When and How to Use Multiple Sitemaps (Google Guidelines, Explained)

Large or complex sites hit limits fast: a single XML sitemap is capped at 50,000 URLs or 50 MB (uncompressed). Google expects you to split before you bloat, then tie everything together with a sitemap index. Here’s the when, how, and what-not-to-do—plus copy-paste XML examples you can deploy today.

When to use multiple sitemaps

Size pressure: Nearing 50k URLs or large file size; many teams split earlier (10–20k) for sanity.
Fresh vs. static: News/daily posts in a “fresh” sitemap; archives in slower-moving files.
Content types: Products vs. blog vs. video/image/news so each gets the right metadata.
Languages/regions: Separate per locale/country; optionally include hreflang inside entries.
Complex IA: Mirror directories/subdomains (e.g., /products/, /blog/, /forums/).
Date-based: Rolling recent sitemap + monthly/annual archives for publishers.

Sitemap format (copy-paste)

Rules: UTF-8 XML, max 50,000 URLs or 50 MB uncompressed per file (gzip allowed). Use absolute URLs. Don’t nest sitemap indexes.

Standard sitemap:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-02-20</lastmod>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/blog/how-to-use-sitemaps</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-02-18</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

Sitemap index:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-02-20</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-02-19</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

Optional namespaces on <urlset> (one combined example):

<urlset
  xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
  xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1"
  xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1"
  xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9"
  xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/page</loc>
    <image:image><image:loc>https://www.example.com/image.jpg</image:loc></image:image>
    <video:video>...</video:video>
    <news:news>...</news:news>
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://www.example.com/fr/page" />
  </url>
</urlset>

robots.txt discovery (optional):

Sitemap: https://www.example.com/sitemap_index.xml

How to organize multiple sitemaps

By type/section: products, categories, blog, UGC—mirrors how teams work.
By update frequency: fast-changing vs. static; refresh the hot file more often.
By directory/subdomain: keep each area self-contained (and easier to debug).
By language/region: one index per locale if big; submit per property in GSC.
By date: rolling “recent” sitemap + archives so files never bloat.

Implementation steps

Choose splits: Decide type/locale/freshness/date. Avoid over-fragmentation.
Generate clean URLs: Only canonical, indexable 200s; exclude parameters, 4xx/5xx, noindex, robots-blocked.
Set <lastmod> truthfully: Update when content meaningfully changes.
Publish & gzip: Host at the root when possible; use absolute URLs.
Submit in GSC: Prefer the sitemap index; optionally submit key child files for filters.
Monitor & fix: Watch Coverage/Performance by sitemap; fix “Couldn’t fetch”, bad XML, blocked URLs, or low-index sections.

Common pitfalls to avoid

Duplicate URLs across sitemaps (wastes space, muddles reporting).
Empty/stale files or fake <lastmod> churn.
Bad XML or missing namespaces for images/video/news.
Mixing non-indexable URLs (robots-blocked, noindex, non-canonical, 4xx/5xx, thin/soft-404).
Splitting into too many tiny files that you can’t maintain.

Quick checklist

Each file <50k URLs/<50 MB (gzip ok).
Absolute URLs; no nested indexes.
Only canonical, indexable, high-quality pages.
Clear grouping (type/locale/freshness/date) and consistent naming.
Maintain sitemap_index.xml, declare in robots.txt, and monitor per-sitemap stats in GSC.

Ready to keep Google on the freshest parts of your site? Use our visual sitemap generator to map sections, export XML, and stay inside Google’s limits without losing coverage.