sitemap index

to add or not to add sitemap index file to Webmaster Tools Google

[martinmartin]

Hi,
Wondering if to add or not to add a 'sitemap_index.xml" file to Webmaster Tools' Sitemaps area for Google. What should a Google Webmaster Tools Sitemaps page include and or not include?

When I put up all Sitemaps PLUS the sitemap_index,xml file, Google thinks we have double the amount of URLS submitted than we really have.

Does this make any sense? I haven't seen this addressed anywhere.

2) We have two users in that Webmster Tools account. My developer and I. Which one of us should post the Sitemaps?

3) We can't remove one last remaining Sitemap. Why? Just curious...

Thanks,

MARTINMARTIN

[goodroi]

personally i prefer as much control as possible so i would personally set-up the account and submit the sitemaps. what if you have to fire your developer, its better to not have them control your webmaster account.

[benacheson]

Always add a sitemap to Google, Bing and even Yahoo (while you still can).

Include every page you want users to see. It helps search engines crawl your site and can also highlight problems to you.

[martinmartin]

The question really is; should the Sitemap index file be added? There are two types of Sitemaps. The Sitemap with all the urls, and the one that lists all of the Sitemaps (the index file).

[benacheson]

A sitemap can contain up to 50,000 URLs.

There is no need for a sitemaps index file unless you have more than 50,000 URLs.

[google.com...]

I seriously doubt you do have more than 50k. But if you have more than that they you could indeed use a sitemap index file.

I would recommend against having such a vast number of URLs from an SEO point of view, unless you are an authority site, as it stretches Pagerank. Make sure you're using rel="canonical" too.

[martinmartin]

We are a digital music retail site. www.mtraks.com/ We have multiple 50k Sitemaps. What is an authority site? Do you mean like Amazon.com/music? We use rel=canonical. Thank you for your assistance.

[benacheson]

Yes, having seen your website I can confirm that you need a sitemap index. Each sitemap should have no more than 50k URLs.

Yes, by 'authority site' (or hub) I mean the likes of Amazon and Wikipedia, which can rank highly for a wide variety of keywords and themes.

[martinmartin]

Thanks very much. We've implemented this.

[PoonamSharma]

Sitemap is important to submit to google, is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers, sitemap can be divide into multiple if there are greater urls of your site.A Sitemap file can contain no more than 50,000 URLs and must be no larger than 10MB when uncompressed, If your Sitemap is larger than this, break it into several smaller Sitemaps.

[spiritparse]

Also remember that each XML sitemap file can at max be 10mb (you can actually sometimes cross that limit with 50k URLs in an XML sitemap file)