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Submitting Your Sitemap to Google and Bing

Improve your site's SEO by submitting your sitemap to Google and Bing. This step-by-step guide will help you get started with Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to boost your site’s visibility.

Table of Contents 

  1. Types of Sitemaps on Your Sierra Website

  2. Your Main Sitemap

  3. Property Listing Sitemaps

  4. Submitting to Google Search Console

  5. Submitting to Bing Webmaster Tools

  6. Making Sure Google and Bing Can Read Your Pages

  7. Troubleshooting Common Sitemap Issues

  8. Best Practices 

  9. FAQs

What is a Sitemap?

A sitemap is a special file that lists important pages on your website. Google and Bing use it to more easily discover and index your content.

Submitting a sitemap helps:

  1. Speed up how quickly new content is found
  2. Ensure property listings and blogs are included in search results
  3. Give search engines a clear picture of how your site is structured

Think of it as a roadmap you’re giving to Google and Bing so they can understand your site better.

Types of Sitemaps on Your Sierra Website

Your Sierra site automatically generates a main sitemap for general content, and you can also create property listing sitemaps for more targeted indexing.

  1. Main Sitemap → Covers content pages and blog posts.
  2. Property Listing Sitemaps → Built from your saved searches, these focus on your IDX listing pages.

Submitting both ensures that search engines crawl not only your static content but also the dynamic listing data that buyers are actively searching for.

Your Main Sitemap

By default, your site has a sitemap that includes all content pages and blog posts:

https://www.[YOUR SITE NAME].com/sitemap.xml

This sitemap should always be submitted first, since it covers your core website pages.

Property Listing Sitemaps

You can use the Google Workspace tool provided to verify the XML or follow the steps.

Use this sheet to run the script → XML Site Processor, or follow the steps below to perform this process yourself.

Because real estate sites contain thousands of property detail pages, listing sitemaps need to be handled differently. Google and Bing recommend keeping each sitemap under 50 MB or 50,000 URLs (Sierra best practice: keep it to 5,000 listings or fewer).

Steps to create a property listing sitemap:

  1. Log in to your Sierra Admin area.
  2. Go to Saved Searches.
  3. Find or create the saved search you want to use.
  4. On the Manage Saved Searches page, click the blue List button.
  5. A search results page opens with a URL like:

    https://www.[YOUR SITE NAME].com/property-search/results/?searchtype=2&searchid=8673968

    Remove searchtype=2& so it looks like:

    https://www.[YOUR SITE NAME].com/property-search/results/?searchid=8673968
  6. Replace results/ with sitemap.xml:
    https://www.[YOUR SITE NAME].com/property-search/sitemap.xml?searchid=8673968
  7. Repeat for as many saved searches as you want indexed (for example, by city, county, or price range).

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Submitting to Google Search Console

  1. Sign in: Go to Google Search Console and log in.
  2. Add your site: Click Add Property → choose URL Prefix → enter your full site URL.
  3. Verify ownership:
    • Options include DNS record or HTML Tag
      1. DNS Record will require you to submit a Support ticket here
    • If your site already uses Google Analytics, verification may happen automatically.

  4. Submit your sitemap:
    • In the left-hand menu, go to Indexing → Sitemaps.
    • Enter your sitemap URL (e.g., https://www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml).
    • Click Submit.
  5. Check results: If you see errors like “Couldn’t fetch,” confirm the URL is correct and accessible.

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Submitting to Bing Webmaster Tools

  1. Sign in: Go to Bing Webmaster Tools and log in.
  2. Add your site: Enter your website URL.
  3. Verify ownership: Options include DNS record or HTML meta tag
    1. DNS Record will require you to submit a Support ticket here

  4. Submit your sitemap:
    • From the menu, go to Sitemaps.
    • Enter your sitemap URL(s).
    • Click Submit.

  5. Monitor indexing: Bing will report crawl status and highlight errors like blocked pages or invalid formatting.

Making Sure Google and Bing Can Read Your Pages

Submitting your sitemap is the first step, but search engines also need to be able to see and understand your pages. Here are a few things to check:

  • See what Google sees
    In Google Search Console, you can use the URL Inspection tool to test any page on your site. This shows you how Google views it. If the page looks broken or is missing content in this tool, it may not index correctly.
  • Keep important content visible
    Make sure that the main text, links, and images you want found by search engines are on the page itself, not hidden behind pop-ups or only loaded by scripts. If Google can’t “see” the content, it won’t be able to index it.
  • Don’t block your own pages
    Every website has a small file called robots.txt that tells search engines what they can and can’t crawl. If key sections of your site (like /property-search/) are accidentally blocked, your listings won’t appear in search results.
  • Update your sitemap when big changes happen
    If you add new saved searches, launch a new section of your site, or make major design updates, resubmit your sitemap so search engines get the latest version of your site’s roadmap.

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Troubleshooting Common Sitemap Issues

  • My sitemap says “Couldn’t fetch.”
    Check for typos in the sitemap URL.
    Confirm the sitemap loads in a browser without errors.
    Large sitemaps may time out, so try splitting them into smaller saved searches.
  • Google says “Indexed, but not submitted in sitemap.”
    This is normal. Google may find some pages outside of your sitemap. The goal is for your most important pages (like property listings and blogs) to appear in both.
  • Some property pages aren’t showing in search.
    Verify the saved search is still active and returning results.
    Make sure the generated sitemap URL is accessible.
    Resubmit the sitemap in Search Console.
  • Bing or Google shows “URLs blocked by robots.txt.”
    Go to your robots.txt file (https://www.yoursite.com/robots.txt).
    Make sure you aren’t accidentally blocking /property-search/ or other key folders.
  • Sitemap takes too long to load.
    Split your saved searches into smaller groups.
    Avoid a sitemap with tens of thousands of listings.

Best Practices 

  • Submit your main sitemap and all relevant listing sitemaps.
  • Keep each sitemap under 50 MB or 50,000 URLs (ideally 5,000 listings or fewer).
  • Use saved searches strategically (by city, county, or price range).
  • Regularly monitor Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for crawl errors.

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FAQs

Q: How do I divide my property listing sitemaps?
A: Divide your listings by county, property type, or price range to ensure each sitemap has fewer than 5,000 links.

Q: Can I submit multiple sitemaps for different parts of my site?
A: Yes, you can submit multiple sitemaps to both Google and Bing for different sections of your site (e.g., blog posts, property listings, etc.).

Q: How do I check if my sitemap has been indexed?
A: You can check the status of your sitemaps within Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools. Both platforms provide reports on indexed URLs and errors.