Sitemap index file

A sitemap that points at other sitemaps. Sites past 50,000 addresses have to be split this way.

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A sitemap index is a sitemap of sitemaps: instead of <url> entries it contains <sitemap> entries, each pointing to another sitemap file. The protocol limits a single sitemap to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed, so any larger site has to split its list. Many CMSs and SEO plugins split it even for small sites, one file per content type (pages, posts, products, categories), which also makes problems easier to locate in Search Console.

How SiteScan shows it

When the sitemap found is an index, this row appears with the number of child sitemaps it lists. It is informational and always green: an index is a normal, correct structure. To keep the scan fast, only the first child sitemap is opened, so the URL count in the sitemap row describes that one file, not the whole site.

Good practice

• Submit only the index to Google Search Console and Bing; they will fetch the children themselves.
• Each child must be on the same host as the index and must itself be a valid sitemap, not another index (nesting is not allowed).
• Remove children that no longer exist: an index that points to missing files produces errors in Search Console.
• Use <lastmod> on each <sitemap> entry so crawlers know which files changed.

See also the sitemap row and robots.txt and sitemaps.