WiscWeb - Adding a Sitemap to Google Search Console
Important
- Note: Google Search Console is not a “core app” under UW-Madison’s Google Privacy Policy or Terms of Service.
- Support: Support is not available from the UW-Madison Google team for non-core apps. We recommend the following for assistance:
- Review Google documentation.
- Enroll in free Google training.
- Consideration: While service accounts can be used for non-core apps, consider that these have a 0GB quota in My Drive.
- Setting up Google Search Console
- Finding Your Sitemap
- Verify Your Site with Google Search Console
- Adding your sitemap in Google Search Console
- Training video that includes Google Search Console conversation
Setting up Google Search Console
Before proceeding, you should have a Google Search Console account created and set up for your WiscWeb site. For more information on this process, please refer to WiscWeb - Adding Google Services to your UW Theme WordPress site
Finding Your Sitemap
WordPress accommodates sitemaps as part of its core technology. Therefore, every WiscWeb site will automatically have a sitemap created.
To locate your sitemap:
- Navigate to your website URL
- Append "/wp-sitemap.xml" to the end of your URL and press enter (Example: sitename.wisc.edu/wp-sitemap.xml)
- You should see a page that lists all of the links on your site
Troubleshooting Tip: If you receive a "Page not found" message when you navigate to your /wp-sitemap.xml URL, the issue might be that your site is not set up to be indexed by Google. This setting gets turned off by default when your site launches, but could have been manually set by a member of your team at some point. To fix this issue, navigate to Settings > Reading in your dashboard and uncheck the option that says "Discourage search engines from indexing this site."
Verify Your Site with Google Search Console
You will need to verify your site with Google Search Console, following the steps at [Link for document 90062 is unavailable at this time].
Adding Your Sitemap to Google Search Console
Once your site has been verified, continue into Google Search Console to get to your Dashboard screen for your site.
Click on Sitemaps on the left. Once there, enter the sitemap URL for your site and click Submit. This will add your sitemap to the Google Search Console service.
