Recently, my personal blog successfully passed the Sogou Webmaster Platform’s qualification review. I originally thought I could start using the Sitemap bulk submission feature, but I found out things were not that simple. This article records the entire process from passing the review, discovering the missing entry point, finding the official rules, and finally submitting my application.
1. Qualification Review Passed
On May 18, I submitted the site verification application. After waiting for about a week, when I logged into the Sogou Webmaster Platform on May 24, I saw the approval notification:
“You have completed website verification and passed the qualification review. You can now view and manage website data, and add website members.”
I was quite happy at the time, feeling that I was one step closer to bulk Sitemap submission. My blog has been running since 2012, for over 13 years now. The content is entirely focused on practical programming experience and study notes, with over 1,000 original articles published, and an average of about 3 updates per week over the past year. With this volume of content and update frequency, using Sitemap bulk submission is indeed the most efficient method.
2. Discovery That Sitemap Submission Is Not Supported
After entering the “Resource Inclusion” page, I carefully reviewed the tool description:
“The resource inclusion tool provides a link submission channel for webmasters to help the Sogou spider crawl your website. You can use this tool to submit links you want Sogou to include.”
Just as I was about to upload the Sitemap file, a sentence in the notes caught me off guard:
“Only page-corresponding link submissions are supported; sitemap format file submissions are not supported.”
It allows a maximum of 20 links per submission, one per line. This might be fine for a small site with only a few dozen articles, but my blog has over 1,000 articles and continues to update. This manual, link-by-link submission method is clearly unfeasible.
3. Finding the Official Rules: Sitemap Is Invitation-Only
I started searching through Sogou’s official help documentation and finally found the answer in the Sitemap submission guide on the Sogou Help Center:
Sogou officially states:
“Sitemap uses an invitation system. Sitemap permissions will only be opened when your website contains original or irreplaceable content, or cannot be correctly crawled by the Sogou spider.”
This means that the Sitemap bulk submission feature is not enabled by default for all sites that pass the qualification review. Instead, a site must be proactively identified by Sogou as having “high-quality content, high originality, or crawling difficulties” to obtain this permission.
At the same time, Sogou has clear regulations regarding the Sitemap file format:
“Submitting a sitemap only supports three file formats: txt, xml, and xml first-level index. A single file can contain up to 50,000 URLs and should be smaller than 10MB. The number of files must not exceed 100, meaning the total number of submitted sitemap URLs must not exceed 5,000,000.”
These specifications are sufficient to meet the needs of the vast majority of websites.
More importantly, the official rules provide a channel for proactive application:
“If your site meets the above conditions but does not have sitemap permissions, you can send an email to zzpt@tencent.com to apply.”
4. Confirming the Email Application Plan
On other pages of the Sogou Webmaster Platform, I also saw similar information:
“Sitemap is invitation-based. When the Sogou spider can fully and reasonably crawl your site, we will not enable sitemap permissions.”
This reveals an important logic: Sitemap is essentially a supplementary tool, and this permission only needs to be opened when the Sogou spider cannot efficiently crawl your website (for example, due to a large volume of content or a complex structure).
This perfectly matches my situation: an original programming blog with over 1,000 articles and continuous updates, fully meeting the official standard for “original or irreplaceable content.”
In addition, many webmasters have shared their experiences of successfully applying for Sitemap permissions via email, primarily owing to their long-term commitment to high-quality original content, which led Sogou to recognize them as “high-value, irreplaceable” content sources.
5. Submitting the Formal Application Email
After confirming the rules and application channel, I prepared a formal application email and sent it to zzpt@tencent.com.
The email content is as follows:
Email Subject: Application to Enable Sitemap Bulk Submission Permission — Site: www.shuijingwanwq.com
Recipient: zzpt@tencent.com
Email Body:
Dear Sogou Webmaster Platform Staff,
My website (www.shuijingwanwq.com) passed your “Verify Site” review on May 18, and I am now applying to enable the “Sitemap Submission” permission.
[Website Overview]
- Site Niche: Original technology blog; articles consist of practical programming experience and study notes.
- Operating Duration: Steadily operated for over 10 years.
- Content Volume: Currently features over 1,000 original technical articles.
- Update Frequency: Continuously maintaining high-quality content updates, averaging about 3 updates per week over the past year.
[Reason for Application]
Your rules explicitly state: “Sitemap permissions will only be opened when your website contains original or irreplaceable content, or cannot be correctly crawled by the Sogou spider.” Considering that the total number of articles on the website has exceeded 1,000 and I maintain a steady update habit, manual link-by-link submission is highly inefficient and time-consuming. I urgently need to use the Sitemap protocol to help the Sogou spider crawl and update content more comprehensively and efficiently, achieving optimal inclusion results.[Sitemap File Preparation]
The website is built on WordPress and has generated Sitemap files compliant with the sitemaps.org 0.9 protocol via a mainstream SEO plugin. They can be accessed at the following addresses:
- Sitemap URL: https://www.shuijingwanwq.com/wp-sitemap.xml
- Robots.txt URL: https://www.shuijingwanwq.com/robots.txt (Sitemap directive added according to standard)
I kindly request that you review and enable my Sitemap submission permission, allowing high-quality technical content to be included through a more efficient channel.
The email highlighted three core pieces of information: over 10 years of operating history, over 1,000 original articles, and continuous content updates. These are all key data points proving “original or irreplaceable content.”
6. Summary
Based on my experience so far, the logic for opening Sogou’s Sitemap feature can be summarized in the following points:
| Key Point | Description |
|---|---|
| Qualification Review | Submit site verification normally; upon approval, basic webmaster tool permissions are granted |
| Sitemap Permission | Requires an “invitation system” or proactive email application to obtain |
| Application Conditions | Website must meet the conditions of “original or irreplaceable content” or “crawling difficulties” |
| Application Channel | Send an email to zzpt@tencent.com |
I have now completed the email application and am waiting for a reply. If there are any developments later, I will continue to update this article and share the final result.
If your website has encountered a similar situation—where the content quality is solid and the volume is substantial, but you haven’t received a Sitemap invitation from Sogou—you might want to try applying proactively via email, including detailed information about your site and your Sitemap URL. The success rate shouldn’t be too low.