How to Add an XML Sitemap to Google Search Console

An XML sitemap helps search crawlers get information about a website's structure, page hierarchy, crawl priority, and more. To speed up the receipt of this Google map, it is uploaded through the Search Console panel.
Site map is one of the main documents that a site should contain. It helps in SEO promotion of the site, clearly demonstrating to the search robot the hierarchy of pages, importance, and so on. In short, this is the directory of your site.

Of course, sanctions or pessimization do not occur in the absence of a card, but remember that the machine may not work correctly and not detect a number of documents. The file itself is created in XML format and stored in the root folder. Sometimes similar maps are also created for the convenience of site users.

XML sitemap for Google
Creating a sitemap for Google is important for correct site crawling. To add a sitemap, log in to the Google Search Console and find the "Sitemaps" section in the left side menu, as shown in the screenshot:


Adding sitemap in Google Search Console
Insert a link to XML in the active field. Next, you will need to wait for the verification, the status of which is indicated in the table below.
Please note that you not only need to add a sitemap to the Google Search Console, but also duplicate the link to it in the root robots.txt file.

Among the main map-related guidelines to consider are:

1. The syntax used must be respected, especially for URLs. Any typo and error will prevent the robot from properly scanning according to the published XML.
2. Never write session IDs in URLs you add, because the robot will waste crawling budget. When the turn of important pages comes, the budget may be exhausted.
3. To show the search engine that your site has multiple language versions, use the special hreflang attribute.
4. The preferred encoding is UTF-8, this will help avoid a number of errors.
5. If you need to download a large map that exceeds 50,000 Internet addresses, use multiple maps rather than trying to upload the entire mass at once. It is better to create a parent map that will contain links to other web site maps.
6. Separate maps can be created for images, videos, and news, which improve data scanning.
7. Consider recommendations related to canonicalization of Internet addresses to use up-to-date methods for specifying a domain version, for example, when a site is accessed with and without www.
8. If the Internet addresses of the main version of the web resource and its mobile version are different, one of them should be specified. If you still need to add both versions, create annotations thathelp crawlers recognize them.
9. Be aware of the encoding: XML can include ASCII characters without regard to extended ones, such as "*" or "{}". Otherwise, you will receive an error message.

Conclusion
Sitemap.xml is a file that tells search robots about the structure existing on the web site. In order to speed up this file getting into the hands of Google, use the Google Search Console panel.

The algorithm will be as follows:
specify the path to the XML by going to "Sitemaps" in the left menu;
wait for confirmation and follow the status, which is indicated in the table on the same page.

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