How to Submit Your Squarespace Sitemap to Google Search Console
In the world of Squarespace SEO, adding your sitemap to Google Search Console is an essential step. By adding your Squarespace sitemap, you allow Google to crawl your site more effectively.
Moreover, by adding your sitemap to Google Search Console, you get the opportunity to proactively monitor your website—keeping an eye out for error messages like broken links and other important SEO issues that need your fix to maintain good standings in search results.
Refer to the video for a brief overview of the process of adding your sitemap — or keep reading for more detailed instructions with some troubleshooting tips.
What is a sitemap
A sitemap, in the form of an XML file located at a specific URL, furnishes information about all the significant pages on your website. This tool proves invaluable for search engines like Google, enhancing the efficiency of crawling and ultimately contributing to improved SEO. Regular updates to the sitemap serve the additional purpose of keeping Google abreast of any changes to your website, especially the addition of crucial new pages.
Although Google relies on various methods, such as following internal links and assessing site navigation structure, to crawl and discover pages, an up-to-date sitemap significantly aids in elevating your website's SEO. Hence, dedicating a few minutes to incorporate your Squarespace sitemap into Google Search Console is a worthwhile endeavor.
Finding Your Squarespace Sitemap Location
In contrast to various website construction tools, a Squarespace sitemap generator becomes unnecessary due to Squarespace's automatic generation of an XML sitemap. This obviates the need for manual creation, as each website update seamlessly integrates changes into the sitemap.
To access your Squarespace sitemap, append /sitemap.xml to the end of your primary domain's URL.
For instance, with the integrated Squarespace domain, the sitemap URL adopts this structure:
https://example.squarespace.com/sitemap.xml
Conversely, if utilizing a custom domain, the sitemap URL takes the form:
https://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
How to Submit your Squarespace Sitemap to Google Search Console
Before presenting your Squarespace sitemap to Google, the prerequisite is establishing an account with a tool named Google Search Console. Our comprehensive guide and accompanying video meticulously navigate you through this procedure, available here.
After successfully setting up a Google Search Console account and designating your website as a property, adhere to these steps to incorporate your sitemap:
Access Google Search Console at: https://search.google.com/search-console
Confirm your website property selection in the top-left corner's Property dropdown menu.
Within the left dashboard menu's "Index" section, select "Sitemaps."
In the "Add a new sitemap" segment, insert "sitemap.xml" in the field following your website's URL (refer to the screenshot below).
Click "Submit."
Refer to the screenshot for the specific location to input your sitemap URL:
Upon inclusion of your sitemap URL, Google will exhibit the URL within the "Submitted Sitemaps" list. This list includes details on the last crawl date of the sitemap and the status of indexed URLs.
Review the screenshot for the depiction of the Google Search Console sitemap upload:
It's important to note that while Google won't immediately crawl your sitemap, regular intervals are scheduled for checking the sitemap URL as the crawlers reindex your website's content.
Use Google Search Console to Fix 404 Errors and Broken Links
Once your sitemap is being used by Google to index your website, you can start using Google Search Console to check for broken links on your website and fix 404 errors. Note that you may need to wait several days for Google Search Console to start indexing your site if you have only just created the website property in your Search Console account.
To check for broken links and other errors detected on your website in Google Search Console, click on the “Coverage” report in the “Index” section of the dashboard.
Pages with errors are identified in the first tab of this report, and are divided by various types of errors. There are several different types of errors Google Search Console will identify, but here we’ll focus on one of the most common: broken links that result in “404” or “Page not found” error messages.
These are the two most common scenarios that result in a 404 page not found error:
Changed URL slug: if you open the settings of an already-published page (or blog or product) in Squarespace and change the URL slug, any links to the previous URL slug will break.
Deleted, hidden, or unpublished pages: if you delete, hide or unpublish a page (or blog post or product) in Squarespace, any previously existing links to that page will break.
If your website has many 404 errors search engines may penalize the website, resulting in decreased search rankings. This is based on the assumption that the website isn’t being maintained, and therefore has lower-quality content to offer search engine users.
For this reason, it is important to use Google Search Console to identify 404 errors and fix them.
To fix a 404 error, you need to create a 301 URL redirect from the previous, broken URL to a functional page. In some instances, like a deleted page, you may want to redirect users to your homepage. In other instances, like a page where the URL slug has changed, you should use a 301 URL redirect to send users to the updated URL.
In Squarespace, redirect rules are managed in the Settings > Advanced > URL Mappings dashboard.
For example, to redirect users from a deleted page to the homepage, add the following URL redirect rule to the URL mappings dashboard:
To create a redirect rule for a page with a changed URL slug, add the following URL redirect rule to the URL mappings dashboard:
How to Exclude a Page from Google Search
Your sitemap should only include pages that you want search engines to include in search results. If you have a page that is not important or would not be appropriate to include in search results, you can tell Squarespace to exclude this page from your sitemap.
For example, a “thank you” page that visitors are redirected to after completing a form probably shouldn’t be included in search results. A “thank you” page is transactional, and is only relevant to website users who have completed a specific action.
To exclude a Squarespace page from the sitemap, open the Page Settings menu, and under the “SEO” tab, activate the slider marked “Hide Page from Search Results.” Turning this setting on will add a “noindex” tag to the page headers and exclude it from your sitemap.
Troubleshooting Squarespace Sitemaps
Encountering challenges in accessing your Squarespace sitemap? Consider these troubleshooting insights for assistance.
Trial Mode Hurdle:
Squarespace refrains from automatically generating a sitemap during the trial mode of your website. To initiate the sitemap creation, a pivotal step is subscribing to a Squarespace plan.
Privacy or Password Protection Barrier:
If your website is configured as "private" or "password-protected," the sitemap won't load. It necessitates the "Public" setting for proper functioning. To verify and adjust these configurations, navigate to Settings > Site Availability.
By addressing these specific scenarios, you can overcome obstacles and ensure the seamless accessibility of your Squarespace sitemap.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
1. What is a Sitemap and why is important for SEO?
A sitemap is essentially an XML file that wraps up all the important pages on your website. It enables search engines, such as Google, to crawl and index your content more easily and helps to optimize your search performance.
2. How do I find my Squarespace sitemap URL?
Squarespace domain by default: https://yourdomain.squarespace.com/sitemap.xml
Branded domain: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml
Simply add /sitemap. XML to your main domain URL.
3. How do I add the Squarespace sitemap to Google Webmasters?
Log in to Google Search Console
Select your website from the property list
Go to Index → Sitemaps
Enter sitemap.xml in the “Add a new sitemap” field
Click Submit
4. Do I have to manually build the sitemap in Squarespace?
No, it is created and maintained automatically by Squarespace. There are no third-party generators and no manual updating.
5. How long does it take for Google to index the sitemap?
Indexing isn’t instant. Google will crawl submitted sitemaps regularly. It can take up to a few days for the sitemap to be crawled and for your website to start appearing in search results.
6. How do you find broken links or 404 errors with Google Search Console?
Click on Index >> Coverage in the GSC dashboard. On the “Errors” tab, you’ll see a list of broken links (404s) and other crawl problems that could be harming your site.
