Case study: splitting one giant sitemap into 50 sped up discovery
Setup: A 480k-URL catalog had a single 50MB gzipped sitemap. We split it into 50 themed sitemaps under a sitemap index and added lastmod dates that were actually accurate.
What it did well:
— Google's 'Discovered – currently not indexed' bucket shrank 22% in a month as crawlers prioritized recently-changed shards
— Accurate lastmod meant Google re-crawled only the 3 sitemaps that changed daily
Where it fell short:
— Faked or sloppy lastmod would've backfired — Google distrusts sitemaps that lie
— No effect on Discovered-not-indexed pages that were simply thin; structure can't save weak content
Verdict: 4/5. Sitemap hygiene is unglamorous but measurably helps discovery at scale.
Best for: catalogs over ~50k URLs. Not for: small sites where one sitemap is plenty.
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Case study: splitting one giant sitemap into 50 sped up discovery
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