Table of Contents

Lesson 3 Site Maps and Indexing

Lesson 3 Site Maps and Indexing

Summary

Ensuring your site is properly indexed and that you’ve submitted up-to-date XML sitemaps to both Google and Bing is foundational for search visibility. Sitemaps act as blueprints that tell crawlers which URLs to fetch and index, while manual indexing requests speed up discovery of new or updated content. In Google Search Console, you verify ownership, submit sitemaps, and use the URL Inspection tool or Indexing API to request crawl prioritization. In Bing Webmaster Tools, you similarly verify, submit sitemaps, and can push URLs for instant indexing via the Submit URLs feature or the IndexNow API. Together, these steps ensure search engines efficiently find, crawl, and rank your content.

Why Indexing and Sitemaps Matter

A sitemap is a roadmap of your site’s URLs that helps search engines discover and prioritize crawling important pages—especially useful for large, new, or poorly linked sites. Proper indexing ensures your pages appear in search results; missed or delayed indexing can cost you organic traffic and conversions. Manual indexing requests accelerate this process for critical content updates, while reliance solely on natural crawl behavior can introduce delays of days or weeks.

Google Search Console Setup

1. Verify Your Site

  1. Sign in to Google Search Console and add your property (domain or URL-prefix).
  2. Choose a verification method—HTML file upload, DNS TXT record, or Google Analytics tag—and complete verification.

2. Create and Host an XML Sitemap

  1. If your CMS auto-generates a sitemap (e.g., WordPress, Wix), locate it at /sitemap.xml.
  2. To build manually, follow the Google Sitemaps protocol and save as sitemap.xml at your site root.

3. Submit Your Sitemap

  1. In Search Console, go to Sitemaps in the left-hand menu.
  2. Enter your sitemap URL (e.g., https://example.com/sitemap.xml) and click Submit.
  3. Monitor the Sitemaps report for processing errors and URL counts.

4. Request URL Indexing

  • URL Inspection Tool: Paste any URL into the tool, review its index status, and click Request Indexing to queue a fresh crawl.
  • Indexing API: Intended for sites with rapidly changing structured content like job postings or livestreams. Requires OAuth credentials and an API setup to notify Google of new or updated URLs programmatically.

Bing Webmaster Tools Setup

1. Verify Your Site

  1. Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools and add your site.
  2. Verify via XML file upload, meta tag, or by importing Google Search Console verification.

2. Create and Host an XML Sitemap

  • Use your CMS-generated sitemap or hand-craft one at /sitemap.xml following the same protocol as for Google.

3. Submit Your Sitemap

  1. In the left sidebar, click Sitemaps and then Submit Sitemaps.
  2. Enter your sitemap URL and submit; Bing will fetch and process it, reporting any issues in the dashboard.

4. Push URLs for Indexing

  • Submit URLs Feature: Under Configure My Site → Submit URLs, enter one URL per line and click Submit for near-instant inclusion in the index.
  • IndexNow API: Generate an API key, host the key file at your root, then send HTTP requests with your URLs and key to Bing’s endpoint. This allows real-time indexing and is supported by several search engines.

Best Practices

  • Keep Sitemaps Updated: Automate sitemap regeneration whenever content changes.
  • Monitor Crawl Alerts: Watch Search Console and Bing dashboards for crawl or indexing errors.
  • Use robots.txt: Reference your sitemap with Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml to help bots locate it.
  • Limit Sitemap Size: If your site exceeds 50,000 URLs or 50MB uncompressed, use multiple sitemaps and a sitemap index.
  • Quality Over Quantity: Include only canonical, index-worthy URLs to avoid wasting crawl budget.

By following these setup and submission steps, you ensure that both Google and Bing are promptly informed of your site structure and content updates—maximizing your chances for timely indexing and improved search performance.

Other Lessons