Multiple Sitemaps

[PremioOscar]

Hello everyone!

I am in the process of updating the sitemap of an ecommerce website and I was thinking to upload three different sitemaps for different part (general/categories and subcategories/productgroups and products) of the site in order to keep them easy to update in the future.

Am I allowed to do so? would that be  a good idea?

Open to suggestion

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi there, though a single Sitemap.xml file can accommodate upto 50K URLs, it is not uncommon to go for multiple Sitemap.xml files for many purposes even with few hundreds on each.

You need to come up with a total of 4 Sitemap files and one among these would be an index sitemap that lists the other 3 Sitemap.xml files with URLs.

Here you go for more: http://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html

Best,

Devanur Rafi

[Milian]

Yes this is fine, from Google:

Whether you list all URLs in a single Sitemap or in multiple Sitemaps (in the same directory of different directories) is simply based on what's easiest for you to maintain. We treat the URLs equally for each of these methods of organization. More info can be found here multiple sitemaps in same directory 

[Milian]

You don't actually need to use a sitemap index file to use multiple sitemaps. You can list and submit them separately in robots.txt file and Google Web Master Tools.

[Devanur-Rafi]

Thanks for the response my friend. The problem without an index sitemap file is, when you have to resubmit multiple sitemap.xml files in webmaster tools account, you will have to resubmit each of them at a time. With an index sitemap file, you just need to submit the index file and it would take care of the job.

Here you go for more: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/71453?hl=en

Best,

Devanur Rafi

[PremioOscar]

Why should I put the sitemaps in the robots.txt?

I ve been looking around and some sites do and some don't, what's the reason for it?

[Devanur-Rafi]

Hi there, robots.txt file is one of the initial things that search engine spiders look at when they visit your website and a reference to the Sitemap.xml file in there will aid the search engine spider to quickly access to important URLs on your website then and there.

Best,

Devanur Rafi

[PremioOscar]

Oh I see, thank you very  much for your help, I haven't got much experience dealing with sitemaps.

So in order to put them in the robots.txt I will just have to put the link in it without anything else, is that right?

[Devanur-Rafi]

No problem my friend. You are most welcome. Yes, you just need to give the location of your sitemap.xml file as given below:

Sitemap: http://example.com/sitemap_location.xml

Here you go for more:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/183669?hl=en

[Milian]

it should be added to the end of your robots.txt and be proceeded by 'Sitemap', like:

Sitemap: http://www.exmaple.com/sitemap1.xml
Sitemap: http://www.exmaple.com/sitemap2.xml

[PremioOscar]

Thanks a lot guys!

I really appreciated your help, although all this information made me realize I have tons of work to do to update the sitemaps and I have to start creating new ones.

Just another question, after I create the new sitemaps I will also have to update the sitemap on the website, is that right?

[Devanur-Rafi]

If you are talking about the sitemap for the visitors on your website, if you think the newly added pages are going to be helpful to them, you can update your visitors sitemap accordingly. But the Sitemap.xml file is a supplemental indexing tool meant for the search engines to find the pages on your website easily and needs to be updated and resubmitted to search engines using webmaster tools accounts whenever new pages are added to your website.

Hope that helps.

Best,

Devanur Rafi

[PremioOscar]

Right! I think now I have the complete picture and I can crack on working on it!

Thank you very much indeed!

Best Regards

Oscar