Every Shopify store gets an XML sitemap that Shopify builds and updates for you. It lists the pages you want search engines to find, and it is one of the first things worth checking in any Shopify SEO review. Most store owners never look at it. That is fine until Search Console shows an error, or pages that should rank never get indexed.
This guide covers where your Shopify sitemap lives, what it includes, how to submit it to Google Search Console, how to fix the common errors, and what to check inside it.
What is my Shopify sitemap URL?
Your sitemap sits at the root of your primary domain. Add /sitemap.xml to the end of your domain.
yourstore.com/sitemap.xml
Use your own domain, not the myshopify.com address. If your store is password protected, the sitemap is not accessible. Search engines will only see it once the password page is removed.
How the Shopify sitemap is structured
The main file is a sitemap index. It does not list pages itself. It points to child sitemaps, one for each type of content.
| Child sitemap | What it lists |
|---|---|
| sitemap_products_1.xml | Product pages and their images |
| sitemap_collections_1.xml | Collection pages |
| sitemap_pages_1.xml | Standard pages such as About, Contact or Shipping |
| sitemap_blogs_1.xml | Blog posts |
Large stores have more than one file per type. Shopify splits each child sitemap at 5,000 URLs, so a store with 12,000 products has three product sitemaps.
Sitemaps for stores selling in more than one country
If you use Shopify Markets with a separate domain, subdomain or subfolder for each market, the sitemap includes those market URLs too. Each URL carries hreflang annotations that tell search engines which version suits which country. Markets that share your main domain without their own subfolder do not get separate URLs. If you are planning a multi-country setup, the international SEO guide covers the structure choices in more detail.
What the Shopify sitemap includes and leaves out
| Included | Left out |
|---|---|
| Published products and their images | Draft and unpublished products, collections and pages |
| Published collections | Items not available on the Online Store sales channel |
| Published pages | The /collections/all page |
| Published blog posts | Anything hidden with the seo.hidden metafield |
| Market URLs with hreflang (where set up) | Cart, checkout and customer account pages |
The sitemap updates when you add, edit or remove something. You do not need to rebuild it.
One thing it does not do is judge quality. A published collection with no products in it stays in the sitemap. So does a test page someone forgot to unpublish. The sitemap lists what is live, not what deserves to be found.
Is it possible to edit a Shopify sitemap?
Not directly. Shopify does not let you edit the file or upload a custom sitemap in its place. You control the sitemap through what you publish.
To remove a page from the sitemap, unpublish it, delete it and redirect the URL, or hide it with the seo.hidden metafield.
The seo.hidden metafield is the option for pages that need to stay live for customers but should not appear in search. A thank-you page or a wholesale price list are common examples. Create a metafield with the namespace and key seo.hidden, set the type to integer, and give it a value of 1 on the page you want hidden. Shopify then adds a noindex tag, removes the page from the sitemap and removes it from your store’s own search results.
Do not block the page in robots.txt instead. If Google is blocked from a page, it is not able to read the noindex tag on it. The URL sometimes stays in search results as a result.
Sitemap apps add features such as HTML sitemaps for shoppers. Before installing one, check what problem it solves. For most stores, the built-in XML sitemap does the job.
How to submit your Shopify sitemap to Google Search Console
Setting up Google Search Console for your Shopify store takes a few minutes.
- Add a property for your primary domain. A Domain property covers every version of your site. A URL-prefix property also works if it matches your primary domain exactly. Do not add the myshopify.com address.
- Verify ownership. A Domain property needs a DNS record added at your domain provider. A URL-prefix property also accepts an HTML tag added to your theme.
- Open Sitemaps in the left-hand menu.
- Enter sitemap.xml in the field and submit.
- Check the status. A “Success” status with a count of discovered pages means Google has read it.
Submit the index file only. Google finds the child sitemaps from it.
Submission is a one-off task. Shopify keeps the file updated, and Google rechecks it on its own schedule. Resubmitting every week does not speed anything up.
For Bing, add your site in Bing Webmaster Tools and submit the same sitemap URL. Bing also lets you import sites you have already verified in Search Console.
How to fix Shopify sitemap errors in Search Console
“Couldn’t fetch”
This often appears straight after submission. It is a known Search Console issue and often clears within a few days without any change on your side.
If it does not clear, check that:
- the sitemap opens in your browser at your own domain
- the Search Console property is your primary domain, not the myshopify.com address
- the store is not password protected
If all three are fine and the error is still there after a week, remove the sitemap in Search Console and submit it again. You are also able to run the sitemap URL through the URL Inspection tool’s live test to see whether Google reaches it.
“Sitemap could not be read”
The causes and checks are the same as “Couldn’t fetch”. Start with the three checks above.
HTTP error on sitemap_collections_1.xml
Search Console sometimes reports a general HTTP error against one child sitemap, often sitemap_collections_1.xml. There is no confirmed single cause. In many reported cases it clears within a day.
If it stays:
- open the child sitemap in your browser and confirm it loads
- check for apps that block bots or block traffic from certain countries, since Googlebot crawls mostly from the United States
- contact Shopify support with a screenshot of the error if it continues past a few days
What to check inside your Shopify sitemap
A sitemap that loads without errors still sends the wrong signals if the wrong pages are in it. These are the three checks worth doing.
Pages that should not be there
- Empty collections. A published collection with no products stays in the sitemap. Search engines find a page with nothing on it. If you have many of these, read Shopify collection page SEO for how to decide which to keep.
- Test and duplicate pages. Pages with handles such as test-page or copy-of-about that were never unpublished.
- Old campaign pages. Landing pages from past sales that no longer serve a purpose.
- Collections competing for the same term. Several collections for the same product type split your signals. Keyword cannibalisation explains how to spot and fix this.
The fix is to unpublish, merge and redirect, or hide the page with seo.hidden.
Pages that are missing
If a product is live on your store but missing from the sitemap, check that it is available on the Online Store sales channel. Compare the number of active products in your admin with the number of URLs in your product sitemaps. A large gap is worth investigating.
Broken or outdated URLs
Shopify’s own sitemap rarely lists broken URLs. Problems usually come from custom setups, third-party apps or migrations from another platform.
On one ecommerce site I reviewed, the sitemap for a regional section listed more than 20 URLs that returned 404 errors. The working versions of those same pages were not in the sitemap at all. Search engines were being sent to dead pages and not told about the live ones.
If you have moved to Shopify from another platform, check this as part of your site migration checklist.
To see how Google treats the URLs in your sitemap, open the Page indexing report in Search Console and filter it to your submitted sitemap. It shows which submitted pages are indexed and why the others are not.
Ecommerce sitemap basics for any platform
The same principles apply whether your store runs on Shopify or another platform.
- List only pages that load, are indexable and are the main version of that page.
- Leave out filtered URLs, sort orders, internal search results, cart and account pages.
- Keep the file updated automatically as products change.
- Split large catalogues into several files. A single sitemap file has a limit of 50,000 URLs or 50MB.
A sitemap helps search engines discover pages. It does not make them rank. Internal links do far more of that work, which is covered in ecommerce site structure and internal linking.
The short version
Your Shopify sitemap is at yourstore.com/sitemap.xml. Shopify builds and updates it for you. Submit it once in Google Search Console using your primary domain. Most sitemap errors clear on their own within days. The checks that matter are whether the right pages are in it, and whether pages that should be there are missing.
If you are not sure what your sitemap is telling search engines, request an SEO audit. It is part of the technical SEO checks I run on every store.
Frequently asked questions
Does Shopify create a sitemap automatically?
Yes. Every Shopify store has an XML sitemap at /sitemap.xml on its primary domain. Shopify generates it and updates it as you add, change or remove products, collections, pages and blog posts.
What is my Shopify sitemap URL?
It is your primary domain followed by /sitemap.xml, for example yourstore.com/sitemap.xml. Use your own domain rather than the myshopify.com address.
Do I need to submit my Shopify sitemap to Google?
It is not essential, since Shopify lists the sitemap in your robots.txt file and Google finds it there. Submitting it in Search Console is still worth doing because it gives you reporting on which submitted pages are indexed.
How do I remove a page from my Shopify sitemap?
Unpublish the page, delete it and redirect the URL, or hide it with the seo.hidden metafield. The metafield keeps the page live for customers while removing it from the sitemap and adding a noindex tag.
How do I fix sitemap errors on Shopify?
Check that the sitemap opens in your browser, that your Search Console property uses your primary domain, and that the store is not password protected. Many errors, including “Couldn’t fetch” and HTTP errors on sitemap_collections_1.xml, clear within a few days. If they continue, resubmit the sitemap and check for apps that block bots.
Does a sitemap help my Shopify store rank?
Not directly. A sitemap helps search engines find your pages. Rankings depend on the content of those pages, internal links and the signals pointing to them. If you are weighing up the platform itself, read is Shopify good for SEO.
Aashish Maharjan is an SEO specialist focused on ecommerce and international organic growth across global markets. Learn more about my work or request an SEO audit.