Q: Our sitemap still listed old URLs after the move — was that slowing reindexing?

Q: Our sitemap still listed old URLs after the move — was that slowing reindexing?

Small thing, real drag. Good catch noticing it.

Short answer: yes — you're telling Google to crawl URLs that just redirect.

Long answer: after a migration, the sitemap still contained ~3,000 old-domain URLs that all 301-ed. Google kept crawling them, burning budget on redirects instead of indexing the new pages. New URLs sat in "Discovered – not indexed" for weeks.

We regenerated the sitemap with only final new URLs, removed the old one, and resubmitted. Within 12 days the "Discovered – not indexed" count fell from 1,900 to 300 as Google redirected crawl attention to live pages.

Next step: after any move, your sitemap should contain only 200-status final URLs — never the redirected originals. Regenerate it before you celebrate launch.