How to Submit Your Sitemap to Google & Bing (Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners)

Before you can submit a sitemap, you need one. How you generate it depends on how your website is built.

Option A — Next.js (automatic)

If your site is built with Next.js 13+, create a file at app/sitemap.ts:

import { MetadataRoute } from 'next'

export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
  const base = 'https://www.your-domain.com'
  const now = new Date()

  return [
    { url: base,               lastModified: now, priority: 1.0 },
    { url: `${base}/about`,   lastModified: now, priority: 0.8 },
    { url: `${base}/pricing`, lastModified: now, priority: 0.7 },
    { url: `${base}/blog`,    lastModified: now, priority: 0.6 },
    { url: `${base}/contact`, lastModified: now, priority: 0.5 },
  ]
}

Next.js automatically serves this at https://your-domain.com/sitemap.xml. No extra steps needed.

Option B — WordPress

Install the free Yoast SEO or Rank Math plugin:

1. WordPress Dashboard → Plugins → Add New → search "Yoast SEO" → Install → Activate
2. Go to SEO → General → Features → enable XML Sitemaps
3. Your sitemap is now live at https://your-domain.com/sitemap_index.xml

Option C — Plain HTML / any other site

Use a free online generator:

1. Go to xml-sitemaps.com
2. Enter your website URL → click Start
3. Download the generated sitemap.xml file
4. Upload it to the root of your website (same folder as your homepage)
5. Verify it's accessible at https://your-domain.com/sitemap.xml

Also add your sitemap to robots.txt

Your robots.txt file (at the root of your site) should reference your sitemap so crawlers find it automatically:

User-agent: *
Allow: /
Disallow: /dashboard/
Disallow: /api/

Sitemap: https://www.your-domain.com/sitemap.xml

Google Search Console (GSC) is Google's free tool that lets you tell Google about your site, monitor indexing status, and see which keywords bring visitors to your site.

2.1 — Add your property

1. Go to search.google.com/search-console and sign in with your Google account
2. Click "Add property" in the top-left dropdown
3. Choose "URL prefix" (not Domain) and enter your full URL with www:
   https://www.your-domain.com
4. Click Continue

2.2 — Verify ownership

Google needs to confirm you own the site. There are two easy methods:

2.3 — Submit your sitemap

1. In the left sidebar, click Sitemaps
2. In the "Add a new sitemap" box, type: sitemap.xml
3. Click Submit
4. You should see status change to "Success" with a count of URLs discovered

2.4 — Request indexing

1. In the left sidebar, click URL Inspection
2. Enter your homepage URL and press Enter
3. Click "Request Indexing"
4. You'll see "Indexing requested — URL was added to a priority crawl queue"
5. Repeat for any other important pages (about, pricing, etc.)

Bing Webmaster Tools covers both Bing search and Microsoft Copilot AI — making it important even if you think only Google matters.

Method 1: Import from Google Search Console (easiest — 2 clicks)

If you already completed Step 2, this is by far the fastest way:

1. Go to bing.com/webmasters → sign in with a Microsoft account
2. On the welcome screen, click "Import" under "Import your sites from GSC"
3. Sign in to your Google account when prompted
4. Bing automatically imports your site and sitemap — no verification needed
5. Done! Your sitemap status will show as "Processing" then "Success" within a few hours

Method 2: Manual setup

If you don't want to connect Google, do it manually:

1. Go to bing.com/webmasters → sign in
2. Enter your site URL in the manual box → click Add
3. Download the BingSiteAuth.xml verification file
4. Upload it to the root of your website
5. Click Verify
6. Go to Sitemaps → click Submit sitemap → enter your sitemap URL → Submit