To verify your website property and submit the sitemap, kindly follow below steps:
1. kindly login to Google Search console by using your Gmail account on below link:
https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome
2. Please proceed with the 'URL Prefix' method as it allows multiple verification methods and you would be able to verify your property quickly.
3. Enter the URL of your website and click on the ‘Continue’ button.
4. In the verify ownership pop-up, kindly scroll down to ‘other verification methods’ and click on the method HTML tag.
5. Click on the copy button to copy this meta tag. This tag you need to add in the Zencommerce admin panel.
6. Once the meta tag is copied, login to your store admin panel and navigate to Extra and Integrations > Individual Integrations
7. Paste the code in the first block which reads as Page Header - <Head> and click on the save button.
8. Once the meta tag is pasted in the Zencommerce admin panel and saved the settings, go back to Google Search console and click on the Verify button.
9. Wait for the verification to complete. After successful verification, you would be allowed to access the property, kindly click on Go to Property.
10. Now the next step is to submit the sitemap in the Google search console, hence kindly click on the sitemap tab from the left menu.
11. Next to get the sitemap URL, kindly go back to Zencommerce admin panel and navigate to Settings > Advanced > SEO
12. Click on the Google Sitemap tab from the second left menu and copy the relative path that is without the store address.
13. Go to the search console panel and paste the copied path in the block where it is asked to submit the sitemap URL and click on the Submit button.
Note: The submitted sitemap status has to be successful, if you see status ‘couldn’t fetch’ then kindly reload the page which would fix the problem.
Once the sitemap is submitted, it would take anywhere between 1 – 3 months for your site to appear in search results.