Avoid including URLs above 50,000 per sitemap file.
- Avoid including URLs above 50,000 per sitemap file1 cited source1 category
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Why this matters
XML sitemaps have a hard limit of 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed; exceeding these can cause engines to ignore the sitemap.
Hypothetical standard operating procedure
Adapt this example to your site, access, tools, and change process. It is our suggested procedure, informed by the sources below.
- Count the number of URLs per sitemap file.
- Split sitemaps logically once nearing 50,000 URLs.
- Compress sitemap files to keep under 50MB uncompressed.
- Create proper sitemap index to reference multiple sitemap files.
- Regularly monitor Search Console for sitemap processing errors.
Watch for
Overly large sitemap files may be rejected or only partially processed, harming indexing and crawl efficiency.
Definition of done
No sitemap file contains more than 50,000 URLs or exceeds 50MB uncompressed size.
Sources & attribution
Original checklist wording and example SOP by Best SEO Checklist, using source-grounded AI assistance. Editorial contact: Ted Kubaitis, @tedkubaitis on Teams. Check current source guidance before implementation.