Mistake: submit to GSC once, then never check it

Mistake: submit to GSC once, then never check it

Submission is not the finish line. Search Console keeps re-reading the file and accrues errors over time — a quietly broken generator can poison the report for weeks before you notice.

Fix checklist:
— ✅ Submit the index file URL in GSC (not each child sitemap)
— ✅ "Discovered URLs" count is within 5% of your real indexable page count
— Check the Sitemaps report weekly: status must read "Success", last-read date within your regeneration cadence
— ✅ Coverage "Submitted and indexed" vs "Submitted, not indexed" gap is shrinking, not growing

Definition of done: a recurring weekly task — open the Sitemaps report, confirm Success status, fresh read date, and discovered-URL count in band. Log the numbers so drift is visible across weeks.