A lot of people have asked me about the size limitations for Google sitemaps, or any sitemap really. If your xml sitemap exceeds 50K links or 10 MB in size, I would split it off into multiple xml sitemaps. Either that or break it into multiple html sitemaps linked from an index. Matt Cutts states that both are great and that html sitemaps actuall are better because your visitors can browse through them.

If you need to generate an xml sitemap fast, download Site Map Builder .Net for free. Opens in new window.

To use multiple xml sitemaps you just need to break up your sitemap into chunks under 10 MB in size and list them on an index xml sitemap like the example below. I recommend using Edit Pad Pro.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
	<sitemap>
		<loc>http://example.com/sitemap1.xml.gz</loc>
		<lastmod>2011-03-17</lastmod>
	</sitemap>
	<sitemap>
		<loc>http://example.com/sitemap2.xml.gz</loc>
		<lastmod>2011-03-17</lastmod>
	</sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

It is just that easy. You can always compress them with GZIP but you don’t have to.

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