As of June 2026. An XML sitemap isn't some magical SEO shortcut. It's more like an organized list of your important URLs: here's my content—please crawl it properly. Yoast SEO can generate this list automatically. Google Search Console will then show you whether Google was able to retrieve the sitemap and which URLs were recognized from it.
This article assumes that you have already set up Search Console. If you're just getting started, read the guide to Search Console Property. The wrong property is one of the most common reasons why people submit their sitemap and then look for it in the wrong data view.
Table of contents
Check first: The property and sitemap must match
Before you submit anything, open your sitemap in your browser. With Yoast, the sitemap index is usually located here:
https://deine-domain.de/sitemap_index.xmlIf you can't access this URL yourself in your browser, Google usually won't be able to access it properly either. In that case, first check for HTTPS, redirects, maintenance mode, password protection, firewall settings, cache, and whether the correct SEO plugin is actually generating the sitemap.
It's also important to use the correct Search Console property. A sitemap for https://example.com/ Does not belong in a URL prefix property for https://www.example.com/. For a domain property, the scope is broader, but even there, you should submit the full sitemap URL if the input field does not automatically prefix it with a domain.
Find the Yoast Sitemap
In Yoast, you can find the XML sitemap under Yoast SEO > Settings > Website Features. There, the function must XML sitemaps be active. In the current Yoast interface, this option is located in the Technical SEO. When this feature is enabled, you can use View XML Sitemap Open the sitemap index.
The sitemap index is the overview. It contains individual sitemaps, such as those for posts, pages, categories, or other content types. That’s exactly why you usually don’t submit every single sitemap—you submit the index instead.
If you're using a different SEO plugin on your live site, the visible generator at the bottom of the sitemap may have a different name. For Search Console, what matters isn't the plugin's brand name, but whether the sitemap is accessible, contains valid URLs, and matches the property.
Submit a Sitemap to Search Console
- Open Google Search Console.
- Select the correct property.
- Go to Indexing > Sitemaps.
- Remove outdated or obviously incorrect sitemaps if they still contain old entries.
- Wear underneath Add a New Sitemap either
sitemap_index.xmlor the full URLhttps://deine-domain.de/sitemap_index.xml. Which option is appropriate depends on whether the field already specifies the domain. - Click on Send.
Google puts it in technical terms: You don't upload a file to Google; instead, you tell Google where the file is located on your website. That's an important distinction. If the sitemap becomes inaccessible later on, even a submission that was initially successful could run into problems again.
What You'll See After Submitting
After submission, Search Console displays a row for the submitted sitemap. There you'll find, among other things, the submitted URL, the type, the submission date, the last crawl, the status, and the pages detected. For a sitemap index, Google aggregates the URLs from the individual sitemaps it contains.
- Successful: Google was able to retrieve and read the sitemap.
- Could not be retrieved: Google was unable to retrieve the file. Check the URL, access permissions, robots.txt, server response, and redirects.
- The sitemap contains errors: Google was able to access the file, but encountered a problem while reading it.
- Recognized pages: This is the number of URLs that Google has retrieved from the sitemap. It is not a guarantee of indexing.
Right after you submit it, you'll need to be patient for a bit. Google can retrieve a sitemap quickly, but crawling and indexing the URLs it contains don't happen automatically at the same time.
Understanding Common Error Messages
Many sitemap issues aren't major SEO disasters, but simply errors in categorization or accessibility. That's exactly why it's worth taking a calm, step-by-step approach when checking them.
- Incorrect property: You are in the Property section for
http,wwwor a subdomain, but you're submitting the sitemap for a different version. - 404 or invalid URL: The sitemap is not located at the address you entered. Open the URL directly in your browser.
- Blocked by robots.txt: Google is not allowed to crawl the sitemap or important sections of the website.
- Login, Maintenance Mode, or Coming Soon Page: The website looks accessible to you, but Google sees a blocked page or a placeholder page.
- Forwarding chains: The sitemap or the URLs it contains often redirect or do not point to the final URLs.
- URLs not indexed: That isn't necessarily a sitemap error. Check the noindex tags, canonical tags, internal links, quality, and search intent of the respective pages.
My standard test: Open the sitemap URL in your browser, check the HTTP status, copy an important URL from the sitemap, test it live using the URL checker, and only then look for the cause in Yoast or WordPress. This way, you avoid the common mistake of clicking around in the wrong places.
What Should and Shouldn't Be Included in the Sitemap
A good sitemap isn't just a list of all the URLs that WordPress can somehow generate. It should include the URLs you actually want to appear in search results. This is exactly where Yoast comes in handy: content types and taxonomies that point to noindex are not normally included in the sitemap.
For small websites, this is often straightforward: posts, pages, and perhaps important categories. For online stores, member areas, filter pages, internal search pages, or sparse tag archives, you’ll need to make more deliberate decisions. Not every URL that technically exists deserves a spot in Google’s index.
When you later organize categories, tags, and archives using Yoast, you’re indirectly deciding what Google sees in the sitemap. So the sitemap isn’t just a standalone feature—it’s part of your overall content architecture.
What a Sitemap Can't Do
A sitemap helps search engines find URLs. However, it does not guarantee that Google will crawl, index, or rank every URL well. Google itself states that URLs identified in a sitemap are not automatically crawled or indexed.
If a page is on noindex If a page is only accessible through a weak internal structure, is hidden behind a cookie/login/maintenance mode, or has little substantive content, the sitemap won't save it. In that case, the problem isn't with the submission, but with the page itself.
That’s why the better question to ask after submitting the sitemap isn’t, „Why isn’t everything indexed right away?“ but rather, „Is the right content included in the sitemap, is it accessible, and does it have enough reason to be searched for and found in the first place?“
FAQ
Should I submit the sitemap index or individual sitemaps?
Usually, the sitemap index is sufficient. It links to the individual sitemaps and is automatically updated when you publish, modify, or delete content.
Do I have to resubmit the sitemap after every new post?
No. Yoast updates the sitemap index dynamically. Google can retrieve it again later. If there are major structural changes or after an error, it may be a good idea to resubmit it, but not after every regular blog post.
Why is the sitemap set to "noindex"?
This is normal with Yoast. XML sitemaps themselves do not need to be indexed as search results. What's important is that Google can read the sitemap and follow the links within it.
Why aren't recognized pages indexed anyway?
Because the sitemap only helps with discoverability. Check the affected URL in the URL Checker, and pay attention to noindex, Canonical, redirects, internal links, server responses, and the quality of the page's content.
What should I do if I see „Could not be retrieved“?
Open the sitemap URL in your browser, check the property, test the URL live in Search Console, and check for restrictions caused by robots.txt, password protection, maintenance mode, or a firewall. If the URL was incorrect, remove the incorrect entry and resubmit the correct sitemap.
Do I even need a sitemap if my website is small?
Google can often find most of the content on small, well-linked websites even without a sitemap. Nevertheless, a sitemap is usually a good idea for WordPress websites because it requires little effort, provides clear diagnostic data, and helps with new or less-linked content.
Sources
- Yoast: Enable and View XML Sitemaps: https://yoast.com/help/xml-sitemaps-in-the-wordpress-seo-plugin/
- Yoast: Submit a sitemap to search engines: https://yoast.com/help/submit-sitemap-search-engines/
- Google Search Console: Sitemaps Report: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451001
- Google Search Console: What Is a Sitemap?: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/12817956
- Google Search Central: Learn about sitemaps: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview
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