Search engines crawl websites daily to find out what they offer. They look through categories, products, and static pages however sites have a lot more content than you can imagine.
It is crucial to make it as easy as possible for these crawlers to find the most relevant pages and crawl them with ease.
You do this by submitting your store’s sitemap to them.
Shopify has a very efficient sitemap so it does most of the work for you. The only thing left is to create your webmaster accounts and to tell them where to find the sitemap.
In this guide, we will explain how to create your Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster accounts and how to submit your Shopify Store for indexing.
CREATE YOUR GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE ACCOUNT
Go to: https://search.google.com/search-console and click the START NOW button
Log in using your Gmail account
Click on Search Property and then Add Property
Select Property Type URL Prefix and copy/paste the URL
Open the HTML tag verification method and copy the code
Go to Shopify, Themes, Edit Code for the live theme and in the theme.liquid file PASTE the code right after the <head> line
Go back to the Google Search Console tab and click the Verify button
Go to Sitemaps and submit the sitemap.xml location
Voila! Google Search Console is now able to correctly read your Shopify store’s sitemap.
Start the Domain Property Setup
- Once you’re signed in, click the “Start now” button if you’re on the homepage.
- You’ll be taken to the GSC dashboard. On the left-hand side, click on the “Add property” dropdown menu.
- In the “Add Property” dialog box, you’ll be given two options:
- Domain: Covers all subdomains (including
www,non-www, and all protocols likehttps). - URL Prefix: Tracks a specific URL (like
https://www.example.com).
- Domain: Covers all subdomains (including
- Select “Domain” if you want to track everything related to your domain. If you just want a specific URL, choose URL Prefix. For this tutorial, we’ll use “Domain”.
Enter the Domain
- Enter your domain name in the Domain field (e.g.,
example.comwithoutwwworhttps://). - Click Continue.
Verify Domain Ownership
Google needs to verify that you own the domain. The recommended method is DNS verification. Here’s how to do it:
- DNS Record Verification:
- After clicking Continue, Google will provide you with a DNS TXT record to add to your domain’s DNS settings.
- Copy the TXT record that appears.
- Add the TXT Record to Your Domain:
- Log in to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.).
- Navigate to the DNS Settings or DNS Management section of your domain.
- Find the option to Add a new record.
- Select TXT Record as the record type.
- Paste the TXT record you copied from Google into the appropriate field.
- Save your changes.
- Wait for DNS Propagation:
-
- DNS changes can take a few minutes to a few hours to propagate.
Verify Ownership in GSC
- Once you’ve added the TXT record, go back to Google Search Console.
- Click Verify.
- If the DNS propagation is complete, Google will verify your ownership, and you’ll see a success message.
- If the verification fails, wait for some time and try again.
CREATE YOUR BING WEBMASTERS TOOLS ACCOUNT
Go to: https://www.bing.com/webmasters/about and click GET STARTED.
You will need to log in using your Microsoft account. If you don’t have one, you can use your Gmail address to create it.
Once logged in click on the search box and then the Add a site button https://prnt.sc/239syuu
Select Google Search Console and go through the wizard to connect Bing to Google then select and import the website.
Bing automatically picks up the sitemap from Google Search Console.
Easy right?
Select Google Search Console and go through the wizard to connect Bing to Google. Once complete you will be able to select and import the website.
Bing automatically picks up the sitemap from Google Search Console.
Easy right?
90% of all the businesses we encountered, big or small, did not have these 2 accounts set up and they are so important. If you set them up correctly you will get an extra advantage over your competitors.
If you need any help don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly or in the comments section.
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