Google’s John Mueller answered a query about what number of sitemaps to add, after which stated there are not any ensures that any of the URLs might be crawled straight away.
A member of the r/TechSEO neighborhood on Reddit requested if it’s sufficient to add the primary sitemap.xml file, which then hyperlinks to the extra granular sitemaps. What prompted the query was their concern over not too long ago altering their web site web page slugs (URL file names).
That individual requested:
“I submitted “sitemap.xml” to Google Search Console, is that this enough or do I additionally have to submit page-sitemap.xml and sitemap-misc.xml as separate entries for it to work?
I not too long ago modified my web site’s web page slugs, how lengthy will it take for Google Search Console to think about the sitemap”
Mueller responded that importing the sitemap index file (sitemap.xml) was sufficient and that Google would proceed from there. He additionally shared that it wasn’t essential to add the person granular sitemaps.
What was of particular curiosity had been his feedback indicating that importing sitemaps didn’t “assure” that each one the URLs could be crawled and that there is no such thing as a set time for when Googlebot would crawl the sitemap URLs. He additionally steered utilizing the Examine URL device.
He shared:
“You possibly can submit the person ones, however you don’t actually need to. Additionally, sitemaps don’t assure that all the pieces is recrawled instantly + there’s no particular time for recrawling. For particular person pages, I’d use the examine URL device and submit them (along with sitemaps).”
Is There Worth In Importing All Sitemaps?
In response to John Mueller, it’s sufficient to add the index sitemap file. Nevertheless, from our facet of the Search Console, I feel most individuals would agree that it’s higher to not go away it to probability that Google will or is not going to crawl a URL. For that purpose, SEOs could resolve it’s reassuring to go forward and add all sitemaps that include the modified URLs.
The URL Inspection device is a stable strategy as a result of it permits SEOs to request crawling for a selected URL. The draw back of the device is that you could solely request this for one URL at a time. Google’s URL Inspection device doesn’t assist bulk URL submissions for indexing.
See additionally: Bing Recommends lastmod Tags For AI Search Indexing
Featured Picture by Shutterstock/Denis OREA
