While there are a litany of SEO tools on the market, most businesses can get more mileage than they’d ever need out of Google’s free analytics service suite. The suite includes Google Analytics, Tag Manager, Data Studio, and Search Console.

Google Search Console (previously called Google Webmaster Tools) is an incredibly useful, often underutilized tool. It is used primarily to see how people find and use your website.

Some overlook it because it doesn’t have the bells and whistles that services like Ahrefs or SEMRush have, like content audits and expansive keyword research tools.

But underneath Search Console’s simple exterior is a wealth of knowledge — more than most would ever need to use.

If you’re a fusionZONE client and don’t have your own Search Console access, let us know! We’re happy to share ours with you. Email our support team or check in with your Performance Manager to get access today.

Once you’re in and ready to roll, check out our 3 part series on getting started with Google Search Console. Today, we’re going to start off nice and easy and walk through submitting a sitemap to Google.

Let’s get started!

How to Submit Your Sitemap

A sitemap is a file that tells crawlers exactly what they’re going to find on your site. It shows your site’s organization methods and can also include information about how often pages should be checked for changes, like your inventory.

To submit your sitemap, first, click on Sitemap on the left-menu column.

You should see a place to submit your sitemap’s URL at the top of the page.

Most sitemaps on automotive sites are found at:

url.com/sitemap.xml

An Example:

toyotaofelcajon.com/sitemap.xml

Simply add this slug (everything after the forward slash, or /) to the empty field and hit submit.

If done right, you should see a “Success” status after a few minutes of being submitted.

So why do this?

This is best to do to do on brand-new websites or after you change website providers. It gives Google an outline of your site to how your pages connect to one another.

Google is increasingly better at finding what it needs from your site. But it never hurts to ensure your sitemap is being read correctly.

That’s all there is to it!

If you have any questions about how to better use Search Console and are on the fusionZONE platform, leave a comment down below. Stay tuned in two weeks where we’ll cover how to check a page’s indexing status.

Until next time!