If you are experiencing a problem with your sitemap.xml file, it may be because the file size has exceeded 50 MB or contains more than 50,000 URLs. Large sitemap files can adversely affect the crawling of your website by search engines, which can cause them to overlook your website.
In this article, we will discuss how to fix this issue by dividing your sitemap into smaller files and creating a sitemap index file.
Dividing your sitemap into smaller files
If your sitemap.xml file is too large, it is recommended to divide it into smaller files. Google recommends keeping your sitemap file under 50 MB and 50,000 URLs.
To divide your sitemap into smaller files, you can use a tool like the XML Sitemap Generator. This tool allows you to create a sitemap index file that lists all your sitemap files.
You can then upload each sitemap file to your website's root directory and add a reference to each file in your sitemap index file. For example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap1.xml</loc>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap2.xml</loc>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap3.xml</loc>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>
Creating a sitemap index file
A sitemap index file is a file that contains a list of sitemap files for a website. A sitemap index file helps search engines find all of the sitemap files for a website and ensures that all of the pages on the website are crawled and indexed.
To create a sitemap index file, you can use a text editor like Notepad or TextEdit. Create a new file and save it as sitemap-index.xml in your website's root directory.
Add the following code to your sitemap index file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap1.xml</loc>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap2.xml</loc>
</sitemap>
<sitemap>
<loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap3.xml</loc>
</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>
Replace the URLs with the URLs of your sitemap files. Make sure that the URLs are absolute and not relative.
Updating your robots.txt file
After you have created your sitemap index file and uploaded your sitemap files, you need to update your robots.txt file to tell search engines where to find your sitemap index file.
Add the following code to your robots.txt file:
Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap-index.xml
Replace the URL with the URL of your sitemap index file.
Conclusion
In conclusion, if you are experiencing a problem with your sitemap.xml file being too large, you can divide it into smaller files and create a sitemap index file. This will ensure that all of the pages on your website are crawled and indexed by search engines.
Remember to keep your sitemap file under 50 MB and 50,000 URLs, and to specify the location of your new sitemap.xml files in your robots.txt file. For more details, see this Google article .
