How to Generate and Submit Google Sitemaps for Your Store

Pulse Commerce generates several types of sitemaps. You need to understand which ones to use for your store.

Required Sitemaps (Generate Both)

1. Category & Custom Page Sitemap

• Contains: Category pages, custom content pages, static pages (About Us, Contact, etc.)
• Does NOT contain: Individual product pages
• Standard filename: sitemap.xml
• When to use: Always required for every store

2. Product Sitemap (Choose ONE option)

Option A: Product and Product Group (No Child SKU's) - Recommended for 99% of stores

• Contains: Parent products and product groups only
• Excludes: Child SKU variations (sizes, colors)
• Why use this: Prevents duplicate content issues, keeps sitemap focused on main product pages
• Standard filename: sitemap_products.xml

Option B: Product (Child SKU's) - Only for specific use cases

• Contains: Every single SKU including all variations
• When to use: Only if each child SKU has unique, substantial content (not just color/size differences)
• Caution: Can create very large sitemaps and potential duplicate content issues

URL Only vs. Image and URL

For both Category and Product sitemaps, you can choose:

• Url only: Just the page URLs (faster to generate, smaller file)
• Image and Url: Includes product images in the sitemap (helps images appear in Google Image Search)

Recommendation: Use "Image and Url" for product sitemap if you want better image search visibility. Use "Url only" for category sitemap.

Other Sitemap Options (Optional)

Yahoo Sitemap and Bing Sitemap: These are provided for legacy compatibility but are no longer necessary. Both Yahoo and Bing now use Google's standard XML sitemap format. You can safely ignore these options.

Pulse Commerce automatically generates sitemaps based on your current product catalog and site structure.

Generate Category & Custom Page Sitemap

1In your Pulse Commerce admin, go to Marketing Sitemap Generator (SEO)

2Under Google Sitemap section, find Category & Custom Page

3Click Url only

4Click the Download Sitemap button

5Save the file to your computer

Generate Product Sitemap

6Back on the Sitemap Generator page, find Product and Product Group (No Child SKU's)

7Choose either:

• Url only - If you don't need image search optimization
• Image and Url - If you want your product images to appear in Google Image Search (recommended)

8Click the Download Sitemap button

9Save the file to your computer

Before uploading, it's good practice to review your sitemaps to ensure quality. This step is optional but recommended for first-time setup.

How to Open and Review Sitemaps

1Right-click the downloaded XML file and select Open with Notepad (or any text editor)

2Review the file for these common issues:

✓ Check for test products:

• Look for product names like "Test Product", "Sample Item", "Do Not Delete"
• These should be removed from your live site or marked as hidden
• If found, go back to Pulse Commerce and hide/delete these products, then regenerate the sitemap

✓ Check URL format:

• Ideally, URLs should be SEO-friendly: yourstore.com/product-name
• Less ideal: URLs with parameters: yourstore.com/mfg-subcat-item.asp?CID=301&scid=303&mid=-1
• If you see parameter-based URLs, consider enabling SEO-friendly URLs in your Pulse Commerce settings

✓ Verify all URLs are correct:

• Check that domain name is correct
• Verify protocol is HTTPS (if your site uses SSL)
• Make sure no broken or malformed URLs exist

When to Edit Sitemaps Manually

You generally should NOT edit sitemaps manually unless:

• You need to temporarily remove a specific page while keeping it live on your site
• You want to adjust priority values for specific pages (advanced SEO)
• You're troubleshooting a specific indexing issue Google has flagged

If you edit manually: Remember that you'll need to re-edit every time you regenerate the sitemap, which defeats the purpose of automation.

Sitemaps must be uploaded to a specific location on your server using standardized filenames.

Rename Your Sitemap Files

Downloaded sitemaps have generic names. Rename them to these standard names:

Upload via FTP

1Connect to your server using an FTP client (like FileZilla)

• Need help with FTP? See our guide: How to configure FileZilla for SSL FTP (FTPS)

2Navigate to the /custompages/sitemaps/ folder on your server

3Upload your renamed sitemap files to this folder

• Upload sitemap.xml
• Upload sitemap_products.xml
• Overwrite existing files if prompted (this is normal)

The sitemap index file (sitemap_index.xml) tells search engines where to find your individual sitemaps. You need to update the timestamps in this file.

What is sitemap_index.xml?

This file should already exist in your /custompages/sitemaps/ folder from previous sitemap generation. It contains:

• Links to your individual sitemap files
• Last modification timestamps for each sitemap

Update the Timestamps

1Using your FTP client, navigate to /custompages/sitemaps/sitemap_index.xml

2Download the file to your computer

3Open it with a text editor (Notepad)

4Find the <lastmod> tags - they look like this:

<lastmod>2017-05-12T10:12:08+00:00</lastmod>

5Update both timestamp entries to the current date and time

• Format: YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS+00:00
• Example: 2025-01-20T15:30:00+00:00
• You can use the same timestamp for both sitemaps since you just generated them

6Save the file

7Upload the updated sitemap_index.xml back to /custompages/sitemaps/ folder

Verify Sitemap Paths (One-Time Check)

The first time you set up sitemaps, verify the paths in sitemap_index.xml are correct. They should look like:

<loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/custompages/sitemaps/sitemap.xml</loc>
<loc>http://www.yourdomain.com/custompages/sitemaps/sitemap_products.xml</loc>

• Replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain
• Use https:// if your site has SSL
• If you renamed your sitemaps differently, update these paths to match

Before submitting to Google, verify that your sitemaps are accessible via the web.

Test Each Sitemap URL

Open a web browser and visit these URLs (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain):

Sitemap Index:

https://www.yourdomain.com/custompages/sitemaps/sitemap_index.xml

Category Sitemap:

https://www.yourdomain.com/custompages/sitemaps/sitemap.xml

Product Sitemap:

https://www.yourdomain.com/custompages/sitemaps/sitemap_products.xml

What You Should See

• Success: XML content displays in the browser (may be formatted or raw XML depending on browser)
• Problem: 404 error = file not uploaded to correct location
• Problem: Download prompt instead of display = server configuration issue (usually still works fine)

Once your sitemaps are uploaded and verified, submit them to Google Search Console.

First-Time Submission

1Sign in to Google Search Console

2Select your property (your website)

3In the left sidebar, click Sitemaps

4In the "Add a new sitemap" field, enter:

custompages/sitemaps/sitemap_index.xml

5Click Submit

Monitoring Sitemap Status

After submission, Google will show:

• Status: "Success" or "Couldn't fetch" (if there's an issue)
• Discovered URLs: How many pages Google found in your sitemap
• Last read: When Google last crawled your sitemap

It may take a few hours to 24 hours for Google to process your sitemap and show discovered URLs.

When You Update Sitemaps

When you regenerate and re-upload sitemaps in the future:

• You do NOT need to resubmit in Search Console
• Google automatically checks your submitted sitemaps periodically
• The updated timestamp in sitemap_index.xml signals Google to re-crawl
• New pages will be discovered on Google's next crawl (typically within a few days)

Sitemaps don't update automatically. You need to regenerate and re-upload them when your site content changes significantly.

Regenerate Sitemaps When:

✓ Major product catalog changes:

• Adding 10+ new products at once
• Launching a new product category
• Removing discontinued products

✓ Site structure changes:

• Adding new custom pages (About Us, new landing pages)
• Reorganizing category structure
• Changing URL structure (enabling SEO URLs)

✓ Regular maintenance schedule:

• High-change stores: Monthly (if adding products weekly)
• Moderate-change stores: Quarterly (seasonal updates)
• Low-change stores: Annually or when making significant changes

You DON'T Need to Regenerate For:

• Adding 1-3 individual products (Google will find them through normal crawling)
• Updating product descriptions or prices
• Changing images
• Minor content edits to existing pages

Quick Regeneration Process

Once you've done the initial setup, future updates are faster:

1. Generate new sitemaps in Pulse Commerce (2 minutes)
2. Rename files if needed (30 seconds)
3. Upload via FTP, overwriting old files (1 minute)
4. Update timestamps in sitemap_index.xml (1 minute)
5. Done! Google will detect changes on next crawl (no resubmission needed)

Google Search Console Shows "Couldn't Fetch" Error

Cause: Google can't access your sitemap file.

Solutions:

• Verify the sitemap is accessible in your browser (Step 5)
• Check that you uploaded to /custompages/sitemaps/ folder (not root directory)
• Verify filename matches exactly what's referenced in sitemap_index.xml
• Check file permissions (should be readable by web server)
• Confirm your robots.txt file isn't blocking access to /custompages/

Sitemap Shows Wrong Number of URLs

Too many URLs:

• You may have used "Product (Child SKU's)" instead of "Product and Product Group (No Child SKU's)"
• Hidden or discontinued products may still be in the sitemap (hide them in Pulse Commerce, then regenerate)

Too few URLs:

• Products may be set to "Hidden" in Pulse Commerce
• Categories may be empty (no products assigned)
• Check that all products are marked as "Active"

URLs Have Parameters Instead of Clean URLs

Example of parameter URL: yoursite.com/mfg-subcat-item.asp?CID=301&scid=303

Example of clean URL: yoursite.com/product-name

Solution:

• Enable SEO-friendly URLs in your Pulse Commerce settings
• Regenerate sitemaps after enabling SEO URLs
• Parameter URLs still work, but clean URLs are better for SEO

Sitemap Index Timestamps Not Updating

Cause: You forgot to update the timestamps in sitemap_index.xml, or uploaded the old version.

Solution:

• Download sitemap_index.xml from your server
• Update the <lastmod> timestamps to current date/time
• Re-upload the file
• Verify by viewing the file in your browser

Google Shows More URLs Than Sitemap Contains

This is normal! Google discovers pages through:

• Your sitemap (what you submitted)
• Internal links on your site
• External links from other websites

Google may index pages not in your sitemap. This is fine and expected behavior.

Sitemap File Too Large (Over 50MB)

Cause: Very large catalogs (10,000+ products) with images can create huge sitemap files.

Solutions:

• Generate "Url only" version (without images) to reduce file size
• Use "Product and Product Group (No Child SKU's)" to reduce URL count
• Contact support if you need to split your product sitemap into multiple files

Google's limit is 50MB or 50,000 URLs per sitemap file.

Do I need to submit sitemaps to Bing and Yahoo separately?

No. Bing and Yahoo now use Google's standard XML sitemap format. Simply submit your sitemap_index.xml to Bing Webmaster Tools (which covers both Bing and Yahoo). The process is nearly identical to Google Search Console.

How long does it take for Google to index new pages after submitting a sitemap?

It varies:

• Sitemap processing: A few hours to 24 hours for Google to read your sitemap
• Actual indexing: Can take days to weeks depending on your site's crawl frequency and Google's crawl budget
• Speed it up: Request indexing for specific URLs using the URL Inspection tool in Search Console

Should I include my homepage in the sitemap?

It's optional. Google will discover your homepage automatically. However, including it doesn't hurt and can help specify its update frequency and priority.

Can I exclude specific products or pages from the sitemap?

Yes, but handle it in Pulse Commerce rather than editing the sitemap manually:

• Mark products as "Hidden" in Pulse Commerce
• They'll automatically be excluded from future sitemap generations
• The page will still be accessible if someone has the direct URL

What's the difference between a sitemap and robots.txt?

• Sitemap: Tells search engines what pages you WANT them to find and index
• Robots.txt: Tells search engines what pages you DON'T want them to crawl

They work together - use both for optimal SEO control.

Do sitemaps guarantee my pages will rank in search results?

No. Sitemaps help Google discover your pages, but they don't affect rankings. Rankings depend on content quality, relevance, backlinks, user experience, and many other factors.

Can I have multiple sitemap index files?

Technically yes, but for most Pulse Commerce stores, one sitemap_index.xml that references sitemap.xml and sitemap_products.xml is sufficient. Only very large sites (100,000+ pages) need multiple sitemap indexes.

Why does Google show fewer indexed pages than my sitemap has URLs?

Google may choose not to index all pages due to:

• Duplicate content issues
• Low-quality content
• Crawl budget limitations
• Pages blocked by robots.txt (check this)
• Pages with noindex tags

Check the "Coverage" report in Search Console to see why specific URLs aren't indexed.