How to Submit a Sitemap & Connect Squarespace to Google Search Console
Here’s a snippet of a conversation I’ve had multiple times:
Inquiring Person: “My website is not showing up on Google, and I don’t know why! I launched my site months (or years) ago. What’s happening?”
Me: “Have you submitted your sitemap to Google Search Console so that it can get indexed and the search engines can start finding your site?”
Inquiring Person: “Google what? I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
Let’s get real: If you DIY-ed your website, you probably had little to no idea about SEO or how to get your site “seen” by the search engines, or you had to request it be indexed! How would you know that unless someone told you or you did your own research?
(Full disclosure: I didn’t know that when I launched my first website many moons ago!)
Also, you’ve just created a website, and now you’ve got to worry about all this “techy” stuff, too?!
Well, first, don’t feel bad or mad if you didn’t know about this, and second, it’s a lot easier to do than you may think!
I’ll walk you through exactly how to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and then connect your Squarespace website to your Google Search Console account so you can see those analytics right within your Squarespace account!
Note: This post assumes you have already created your Google Search Console account. If you haven’t yet, head over here to set one up (you must have a Google-based email account to set one up).
I’ll walk you through the process of how to do this below, but if you prefer watching a tutorial, be sure to view the companion video on my YouTube channel.
Submitting your Sitemap to Google Search Console:
Before we connect your Squarespace and Google Search Console accounts, let’s submit your sitemap to Google first.
Once your Google Search Console account is up and running and your domain property is verified, you are ready to submit your sitemap to Google. By submitting a sitemap, you are telling Google the structure and content of your website in a format they can read.
To submit your sitemap, follow these simple steps:
1. Log into your Google Search Console account.
2. Go to your property and navigate to "Sitemaps."
3. Click "Sitemap" and type your sitemap address in the designated spot. The format of the sitemap address is: `https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.`
4. Hit "Submit" and you're done! The Google bots will start crawling your site over time and indexing your site’s pages to help you get seen by search engines.
Connecting your Squarespace Website to Google Search Console:
Now that you’ve submitted your sitemap let’s connect your accounts so that when data does start to populate, you can see it right in your Squarespace Analytics.
There are two ways to connect your Squarespace website to Google Search Console.
From your Squarespace account...
1. The quickest and simplest way is to go to your Analytics menu and click on "Search Keywords." If you have not already connected GSC to your account, you will see an option to hit "Connect." Click on it, and a pop-up window will appear, asking you to select the Google account associated with your website and Google Search Console account. Follow the prompts, and you'll be done in just a few minutes!
2. Another option is to go to your Settings and scroll down to "Connected Accounts." Click on "Connect Account" and select "Search Console". Again, you'll be prompted to select the appropriate Google account associated with your website and Google Search Console account and to follow the same prompts to connect.
Congratulations! You did it! 🙌🏻 🍾
One thing to note is it will take some time for your site to be crawled and indexed. So give it a few days at least before you start looking for data to show up!
Conclusion:
Submitting your website's sitemap to Google Search Console is crucial to ensure your site gets indexed and appears in search results. It may seem a bit intimidating initially, but it's quite easy to implement when you know exactly where to go and what to do. Once you’ve submitted your sitemap and connected your Console account to Squarespace, you can see valuable data on your Analytics page to help you understand how your site is performing!
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