Q: At launch, should I submit only the new sitemap or keep the old one too?
This is a clever tactic most people miss — and the answer is temporarily yes to both.
Short answer: submit the new sitemap, and briefly keep an old-URL sitemap to speed up redirect discovery.
Long answer:
Google recrawls migrated pages faster when it rediscovers the old URLs and hits your 301s. Keeping the old sitemap live for a few weeks feeds Google that exact list, accelerating signal transfer.
The new sitemap (only 200-status, canonical URLs) is what you keep permanently. The old one is a temporary booster — remove it after Google has processed the redirects, usually a few weeks to a couple of months.
Never leave redirecting URLs in your permanent sitemap; that's a quality signal you don't want long-term.
Next step: at launch, submit the new sitemap, add a dated reminder to retire the old-URL sitemap once GSC shows the redirects processed.
Migration Helpdesk
@MigrationHelpdesk
Q: At launch, should I submit only the new sitemap or keep the old one too?
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