Submitting Your Yoast XML Sitemap to Google Search Console

After you enable XML sitemaps in Yoast SEO on a WordPress site, submit Yoast’s sitemap index to Google Search Console. An XML sitemap is a file that lists URLs for search engines. A sitemap index is a file that points to one or more sitemap files. Google reads the index to find the pages Yoast lists. Search Console reports whether Google fetched the index and how many URLs it found.

The usual Yoast sitemap index address is https://your-domain.example/sitemap_index.xml. Replace the example domain with your site’s domain, then submit the address in your Search Console property, the site or URL range whose data Search Console reports. Then check that the sitemap loads and that Google reports no fetch errors.

Enable Yoast’s XML sitemaps and find the index

In WordPress, go to Yoast SEO > Settings > Site features > Technical SEO and turn on XML sitemaps. Yoast generates and updates sitemap files as content is added or removed. To open the index, use View the XML sitemap in Yoast’s settings, or visit /sitemap_index.xml on your site. Yoast documents the sitemap setting and index.

The index lists the individual sitemaps Yoast creates for site content. Submit the index rather than each listed file; Google follows the links in the index to find those sitemaps. For example, the submission is https://your-domain.example/sitemap_index.xml, not a separate sitemap for each content type.

Submit the sitemap index in Search Console

Open Google Search Console and select the property for your site. Under Indexing, choose Sitemaps. In Add a new sitemap, enter sitemap_index.xml or the full index URL, depending on what the field displays, then select Submit. Google’s sitemap submission guidance explains how to submit a sitemap through Search Console.

After you submit the sitemap, Search Console displays its status and when Google last read it. Google must fetch and process the file before those details become useful, so an initial Pending status does not by itself indicate a problem. Submitting a sitemap helps Google discover URLs, but does not guarantee that Google will index every URL.

Check that Yoast’s sitemap works

First, open the sitemap index in a browser. It should display XML that lists sitemap files, rather than a blank page or an error. Open one of the listed files and confirm that it contains fully qualified URLs, meaning complete addresses that include the protocol and domain. Google’s sitemap documentation also explains how to structure sitemap files.

Next, return to the Search Console Sitemaps report and check the status and discovered URL count after Google has read the index. Yoast adds a noindex, follow directive to sitemap responses. That directive tells search engines not to index the sitemap page itself, while allowing them to follow its links; it is expected behavior and does not mean the sitemap is broken.

If Search Console reports an error, compare the reported sitemap URL with the address that loads in your browser. A 404 means the requested file was not found. A block in your site’s robots.txt file, which sets rules for search engine crawlers, prevents Google from fetching the sitemap. Yoast also lists common sitemap errors, including incorrect URLs, missing XML tags, and blank responses. Check that another sitemap plugin is not publishing a conflicting sitemap, and review caching if recent content changes do not appear in Yoast’s files.

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