Organic search traffic helps protect a business that relies on paid ads. If visitors stop coming when the ads stop, an ad-account ban could seriously harm sales.
SEO can provide regular online sales and improve profit margins. Adding a sitemap is part of SEO for your Shopify store.
Why Add A Sitemap To Your Shopify Store?
Submit the Shopify sitemap to Google Search Console to help Google find and list the store’s main pages. Better visibility can place products and posts higher in results and bring more shoppers to the business.
Google can find pages without a sitemap, but discovery and indexing take longer. That delay can reduce search visibility and affect your business.
Shopify automatically creates an XML sitemap for every store. It contains links to blog posts, collections and products, as well as pages and product images. Shopify categorises these links in the sitemap as the store grows.
What is A Shopify Sitemap?
A Shopify sitemap is a file that shares information with Google regarding the relationship between pages in your Shopify store. This sitemap.xml file generates links to all of your marketing pages, products, blogs, and categories. The sitemap.xml can’t be adjusted manually.
Search engines use these files to learn about the site, including how often pages change and which languages they use. That information helps them display the site correctly in results.
E-commerce stores often add products to already extensive catalogues, so submitting a sitemap can improve SEO. A sitemap helps individual pages appear in search for their relevant phrases or keywords.
What’s Inside The XML Sitemap Files?
Sitemap Index File
The index file holds the links to your website’s sitemaps. These child sitemaps divide the content by page type.
A Shopify store has at least four types of child sitemap:
- Collections pages
- Product pages
- Blogs
- All other pages
These groups separate the content in sitemap.xml. For a large product catalogue, Shopify builds additional child sitemaps for the index file once the first sitemap exceeds 5,000 URLs. Creating child sitemaps keeps each Shopify sitemap within the 50,000-URL limit.
Child Sitemap File
Each child sitemap lists URLs for its page type. This helps SEO by letting Google and other search engines categorise those links. They can find the content directly instead of working through the site’s architecture and files to classify each URL.
What’s An HTML Sitemap?
An HTML sitemap is an HTML page that lists out all of the pages of a website. Unlike XML sitemaps, they are mainly created for website visitors to get a summary of your site structure and navigate to the page they need. It’s another way for crawlers from search engines to navigate through all of your store’s pages.
These sitemaps usually need regular manual updates. Apps such as SEO HTML Sitemap can generate them quickly.
How To Add A Sitemap To Shopify
Shopify builds its sitemap automatically, saving you that work. Find the file and send it to Google for review.
Add “/sitemap.xml” to the end of your store’s main domain to locate the sitemap.
That address opens the page containing the store’s XML file. You can also save the file to your computer in case something happens to the store.
How To Verify Your Shopify Site in Google Search Console
Verification proves to Google that you own the online store. Afterwards, Google Search Console supplies data showing how the store performs in search rankings.
Disable password protection so the Shopify store is live before verification. If the store is not ready for visitors, turn protection back on after verifying it.
With the store live, open Google Search Console. Choose Add property from the dropdown menu.
There are two verification options, using either a custom domain or your myshopify.com domain.
Verifying A Custom Domain
A custom domain supports either method. For Domain verification, enter the URL without https:// and follow the DNS verification prompt.
Verifying A MyShopify.com Domain
For a myshopify.com domain, use URL prefix and enter that domain. Google initially suggests an HTML file. You can use it, but opening the arrow beside HTML tag is simpler: copy the meta tag shown there.
In Shopify’s dashboard, open Online Store and then Themes. Choose the theme to edit. Google only publishes the live theme selected here, rather than every theme in the store.
Choose Edit code from Actions.
In Layout, open theme.liquid to edit the file. Find the <head> tag near the top of the editor.
Insert the copied HTML tag immediately below <head>.
Finish by selecting Save.
Return to Google Console and select Verify in the HTML tag section.
Use Add Property in the Google Console dashboard if you need to verify again or add a new sitemap. Once verified, the store is ready for sitemap submission.
How To Complete Google Verification For Shopify
- Go to Google Search Console and Add Property.
- Type in your Shopify URL under the URL Prefix option.
- Select the dropdown under the HTML tag verification method.
- Copy the meta tag onto your clipboard.
- Go back to your Shopify Admin. Click Theme.
- Select the Theme you want to make changes to. Click on Actions, and then Edit code.
- You’ll see a list of files for your code. Tap on the theme.liquid to open the files in the online code editor.
- Under the tag, paste the meta tag.
- Click on Save.
How To Submit Your Shopify Sitemap To Google Search Console
Return to the Google Search Console dashboard and open Sitemaps.
Enter the XML sitemap link in Add a new sitemap, then select Submit. A link to anything other than the XML sitemap produces a Google error.
A pop-up confirms that Google Search Console has received the sitemap.
Look for the green Success status in Submitted sitemaps to confirm submission.
After submission, Google crawls and indexes the website. It indexes only live websites and pages.
Some Shopify pages may remain uncrawled or unindexed. Google says this is normal because crawling takes time, and it neither gives nor guarantees a deadline for indexing to finish.
How To Submit A Sitemap To Google Search Console
- Click Sitemaps in Google Search Console.
- Type in the link to your sitemap under Add new sitemaps.
- Click Submit.
- You should see a popup and your new sitemap listed under the Submitted sitemaps section.
Common Errors When Submitting Sitemap to Google Search Console
Couldn’t Fetch the Sitemap Error
If Google Console says it could not fetch the sitemap, check that the Search Console property is configured correctly. As a last resort, consider removing and adding that property again.
Indexed, Not Submitted in Sitemap Error
Shopify may label URLs “indexed, not submitted in the sitemap.” Common causes include:
- Pagination pages are usually excluded from the sitemap.
- Shopify leaves /collections/all/pages URLs out of sitemap.xml.
- False positives are detected URLs that may not appear in Google Console.
For problems building or submitting a sitemap, contact Google Webmasters support or use its resource library, including FAQs and troubleshooting articles.
Conclusion
You only need to add a Shopify sitemap once and usually need to verify the store in Google Search Console once too. After submission, the Performance tab starts showing data on visitors arriving through organic search.
