At Wildcat Digital, we recommend that you submit your sitemap once in Google Search Console. There’s generally no need to manually resubmit the same sitemap every time your website changes, as Google can revisit a sitemap it already knows about.
Resubmitting can be worthwhile after a major website change, such as a migration, significant URL restructure or the launch of a large amount of new content. For smaller, day-to-day updates, manually submitting the sitemap is unlikely to make a meaningful difference.
What Is A Sitemap?
According to Google, “A sitemap is a file where you provide information about the pages, videos, and other files on your site, and the relationships between them. Search engines like Google read this file to crawl your site more efficiently.”
A sitemap gives search engines information about the URLs and files you want them to discover, along with additional information such as when a page was last significantly updated. For example, a sitemap can tell crawlers when the page was last updated and any alternate language versions of the page.
To read more, take a look at our insightful article, ‘What Is a Sitemap and How Do Search Engines Use Sitemaps?’
Do I Need A Sitemap?
More often than not, if your site’s pages are properly linked, Google will be able to discover most of your site without the need for a sitemap. Successful linking is when all of the pages that you deem important can be reached through some form of navigation, be that your site’s menu or links you have placed on pages. A sitemap can come in handy for larger or more complex sites, as it gives search engines another way to find your pages.
However, it’s important to remember that a sitemap supports good internal linking rather than replacing it. If important pages on your website can’t be reached through internal links, adding them to a sitemap may help Google discover them, but users already on your site won’t easily find them.
Think of your sitemap as another way of helping Google see the URLs you want it to know about, rather than a substitute for making those URLs easy to find.
How Often Should You Submit A Sitemap To Google?
Generally, you only need to submit your sitemap once in Google Search Console (or other search engines’ search control panels). After this, there is generally no need to repeatedly submit the same sitemap. Google can revisit a sitemap it already knows about, and Google specifically advises against repeatedly submitting an unchanged sitemap.
If you have a static website that doesn’t change too often, there’s no real reason to update your sitemap for several months. If your website includes blog posts, products or promotions that are continuously changing, you should make sure your sitemap is being updated accurately as those URLs are added, removed or changed.
This doesn’t necessarily mean manually resubmitting the sitemap in Google Search Console each time.
When Is It Worth Submitting Or Resubmitting A Sitemap?
There are certain situations where reviewing or resubmitting your sitemap can be particularly useful. These include:
- Launching a new website
- Completing a website migration
- Making significant structural or URL changes
- Adding a large volume of new content or URLs at once
For example, if you’ve migrated a website and many of the URLs have changed, submitting the new sitemap can help Google discover the new URLs. On the other hand, if you have simply published a new blog post or made a small change to an existing page, manually resubmitting your sitemap is unlikely to make a meaningful difference.
Likewise, if an existing page isn’t being indexed because it has a noindex directive or isn’t internally linked, resubmitting the sitemap won’t address the underlying issue.
When Are Sitemaps Particularly Useful?
Whilst submitting a sitemap can make a huge difference to large sites with poor linking, it’s important to bear in mind that submitting a sitemap won’t make a difference to some websites. This is because “sitemaps are not [actually] required for search engines to effectively crawl your website”. However, sitemaps can be particularly useful in the following scenarios:
Your Site Is Large
On large sites, it’s more difficult to make sure that every page is linked by at least one other page on the site. Consequently, it’s more likely Googlebot won’t discover some of your pages. For larger websites, managing how Google crawls and discovers URLs can therefore become more important. Learn more about optimising your crawl budget with our article: How To Manage Crawl Budget For Larger Websites
A bigger website might also mean that you make frequent updates. Having your XML sitemap set up properly can help Google discover the most important pages on your site.
Your Site Has A Bad Internal Linking Strategy
A sitemap is incredibly useful if you don’t regularly link between your pages because it increases the visibility of your pages for crawlers. However, missing an internal linking structure is a far greater problem than a missing sitemap, as search engines focus on crawling your website naturally first. Even if Google discovers a page through your sitemap, a lack of internal links can make it harder for Google to understand how that page fits into your site and which pages are most important..
This is why we would recommend treating a sitemap as a supporting tool rather than a solution to poor internal linking. Important pages should still be linked logically from other relevant pages on your website.
Your Site is New and Has Few External Links To It
Googlebot and other web crawlers crawl the web by following links from one page to another. If no other sites link to your site, Googlebot may struggle to discover your pages. A sitemap can help search engines quickly discover new pages on your site, improving the overall SEO performance of your website.
For a new website, submitting a sitemap can therefore be particularly useful during the initial launch, especially when the site has few external links. However, it’s still important to make sure the site’s key pages are internally linked and accessible to users.
Your Site Has Lots Of Rich Media Content (Video/Images)
Google can take additional information from sitemaps into account for Search. Video and image sitemaps are generally used to help Google know and understand your site’s media content. If you only have a few videos and images, you can add them to the normal XML sitemap. However, if you have an entire section of videos and images, you can split them into separate sitemaps.
How To Optimise Your Sitemaps For SEO
Once you’ve set up your sitemap, it’s important to make sure that it’s beneficial for SEO. A sitemap won’t fix technical SEO problems, but an incorrectly configured sitemap can make it harder for search engines to understand which URLs you want them to discover. For example, including redirected, duplicate or non-canonical URLs can send mixed signals about which versions of your pages should be considered.
Ideally, your sitemap should contain the URLs that you want to appear in Google’s search results, rather than every URL that exists on your website. This means avoiding URLs that redirect, return errors or are non-canonical versions of other pages.
It’s also worth making sure that your sitemap’s lastmod information is accurate. This can help Google understand when a page has been significantly updated, but it should not be changed simply because a minor edit has been made.
When Is Resubmitting A Sitemap Unlikely To Help?
Though there are situations where resubmitting your sitemap can be useful, there are also plenty of situations where it’s unlikely to make a meaningful difference.
For example, resubmitting your sitemap is unlikely to fix:
- Poor internal linking
- Incorrect canonical tags
- Unintended noindex directives
- Duplicate content issues
- Technical SEO problems preventing Google from accessing your pages
If you’re experiencing these issues, resubmitting your sitemap won’t resolve them. For a comprehensive guide on diagnosing and fixing foundational technical issues, explore our guide: Technical SEO & Site Health
Wildcat Digital Insight:
Wildcat Digital Insight: In our experience, sitemap issues are often symptoms of wider crawling or indexation problems rather than the root cause. If your pages aren’t getting indexed, resubmitting your XML file won’t fix underlying site architecture or technical health issues.
Final Thoughts
For most websites, submitting your sitemap once is enough. The important thing is keeping the sitemap accurate and making sure it contains the URLs you want search engines to discover.
If you’re repeatedly resubmitting a sitemap because pages aren’t being crawled or indexed, look beyond the sitemap. Poor internal linking, technical accessibility, canonicalisation and other SEO issues may be contributing to the problem.
Our team of technical SEO specialists at Wildcat Digital have a wealth of experience using sitemaps. Checking that your site’s sitemap is set up correctly and following best practices is a key step in our technical audits and campaign planning. If you need help with your sitemap or have any questions about the indexing and crawling of your website, get in touch with our friendly team today.
