How to Create a Sitemap in PrestaShop 8 & Add it to Google Search Console

If you want to improve webstore SEO and help search engines to understand your business, you need a clear sitemap. This article will give step-by-step instructions for creating a sitemap on PrestaShop 8. In addition, we put advice on how to generate a Prestashop Google sitemap file.

Take your time and get ready to optimize your online business!

Table of Contents:

How to Create a Sitemap in PrestaShop 8
How to Add the Sitemap to Google Search Console

Find the way to improve your online store Click the link and leave the request for an audit of your Prestashop store from the BelVG team Contact us

How to Create a Sitemap in PrestaShop 8

Search engines use a sitemap to swiftly index your webstore. It’s a crucial tool, an XML file that contains all the pages and products located at the site. When coming across this file, search engines use the list to effiсiently index each piece of content on the online store. Thus, product and specific pages are shown in the search results when a user googles something.

To create a sitemap in PrestaShop 8, you must install and configure a particular module. You can build a map of your online store and update it when needed.

We recommend searching for such add-ons on the official marketplace. There are more about 30 variants, starting from free-to-download and ending with the reasonably priced SEO Pack Premium, which costs about $500.

To illustrate the sitemap creation process, we’ll use the basic Google sitemap Module by PrestaShop, which can be downloaded for free from the marketplace. Before you install the chosen module, make sure that the folder name matches its name—in our case, it is sitemap. Otherwise, no installation will happen.

PrestaShop Module Development

Learn more on how to improve your online store with BelVG PrestaShop Module Development

Visit the page

Now, let’s move directly into the creation process.

The first step you need to follow is opening the admin panel and proceed to Improve -> Modules -> Module Manager -> tab Modules and type the keyword sitemap into the search bar:

Modules will only work for standard pages. If we put, for example, on a blog, then it is unlikely that it will have any extension for adding pages to the sitemap. As you can see, the configuration page has several settings:

At this stage, you should choose and mark those categories that won’t be included in the sitemap. We recommend you exclude the following:

• authorisation page
• shopping cart
• personal page
• order history
• pages with the same information displayed for each visitor at the same address
• service pages like 404.

You can generate the file after you’ve marked all the needed checkboxes. Click on the Generation Sitemap, and you’ll see the sitemap address. It will be something similar to https://your_personal_site.site/1_index_sitemap.xml. You should save this URL into your Google Search Console account and robots.txt. The module will also show you the file size and the number of indexed pages.

We recommend updating this file regularly to ensure search engines’ full indexation. If you prefer not to manually update the sitemap file, you can navigate to the page with the cron link. By creating a cron task using the provided URL, the server will automatically update the sitemap, relieving you of this task.

If you don’t know what a cron task is, consult your hosting provider for the details.

Prestashop Upgrade & Migration

Upgrade your online store and stand out among others with the BelVG Upgrade and Migration services

Visit the page

How to Add the Sitemap to Google Search Console

Following the above guide, you know how to generate the sitemap in Prestashop. What’s the next step? You must add the sitemap file to Google Search Console to inform the engine about your website. We’ve worked out a simple guide for you to follow and succeed with the aim.

Step 1. First of all, you should sign in to the Google Search Console. We use the URL prefix, which is just entering the site URL and clicking on the Continue button.

Step 2. You should download the HTML file and add it to your website. With the help of the FTP manager, you can use, for example, the file manager in your hoster panel. You need to add this html file to your site’s root directory.

If you click on the Verify button, you’ll get the following message:

Step 3. Log in your Google Search Console account and select the Sitemaps tab.

Step 4. As we’ve already generated sitemap files using the PrestaShop module, we can move directly to the admin panel of the site and check it.

Step 5. Finally, we can add Prestashop sitemap URLs in the Google Search Console.

In case everything was performed well, you will get the following result.

Wrapping it up

Congratulations! Now, Google can see and index your webstore much better.

If you have any questions on this topic or if something went wrong while you were following the instructions, feel free to leave comments below. We’re here to help you.