Your beautifully designed Showit website won’t generate organic traffic if Google doesn’t know it exists. Submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console is the essential first step that tells search engines exactly which pages to index and rank. This process takes less than five minutes but can dramatically accelerate how quickly your site appears in search results.
What is a Sitemap and Why It Matters
A sitemap functions as a roadmap of your website that helps search engines discover, crawl, and index all your pages efficiently. Think of it as handing Google a detailed table of contents instead of expecting them to wander through your site randomly hoping to find everything.
Without a submitted sitemap, Google relies on discovering your pages through external links and its own crawling schedule. This process can take weeks or even months, leaving your pages invisible in search results while competitors capture potential clients searching for services you offer.
What is a Sitemap?
Your website’s roadmap for Google’s search crawlers
Showit automatically generates your sitemap when you publish your site. You don’t need to create anything from scratch—just find it and submit it to Google!
The good news for Showit users is that Showit automatically generates an XML sitemap when you publish your site. You don’t need to create anything from scratch. Your only task is finding this automatically generated sitemap and submitting it to Google Search Console.
Finding Your Showit Sitemap
Locating your Showit sitemap requires nothing more than adding a simple URL path to your domain name. Showit creates your sitemap at a predictable location that follows the same pattern for every user.
Your Showit pages sitemap exists at: yourdomain.com/siteinfo.xml
Simply replace “yourdomain.com” with your actual website address. For example, if your site is photographybyjane.com, your sitemap would be located at photographybyjane.com/siteinfo.xml.
Type this URL directly into your browser to verify the sitemap exists and displays correctly. You should see XML code listing all your Showit pages. This confirms your sitemap is live and ready to submit to Google.
If you have a WordPress blog integrated with your Showit site, you’ll need to submit a second sitemap specifically for your blog content. WordPress blogs require separate sitemaps because they’re hosted independently from your Showit pages.
For your blog sitemap, install the free Yoast SEO plugin if you haven’t already. Navigate to SEO settings and enable XML Sitemaps. Your blog sitemap will be available at: yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
You’ll submit both sitemaps to Google Search Console to ensure complete indexing coverage for your entire website.
Finding Your Showit Sitemaps
Two sitemaps for complete coverage of your website
Setting Up Google Search Console
Before you can submit your sitemap, you need access to Google Search Console. This free tool from Google helps you monitor how your website performs in search results and alerts you to any technical issues affecting your visibility.
Visit Google Search Console and sign in with your Google account. If you don’t have a Google account yet, create one using the same email address you use for your business.
You’ll see two options for adding your property: Domain or URL prefix. Choose the Domain option if you want to track all versions of your site in one place. Enter your domain name without the www or https prefix, just the core domain like yoursite.com.
Google will provide several verification methods to prove you own the website. For Showit users, the DNS verification method typically works most reliably. Copy the TXT record Google provides and add it to your domain registrar’s DNS settings.
If DNS verification seems too technical, alternative methods include uploading an HTML file to your server or adding meta tags to your site header. Choose whichever verification method feels most comfortable based on your technical confidence level.
After verification completes, Google Search Console begins collecting data about your site’s search performance. However, it won’t start indexing your pages until you submit your sitemap, which is the critical next step.
For detailed guidance on setting up Google Search Console for Showit, our comprehensive tutorial walks through each verification method with screenshots and troubleshooting tips.
Submitting Your Sitemap to Google Search Console
Once Google Search Console verifies your site ownership, you’re ready to submit your sitemap. This simple process immediately notifies Google about all the pages you want indexed.
In Google Search Console, locate the Sitemaps section in the left sidebar menu. This appears under the Indexing category. Click on Sitemaps to open the submission interface.
You’ll see a text field labeled “Add a new sitemap” with your domain pre-filled. In this field, add only the path portion of your sitemap URL. For your Showit pages, enter: siteinfo.xml
Click the Submit button. Google will begin processing your sitemap, which may take a few moments. You’ll see a success message once Google accepts the submission.
If you have a WordPress blog, repeat this process with your blog sitemap. In the same text field, enter: sitemap_index.xml and click Submit again.
Don’t worry if you see a warning message initially. Google takes time to fully process and validate sitemaps. Check back in a few days and the status should update to show how many pages were discovered and indexed.
Submitting Your Sitemap
Follow these steps in Google Search Console
Common error messages include “Couldn’t fetch” or “Sitemap could not be read.” These typically resolve on their own as Google’s crawlers retry accessing your sitemap. If errors persist after a week, verify your sitemap URL is correct and your site is published and live.
Understanding Sitemap Status and Coverage
After submitting your sitemap, Google Search Console provides detailed reports about which pages were discovered and whether any issues prevent indexing. Understanding these reports helps you optimize your site’s search visibility.
The Sitemaps report shows how many URLs Google found in your sitemap versus how many were successfully indexed. Ideally, these numbers should match closely, indicating Google can access and index all your submitted pages.
If discovered URLs significantly exceed indexed URLs, investigate why Google is skipping pages. Common reasons include duplicate content, pages blocked by robots.txt, or pages marked to be ignored in Showit’s advanced settings.
The Coverage report reveals specific indexing issues affecting individual pages. You might see categories like “Excluded,” “Error,” or “Valid with warnings.” Each category explains why certain pages weren’t indexed and suggests fixes.
Pages marked “Excluded” often aren’t problems. This category includes pages you intentionally excluded using Showit’s “Ask Google to ignore this page” setting. Verify these are pages you genuinely don’t want ranked, like thank you pages or client login portals.
“Error” status indicates genuine problems preventing indexing. Click into the details to see which pages are affected and what errors Google encountered. Server errors, not found errors, or redirect errors require immediate attention to restore indexability.
Give Google several days to fully process your sitemap before worrying about discrepancies. Initial reports may show incomplete data while Google’s crawlers work through your site. Patience during this period prevents unnecessary troubleshooting of non-issues.
Excluding Pages From Your Sitemap
Not every page on your Showit site deserves to appear in search results. Certain pages provide functionality or serve specific purposes that make them unsuitable for public discovery through search engines.
Examples of pages to exclude include client onboarding portals, password-protected resources, email confirmation pages, 404 error pages, and legal policy pages that you’re required to have but don’t need ranked.
To exclude a page from Google’s index, open your Showit editor and select the page you want to hide. Click the Advanced Settings tab in the right sidebar and scroll to the bottom. Check the box labeled “Ask Google to ignore this page.”
This setting adds a noindex directive that tells search engines not to include this page in search results. The page remains accessible to people who have the direct URL, but won’t appear when someone searches related keywords.
After excluding pages, wait for Google to recrawl your sitemap and update its index. This may take several weeks. You can monitor the Coverage report in Google Search Console to confirm excluded pages move to the appropriate category.
Don’t overuse exclusions. Every page you exclude represents lost opportunities to rank for relevant searches. Only hide pages that genuinely provide no SEO value or would create poor user experiences if discovered through search.
When to Resubmit Your Sitemap
You only need to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console once, typically right after launching your website or completing a major redesign. Google automatically checks submitted sitemaps regularly for updates without requiring resubmission.
However, certain situations warrant manually resubmitting your sitemap to expedite indexing of significant changes. These include adding multiple new pages simultaneously, completely restructuring your site navigation, or launching a new section like a resource library or portfolio gallery.
After major updates, consider resubmitting your sitemap to signal Google that important changes occurred. This encourages Google to recrawl your site sooner than it might during normal crawl schedules.
To resubmit, simply return to the Sitemaps section in Google Search Console and submit the same sitemap URL again. Google treats this as an update request and prioritizes recrawling your site.
For ongoing content updates like regular blog posts, resubmission is unnecessary. Your WordPress blog’s sitemap automatically updates when you publish new posts, and Google discovers these changes during routine crawls.
Monitor your indexing status periodically even without resubmitting. The Google Search Console dashboard alerts you to any new issues affecting how Google accesses and indexes your site. Addressing alerts quickly prevents small problems from escalating into visibility loss.
Common Sitemap Errors and Solutions
Despite Showit’s automatic sitemap generation, you may encounter errors when submitting or maintaining your sitemap in Google Search Console. Understanding common issues and their fixes prevents prolonged indexing problems.
“Sitemap could not be read” typically indicates temporary server issues or incorrect URL formatting. Verify your sitemap URL follows the exact format yourdomain.com/siteinfo.xml with no extra characters or spaces. If the error persists, check that your site is fully published and accessible online.
“Sitemap contains URLs blocked by robots.txt” suggests your robots.txt file prohibits Google from accessing certain pages listed in your sitemap. Review your robots.txt file at yourdomain.com/robots.txt and ensure it’s not blocking important pages you want indexed.
High discovered but low indexed counts often stem from pages marked to be ignored in Showit’s advanced settings. Review pages in your Coverage report categorized as “Excluded” and verify these exclusions are intentional.
Redirect errors occur when sitemap URLs redirect to different locations. Update your sitemap to list the final destination URLs rather than redirecting intermediate pages. Showit’s sitemap should handle this automatically, but manual pages added through custom setups might need correction.
Not found (404) errors indicate your sitemap lists pages that don’t exist or have been deleted. Remove these pages from your site or restore them if they were accidentally deleted. Showit’s automatic sitemap updates when you unpublish pages, so persistent 404 errors suggest other issues.
When errors appear, don’t panic. Many resolve automatically as Google recrawls your site. If an error persists beyond two weeks, investigate the specific URLs affected and address the underlying cause rather than repeatedly resubmitting the same problematic sitemap.
Maximizing SEO Benefits Beyond Sitemap Submission
Submitting your sitemap represents just the foundation of Showit SEO. To truly maximize your search visibility, combine sitemap submission with ongoing optimization efforts that improve how Google evaluates and ranks your pages.
Page titles and meta descriptions significantly impact click-through rates from search results. Optimize these for each page using Showit’s SEO settings panel. Include your target keywords naturally while writing compelling copy that encourages searchers to click your result.
Image optimization improves page load speed and provides additional ranking opportunities through image search. Compress images before uploading to Showit and add descriptive alt text that includes relevant keywords without forcing unnatural language.
Internal linking helps Google discover relationships between your pages and distributes ranking authority throughout your site. Link to relevant service pages from blog posts, connect related portfolio items, and ensure your navigation provides clear pathways to important content.
Regular content updates through blogging or portfolio additions signal to Google that your site remains active and relevant. Fresh content attracts new visitors and gives Google reasons to recrawl your site frequently, improving overall visibility.
For comprehensive Showit SEO optimization that extends beyond basic sitemap submission, professional services can audit your entire site and implement advanced strategies that drive organic traffic growth.
Conclusion
Submitting your Showit sitemap to Google Search Console is a simple but critical step that every website owner must complete immediately after launching. This five-minute task ensures Google knows your site exists and can begin indexing your carefully designed pages.
Remember that Showit automatically generates your sitemap at yourdomain.com/siteinfo.xml, eliminating technical complexity. Your only responsibility is locating this sitemap and submitting it through Google Search Console’s straightforward interface.
For sites with WordPress blogs, don’t forget to submit your blog sitemap as well at yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml. Both sitemaps work together to ensure complete coverage of your website in Google’s index.
Monitor your Google Search Console dashboard regularly after submission to catch and resolve any indexing issues quickly. Proactive attention to errors prevents visibility problems that could cost you potential clients searching for your services.
Sitemap submission launches your SEO journey, but ongoing optimization ensures sustainable growth in organic traffic. Combine this technical foundation with quality content, strategic keywords, and user-focused design to build long-term search visibility that supports your creative business.
