-verification.value }}

Replace "google-site-verification" with your own unique meta tag name.

You Verified the Wrong URL as Primary Property

If you accidentally verified the wrong URL as your primary property in Google Search Console, there’s an easy way to fix it. Simply add the correct URL as a new property, set it as primary, and then delete the incorrect URL.

Your HTML Tag Is Wrongly Placed in the theme. liquid file

If your HTML tag is placed in the wrong location in your theme.liquid file, it won’t be read by Google, and you won’t be able to verify your site. To fix this, simply move the HTML tag to the correct location in your liquid file, as outlined earlier in the article.

Don't submit a Shopify sitemap today and expect overnight results. Submitting a sitemap is just the first step of many when it comes to improving your website's ranking on Google. It can take weeks or even months for Google to index your website and start showing it in search results.

submit shopify sitemap to google

So be patient, keep producing quality content, and continue to optimize your website for better performance on Google and other search engines. If you do all of these things, your website's ranking will eventually improve.

Get The Right Partner and Fast-Track Your Success

The process of optimizing your website for Google search can be daunting. Luckily, GoldenWeb can help with your technical SEO. We are experts in Shopify SEO, and we can help you optimize your website for better performance on Google searches.

Our comprehensive SEO audit service digs deep into your store to identify any technical SEO issues that may be holding you back from ranking higher on Google. We then provide a detailed report of our findings, as well as actionable solutions to help you fix those issues.

We have worked with hundreds of Shopify stores, and we know what it takes to rank high on Google. For instance, we helped PV Platforms, a Shopify store that deals in solar panels and equipment achieve $981,172.04 in additional organic revenue in just 6 months. 

Our initial mini audit revealed a number of technical SEO issues that were holding the store back from ranking higher on Google. This included insufficient keyword research and mapping, poor technical SEO, keyword cannibalization, and a lack of quality backlinks. 

Once we fixed those issues, the store started to rank higher on Google, and they soon began to see a surge in organic traffic and revenue. 

This case is just one example of how we have helped our clients succeed on Shopify. If you're serious about ranking higher on Google, book our free mini SEO audit today. We'll then work with you to create a customized SEO plan that fits your needs and helps you achieve your goals.

Deven Davis

RomaDesignerJewelry.com

"GoldenWeb’s work has been amazing for us.

We already had a decent base with content and structure, but their work has positioned us to continue to make gains in very competitive areas."

Alex Smith

ShopSolarKits.com

"Benjamin and his team have been great to work with, have proven themselves with a ton of results.

Benjamin goes out of his way to provide value in all areas of the business as he's an operator himself."