Thinkific

How do I get my Thinkific site indexed by Google?

Connect a custom domain, verify it in Google Search Console, and submit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml — Thinkific maintains it for your public pages and course landing pages. Gated course content stays out of the index, which is correct.

Sitemap location

https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

Where the Thinkific sitemap lives

Thinkific generates a sitemap for public site and course landing pages on a connected custom domain.

Why Thinkific pages don't get indexed

Course players are gated and excluded from the sitemap.
Landing page titles default to the course name.
The thinkific.com subdomain can't be verified as your own domain property.
Multiple courses on similar topics produce near-duplicate landing pages.
Meta descriptions are blank on new pages by default.

Step by step: getting your Thinkific site into Google

Connect a custom domain and publish.
Verify the domain in Google Search Console.
Submit https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.
Give each public page a distinct SEO title and description in its settings.
Differentiate landing pages for similar courses so they aren't near-duplicates.
Push new landing pages through the Indexing API at launch.

Thinkific indexing controls at a glance

Sitemap — https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml — Thinkific generates a sitemap for public site and course landing pages on a connected custom domain.
robots.txt — Managed by the platform. Thinkific manages robots.txt; per-crawler rules aren't exposed.
Rendering — Public pages are server-rendered HTML.
Hiding a page — Per page, in the page's SEO settings. Course players are gated and excluded automatically.
Custom head code — Site settings → Code & Analytics accepts head code, which is where JSON-LD goes.
llms.txt — No root file hosting.

Connect your own Search Console, point IndexerNow at your sitemap, and push new and updated URLs straight to Google's Indexing API and IndexNow — on your account, your quota, no plugin.

Get your pages indexed

Frequently asked

Where is the Thinkific sitemap?

At yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml on a connected custom domain, covering your public site and landing pages.

Why isn't my Thinkific course page on Google?

Check the page's SEO settings for the indexing control, confirm you're on a custom domain, and submit the URL directly rather than waiting for the sitemap to be recrawled.

Are Thinkific lessons indexed?

No. Lessons sit behind the course player's login and are excluded from crawling by design.

Why isn't my Thinkific course showing up in AI answers?

Being in Google's index doesn't put you in ChatGPT's answers — those run on Bing plus their own crawlers, and they quote pages built to be quoted. The companion guide covers what Thinkific lets you control.

Thinkific AI visibility guide →

Other platforms

Teachable

Connect a custom domain, verify it in Google Search Console, and submit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml — Teachable maintains it for your public pages. Course lessons stay out of the index because they're behind a login, so your ranking surface is the sales and about pages plus anything you publish elsewhere.

Kajabi

Connect a custom domain, verify it in Google Search Console, and submit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml — Kajabi maintains that sitemap for your public pages and blog. Course content behind the login won't be indexed, which is correct.

Podia

Connect a custom domain, verify it in Google Search Console, and submit yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml — Podia maintains it for your public storefront, product pages, and blog. Then write real titles and descriptions, because Podia leaves them blank by default.