Submitting your XML Sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools

Follow the steps below to submit your XML Sitemap to your Google Webmaster Tools Account.  This Tutorial assumes that you have previously set up a Google Webmaster Tools Account.  If you have not done this, please do so before following these steps.

1. Sign in to your Google Account
2. Click My Account in the top right hand corner
3. Click Webmaster Tools in the list
4. In the Dashboard under Sites type the URL of your site and click Add Site
5. Go to Sitemaps from the left hand links
6. Click Add a Sitemap
7. Click Add General Web Sitemap from the drop box
8. Type the URL of your sitemap (usually sitename.com/sitemap.xml) in the text field
9. Click the Add General Web Sitemap button
10. Go to Overview from the left hand links
11. Click Verify your Site
12. Click Upload an HTML File from the drop box
13. A URL will be created for you (something like google09es3p877ef70ef3.htm)
14. Create a file with this URL and upload it to the root directory of your website
15. Click the Verify button

Having followed these steps correctly Google will take some time to verify your site and then view your sitemap.  If you do not run in to any issues to this point, check back the next day and Google should have began sending back information about your site.

If you are having trouble with this, please visit the Google website and find documentation on the Google Webmaster Tools Account.

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This tutorial was written by Simon Vreeswijk of Stikky Media SEO in Victoria, BC.