Split the sitemap into several files

Why it matters

A single sitemap may hold at most 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed, and search engines ignore what goes beyond that. A sitemap index file lets you split the list.

The fix

1. Split the URL list into several sitemap files, each within 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed, for example one per section or per month.
2. Publish a sitemap index that lists them, name only the index in robots.txt, and submit it in Google Search Console. An index itself can list up to 50,000 sitemaps.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-1.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-2.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

The examples use example.com. Replace it with your own domain.

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Related

• Reported by the robots.txt and sitemap check
• Add a robots.txt file
• Fix the server error on robots.txt
• Fix the syntax of robots.txt
• Shrink the robots.txt file
• Allow search engines in robots.txt
• Publish an XML sitemap
• List the sitemap in robots.txt
• Make the sitemap reachable
• Fix the sitemap format
• Put URLs into the sitemap
• Remove URLs from other domains in the sitemap