Search engines are great way to get natural organic traffic and Sitemaps does that job easy for you to be found in Search Engines. Basically there are two types(Xml Sitemaps & HTML Sitemaps) of sitemaps of any website. The majority share of the world’s all traffic source is shown in the graph below :-
Google off course, is the global leader counting for more than 66% percent of all web traffic delivered to the websites followed by the Chinese Search giant Baidu, Yahoo US and more..
As you can see, the majority of web searches are delivered by Google, Baidu, Yahoo and Bing. Therefore one must consider submitting the sitemap to each of these search engines manually.
To submit a Sitemap, you need to create it first. To read what is a sitemap, how to create a sitemap and how to use it and submit it to search engines, read nthe article here.
Sitemap Submission to Search Engines
There are several ways to submit a sitemap to search engines :-
- Download a file and upload it to your main website folder in cPanel and confirm your file.
- Add a dns query using the domain control panel like godaddy and then confirm it in webmaster tools.
- Adding a meta-tag to your website header. (Not recommended because if you change your theme, then you need to add it again.)
According to experts, the best and the preferred way of submitting a Sitemap is manual submission. All the search engines like the manual submission method as this method is free from all kind of different spam practice. Lets see how to submit a Sitemap manually.
Submitting a Sitemap to Google
- The very first step of submission is to create an account in Google ( only if you don’t have). After the creation of your account just visit the Google Webmaster Tools webpage.
- Log in to Webmaster Tools by using your Google account. When you are logged in, navigate to the right corner of your Webmaster Dashboard, there you will an option called Add a Site, click on the button to add a site.
1. Copy the meta tag (for example, <meta name="google-site-verification" content="z5mJLjVGtEe5qzCefW1pamxI7H46u19n4XnxEzgl1AU" />
) provided by Webmaster Tools and paste it into the header file (header.php) of your Website directly in the wordpress dashboard or from the control panel.
2. After successful verification, now navigate back to Webmaster Tools. In the left sidebar you will find an option called Site Configuration, in that option click Sitemaps.
3. In Sitemaps option you will find all an option of “Add/Test Sitemap”, now just click on the option.
4. In the Add/Test Sitemap option you will have to enter the URL of your Website’s Sitemap ( for ex:- http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml ).
5. Just click on the “Submit Sitemap” link.
6. After a while you will receive a message from Webmaster Tools of successful submission of Sitemap.
7. Google Bots takes time to crawl through your Website, so be patient till then !
8. After sometime you will find some statistics of your submitted Sitemap. Webmaster Tools would show you all the links it found and the links that got indexed.
8. We recommend you to visit Google Webmaster Tools on regular basis like twice or thrice in a week. It will show you all the pages ,links, images etc. that are getting or got indexed in the search engine.
Here is the official link from google to Submit your sitemap to Google.
Submitting a Sitemap to Yahoo and Bing
If you have submitted sitemap to Google, then you already knows the procedure. Its same fore Yahoo and Bing and don’t underestimate the power of these two search engines. A number #1 ranking in these search engines also can make wonders to your website in sending a lot of quality traffic. You would just have to Sign in the Bing Webmaster Tools account.
Enter the URL of your Website’s Sitemap. ( http://www.yourwebsite.com/sitemap.xml ). You would also have to verify ownership of the website entered in the Bing Webmaster Tools.
After verification just add your Sitemap’s URL ( and click on the “Submit URL” button to submit it successfully.
You are now done with the submission of a Sitemap to Search Engines.
If you find this post useful and beneficial or if you have any query then please express your views through comments.
The official link to submit your sitemap to Yahoo and Bing Webmaster tools.
Submit Your Website to DMOZ
DMOZ is a very powerful, open-source open directory Project (ODP). It helps you to make your website an authority website and a well established brand. Consider submitting your website to DMOZ Also, make sure that your website is not under construction and it has very strict guidelines and rules. Check out here : how to submit a site to DMOZ.
Tips to |Consider While Submitting to DMOZ Directory
- Don’t submit under construction sites or sites with fewer articles. They never gonna accept if you don’t follow what they expect from you.
- Choosing an appropriate category is a must and the most important step. Most rejections takes place because of suggesting a URL in wrong category in DMOZ Directory.
Related Useful Tips
- Don’t use automatic submission tools for these search engines which we described above, but one can also submit to other 70+ search engines using this link. A free service by Submit Express.
- You can also Ping your Sitemap to get your website indexed fast, but do not overdo it by submitting the sitemap to Ping Sites. Check this out and pin your sitemap here.
- Get found on major search engines by optimizing your website for Local SEO.
- For more SEO Information and to learn how SEO Works : Check our SEO Category.
- You can also check out the best SEO Plugins for 2015 to boost your WordPress Blog.
- To read all the best of SEO News from the most powerful blogs. I created a personal Projectn called Bloggers.XYZ to place all the coolest blogging tools and resources for bloggers in one place. Check it out here.