Verify & Submit Your Website Sitemap to Google and Bing

When you submit your sitemap to Google and Bing you can gain access to their various webmaster tools. These tools allow you to track how your website is performing in search results, which keywords your website appears for, find which websites backlink to yours, and get alerts for broken links on your site.

• Google
  • Part 1: Set up Google Search Console on your website
  • Part 2: Submit your sitemap to Google
• Bing
  • Part 1: Verify your website with Bing
  • Part 2: Submit your sitemap to Bing

Google

Part 1: Set up Google Search Console on your website

1. Navigate to Google Search Console.
2. You will be asked to login or create a Google account (any email address ending in @gmail.com). After you login, you will be taken to Google Search Console.
3. When asked to select the property type, choose "URL prefix" and copy and paste the URL of your website's home page, including the https://
   
   
4. Scroll down and select HTML tag to expand the menu.
   
   
   
5. Copy the code inside the quotation marks as seen below.
   
   
   
6. In a new tab, open your liveBooks website dashboard. Click the "gear" icon at the top of the page to open the Settings dashboard.
7. Select SEO at the top of the Settings dashboard.
   
8. Scroll down to the Site Verification section, then paste the meta tag into the Google site verification code field (right-click and then paste or CMD-V on Mac & CTRL-V on PC).
   
   
   
9. Click the Publish button at the top of your dashboard.
10. Return to the Google Search Console tab and click Verify on the screen where you copied the HTML code snippet.

Your website ownership should now be verified for Google. Next, you'll want to submit your sitemap.

Part 2: Submit your sitemap to Google

1. From your Google Search Console dashboard, select Indexing > Sitemaps in the left-hand sidebar.
2. In the box that says Add a new sitemap, you will notice your website’s URL with an empty text box following it. Type in “sitemap.xml” after the backslash (/).
3. Select Submit to finish.

Tip: Any time you make a substantial change to your website content, you can repeat the steps above to re-submit your sitemap. This will allow Google to re-crawl your newly-updated website immediately.

Bing

Part 1: Verify your website with Bing

Visit the Bing Webmaster Tools site. Click Get Started. You'll be asked to log in with either a Microsoft, Google, or Facebook account. 

Next, you'll be asked to either import your sitemap from Google Search Console, or submit your sitemap manually.

Option 1: Import your sitemap from Google Search Console

1. If you have already verified your sitemap on Google Search Console in the section above, click Import. 
   
2. A menu will appear that describes the data that Bing will use. Click Continue.
3. Sign in to the Google account associated with your Google Search Console profile.
4. Follow the on-screen prompts to finish importing your sitemap from Google Search Console.

Option 2: Submit your sitemap manually

1. On the "Welcome to Bing Webmaster Tools" page, paste the URL of your website in the field under Add your site manually.
2. A menu will appear, asking you to choose a verification method. Select the method labeled HTML Meta Tag, and the section will expand to reveal a code.
3. Click Copy next to the code.
   
   
   
4. In a new tab, open your liveBooks website dashboard. Click the "gear" icon at the top of the page to open the Settings dashboard.
5. Select SEO at the top of the Settings dashboard.
   
6. Scroll down to the Site Verification section, then paste the meta tag into the Bing site verification code field (right-click and then paste or CMD-V on Mac & CTRL-V on PC).
   
   
   
7. Click the Publish button at the top of your dashboard.
8. Return to the Bing Webmaster Tools page and click Verify on the screen where you copied the HTML code snippet.
9. Bing will confirm when the verification was successful. Click Done.

Part 2: Submit your sitemap to Bing

Once the verification is successful, you'll be directed to the Webmaster Tools dashboard. To finish submitting your sitemap:

1. Select Sitemaps on the left-hand sidebar, then click Submit sitemap.
   
   
   
2. In the box that says Submit sitemap, you will notice your website’s URL with an empty text box following it. Type in “sitemap.xml” after the backslash (/).
   
   
   
3. Select Submit to finish.