There are over 2 million live stores running on Shopify.
Being a leading ecommerce platform, Shopify helps online business owners to launch and promote their ecommerce stores.
One of the common issues that store owners face with their Shopify store is creating a sitemap. Business owners are often confused, how to create a sitemap in Shopify and submit them to search engines like Google and Bing.
In this article, I will discuss the exact steps you need to take to find your sitemap in Shopify and submit them to major search engines.
Let’s start Shopify sitemap creation by first understanding what a sitemap does.
What Is A Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file that consists of all the important pages of the website that the webmaster wants to index on search engines like Google. This file tells search engine bots like Google and Bing bot which page to crawl and index on search results.
It also helps the search engines understand your website’s structure. Generally, sitemaps are of two types, one is an XML sitemap that is created for search engine bots and the second is an HTML sitemap that is created for users or visitors.
Related: Reasons Why Your Website Needs A Sitemap
It is essential for every webmaster to create an XML sitemap for the website.
Here is how an XML sitemap looks like:
Here, you can check we have various sitemaps like posts, pages, categories, and author sitemaps. After clicking on any of the sitemaps, you can further check details like page URLs, the number of images, and the last modified date.
Some websites also have images, videos, and news sitemaps (news sites).
How To Find Your Sitemap In Shopify?
Every store in Shopify creates a sitemap automatically which means you don’t need to create a sitemap manually for your store. Your sitemap contains all your products, pages, product images, blog posts, and collections.
Related: How To Create A Sitemap In Squarespace
To find your Shopify store sitemap, you can use the below URL:
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml (Here, replace “yourdomain.com” with your Shopify store URL)
Here is how a Shopify sitemap looks like:
As you can see in the above image, Shopify has created four child sitemaps for products, pages, collections, and blogs. If any store has thousands of URLs or products then Shopify will create child sitemaps as shown in the image below:
Related: Online Sitemap Generators
How To Submit Your Shopify Sitemap To Google?
After creating a sitemap in Shopify, the next step is to submit it to Google. Here is a step by step guide:
Step 1: First, you need to create an account in Google Search Console and add your website as a new property.
Step 2: Now, you need to verify your domain or ownership by adding an HTML code in your website’s header file (in between <head> tag).
Step 3: Now, once verifying your domain, go to “Sitemaps” under “Index” as shown in the image below.
Step 4: Here, you will see an option to add your Shopify sitemap. Simply add “sitemap.xml” in the given box similar to the image below.
You can also see your submitted sitemaps just below the field on the same page as shown in the image below.
Related: Shopify SEO Guide
How To Submit Your Shopify Sitemap To Bing?
After Google, Bing is the widely used search engine, and submitting your Shopify sitemap here can help you generate high traffic. Follow the below simple steps to submit your sitemap to Bing:
Step 1: First, you need to log in or sign up to Bing Webmasters Tools and add your website to it. Similar to Google, here you need to also verify your domain by adding an HTML code to your website.
Step 2: Now, go to “Sitemaps” from the right sidebar as shown in the image below.
Step 3: Now, click on submit sitemap.
Step 4: Here enter your Shopify sitemap URL and click on the submit button.
That’s it, you have successfully submitted the Shopify sitemap to Bing.
Related: Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Shopify Store
Shopify Sitemap Faqs
1- I have more than one domain. Does Shopify provide more than one sitemap?
Yes, Shopify creates a separate sitemap for all your domain names.
2- Do I have to submit different Shopify sitemaps to Google for every domain?
Yes, if you have more than one domain, then the sitemap URL is also different for every domain. That’s why you need to submit a separate sitemap to Google.
3- How can I verify my domain in Google?
To verify the domain in Google Search Console, you have various methods as described below:
- HTML file: Verify domain by uploading an HTML file to your website.
- HTML tag: Verify domain by adding a HTML tag in your website’s header file under <head> section.
- Google Analytics: If you have already set up Google Analytics, then you can use it to verify your domain.
- Google Tag Manager: Use your Google Tag Manager to verify your domain.
- Domain Name Provider: You can use your DNS to verify your domain. Just add a TXT record in your DNS.
4- How long does Google take to crawl my Shopify store after submitting a sitemap?
After submitting a sitemap to Google, it can take 24 hours or more to start crawling your website. Also, it depends on various methods like, how many times you are updating your site, posting new blog posts, or adding social links.
5- Can submitting a sitemap help my Shopify store rank higher on Google?
No, sitemap doesn’t affect your website rankings but it helps your website pages index faster which leads to increased visibility of your site on Google.
6- Can you upload or edit your Shopify sitemap?
Unfortunately No, Shopify doesn’t allow users to upload or edit their sitemaps.
Conclusion
Sitemaps are crucial for every ecommerce store. Every Shopify webmaster should locate the sitemap on Shopify and submit it on Google and Bing. Every search engine recommends webmasters submit a sitemap because it helps them understand the crawl frequency of important pages on the site. Use the above Shopify sitemap creation guide to locate and submit your sitemap to the search engines.
