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August 18, 2005
Several of you have asked us, should I submit Sitemaps or Sitemap indexes for my site?
If you have a small site, you probably don't need to use a Sitemap index file—you can just
list all of your URLs in one Sitemap.
If you have a larger site, you may want or need to have multiple Sitemaps for your site. In that
case, you can make submitting and tracking easier by listing the Sitemaps in a
Sitemap index file.
You must use multiple Sitemaps for your site when:
You have more than 50,000 URLs to list. That's the maximum that one Sitemap can include.
A single Sitemap would be larger than 10MB, uncompressed. That's the maximum size for a Sitemap.
You may want to use multiple Sitemaps for other reasons, to make organization easier. For instance
if:
You want to store all of your archived URLs in one Sitemap and all of your URLs that change
frequently in another. This way, when you add new URLs to the Sitemap, you'll have a smaller and
more manageable file to work with.
You manage multiple sites that are in subfolders. You might want to create a Sitemap for each
site and then create a Sitemap index file that lists them in the root. Remember, this method
works only with subfolders. For example, this Sitemap index file:
You can also have an index of Sitemap index files. A Sitemap index file can be a maximum of 10MB
as well, so if you have a really large site, you may have to use this additional organization step
to keep the file sizes to a manageable level. We have a size limitation for Sitemaps and Sitemap
indexes so that when we download the files, we don't overwhelm your bandwidth.
Compressing your Sitemap index file
Speaking of being considerate of your bandwidth, if you can, you should compress your Sitemaps and
your Sitemap indexes using
gzip. If you're not
familiar with gzip, keep watching this blog. We're putting together some helpful instructions.
If you compress your Sitemap index file, you'll probably want to give it an .xml.gz
extension. If you don't compress your Sitemap index file, you'll probably want to give it an
.xml extension.
Submitting your Sitemap index file
So, you've got some individual Sitemaps that you've listed in a Sitemap index file. What now? Just
Sign into Google Sitemaps and submit the
Sitemap index file. You don't
need to submit individual Sitemaps that are included in the index. Once we've processed your
Sitemap index file, we'll let you know if we found errors in the Sitemap index itself, or in any
of the individual Sitemaps.
If you make changes to a Sitemap included in a Sitemap index file you've submitted, just change
the lastmod date for that Sitemap in your index. During this beta period, you can
resubmit the Sitemap index file.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle recommends using a Sitemap index file for websites with more than 50,000 URLs or Sitemaps exceeding 10MB.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSitemap index files help organize and manage large websites by grouping multiple Sitemaps, especially for archived URLs, frequently changing content, or websites with subfolders.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eFor extremely large websites, an index of Sitemap index files can be used, adhering to the 10MB size limit for each index file.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCompressing Sitemap index files using gzip is recommended to conserve bandwidth, typically using the .xml.gz extension.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eSubmitting the Sitemap index file through Google Sitemaps is sufficient; individual Sitemaps within the index need not be submitted separately.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Sitemaps can be submitted individually for small sites or within a Sitemap index file for larger ones. Multiple Sitemaps are required for over 50,000 URLs or if a single Sitemap exceeds 10MB. Organizing by content type or subfolders is also beneficial. Sitemap index files, which can also be indexed, have the same size limits and should be compressed using gzip. Only the index file needs submitting, and changes to individual Sitemaps require updating the index's `lastmod` date.\n"],null,["# Using Sitemap Index Files\n\nAugust 18, 2005\n| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). Check out our [sitemaps documentation](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/overview) for up-to-date information.\n\n\nSeveral of you have asked us, should I submit Sitemaps or Sitemap *indexes* for my site?\n\n\nIf you have a small site, you probably don't need to use a Sitemap index file---you can just\nlist all of your URLs in one Sitemap.\n\n\nIf you have a larger site, you may want or need to have multiple Sitemaps for your site. In that\ncase, you can make submitting and tracking easier by listing the Sitemaps in a\n[Sitemap index file.](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/large-sitemaps)\n\n\nYou must use multiple Sitemaps for your site when:\n\n- You have more than 50,000 URLs to list. That's the maximum that one Sitemap can include.\n- A single Sitemap would be larger than 10MB, uncompressed. That's the maximum size for a Sitemap.\n\n\nYou may want to use multiple Sitemaps for other reasons, to make organization easier. For instance\nif:\n\n- You want to store all of your archived URLs in one Sitemap and all of your URLs that change frequently in another. This way, when you add new URLs to the Sitemap, you'll have a smaller and more manageable file to work with.\n- You manage multiple sites that are in subfolders. You might want to create a Sitemap for each site and then create a Sitemap index file that lists them in the root. Remember, this method works only with subfolders. For example, this Sitemap index file: \n\n ```\n www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml\n ```\n\n could list the following Sitemaps: \n\n ```\n www.example.com/site1/sitemap.xml\n www.example.com/sitemap2/sitemap.xml\n ```\n\n However, that Sitemap index file could not list the following Sitemaps: \n\n ```\n site1.example.com/sitemap.xml\n site2.example.com/sitemap.xml\n ```\n\nCreating an index of Sitemap index files\n----------------------------------------\n\n\nYou can also have an index of Sitemap index files. A Sitemap index file can be a maximum of 10MB\nas well, so if you have a really large site, you may have to use this additional organization step\nto keep the file sizes to a manageable level. We have a size limitation for Sitemaps and Sitemap\nindexes so that when we download the files, we don't overwhelm your bandwidth.\n\nCompressing your Sitemap index file\n-----------------------------------\n\n\nSpeaking of being considerate of your bandwidth, if you can, you should compress your Sitemaps and\nyour Sitemap indexes using\n[gzip](https://www.google.com/search?q=gz+file). If you're not\nfamiliar with gzip, keep watching this blog. We're putting together some helpful instructions.\n\n\nIf you compress your Sitemap index file, you'll probably want to give it an `.xml.gz `\nextension. If you don't compress your Sitemap index file, you'll probably want to give it an\n`.xml `extension.\n\nSubmitting your Sitemap index file\n----------------------------------\n\n\nSo, you've got some individual Sitemaps that you've listed in a Sitemap index file. What now? Just\nSign into Google Sitemaps and submit the\n[Sitemap index file](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap). You don't\nneed to submit individual Sitemaps that are included in the index. Once we've processed your\nSitemap index file, we'll let you know if we found errors in the Sitemap index itself, or in any\nof the individual Sitemaps.\n\n\nIf you make changes to a Sitemap included in a Sitemap index file you've submitted, just change\nthe `lastmod` date for that Sitemap in your index. During this beta period, you can\nresubmit the Sitemap index file.\n\nPosted by [Vanessa Fox](https://www.vanessafox.com/)"]]
