Changing sitemaps in console

[Fubra]

Hi there,

Does anyone have any experience submitting a completely new sitemap structure - including URLs - to google console?

We've changed our sitemap plug in, so rather than /sitemap-index.xml, our main sitemap home is /sitemap.xml (as an example).

Is it better to 410 the old ones or 301 redirect them to the new sitemaps? If 301, what do we do about sitemaps that don't completely correlate - what was divided into item1.xml, item2.xml is now by date so items-from-2015.xml, items-from-2016.xml and so on.

On a related note, am I right in thinking that there's no longer a "delete/ remove sitemap" option on console? In which case, what happens to the old ones which will now 404?

Thanks anyone for any insight you may have

[GastonRiera]

Hello Fubra,

First of all, there is no way to "delete" a sitemap in search console. Making the old one as 404 and adding the new sitemap is just enough. Dont worry about it.

Secondly, just add the new sitemap to search console and analyze how search console responds. The structure you are refering to is more or less a cascade of sitemaps. If you have an "index sitemap", this would be the one in the root: domain.com/sitemap.xml (or what ever name it has) just give that to search console.

Hope it helps.
Best luck.
GR.

[Fubra]

Thanks Gaston.

Have discovered the check-box and delete option on console so thankfully i have managed to delete the old ones.

Amended the new ones as you recommended. Thanks for your advice, we'll keep an eye on the results to see what happens now!