Before you start
- A verified URL-prefix property in Search Console for the same hostname as your WordPress site.
Discover your sitemap URL
Try https://your-domain/wp-sitemap.xml in the browser — you should see XML listing sub-sitemaps.
If you use Yoast, Rank Math, or SEOPress, open the plugin’s sitemap screen and copy the exact URL they print (some use /sitemap_index.xml).
Open Search Console → Sitemaps
Select your verified property, then Sitemaps in the left navigation.
Paste only the sitemap index URL
Example: https://example.com/wp-sitemap.xml
Do not paste dozens of child sitemap URLs unless you have a deliberate reason — the index exists to group them.
Submit and read the status
Success means Google fetched the file at least once.
“Couldn’t fetch” often means robots.txt blocked Googlebot, HTTP auth, DNS points elsewhere, or the URL 404s — fix the underlying fetch error shown in URL Inspection.
Use Page indexing reports to fix excluded URLs
A valid sitemap does not force indexing — it suggests URLs for crawl.
Resolve soft-404, duplicate without canonical, and “crawled / currently not indexed” patterns by improving content and internal links.