Sitemap Index
A sitemap index is an XML file that references multiple sitemap files, allowing large websites to organize their URLs across several sitemaps while staying within the 50,000 URL per-sitemap protocol limit.
The sitemap protocol limits each sitemap file to 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed. Sites exceeding these limits need a sitemap index — a master file that lists all individual sitemaps. The index itself can reference up to 50,000 sitemaps, supporting up to 2.5 billion URLs.
Organize sitemaps logically: one for blog posts, one for product pages, one for glossary terms, etc. This makes it easier to monitor indexing by section in Google Search Console and identify which content types have indexing issues.
Next.js supports sitemap indexes via `app/sitemap.ts` returning an array of sitemap objects when using `generateSitemaps()`. For Indxel, programmatic SEO pages (glossary, use-cases, tools) each get their own sitemap for clear monitoring.
Example
// Next.js App Router — sitemap index with generateSitemaps
// app/sitemap.ts
import { MetadataRoute } from "next";
export async function generateSitemaps() {
return [{ id: 0 }, { id: 1 }, { id: 2 }];
}
export default function sitemap({
id,
}: {
id: number;
}): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
const baseUrl = "https://indxel.com";
// Return URLs for each sitemap segment
return [{ url: `${baseUrl}/page-${id}`, lastModified: new Date() }];
}Related terms
Sitemap XML
An XML sitemap is a file that lists URLs on your website along with optional metadata (last modified date, change frequency, priority) to help search engines discover and crawl your pages.
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap is a structured XML file that lists the URLs on your website, providing search engines with a roadmap for discovering and prioritizing content for crawling.
Robots.txt
Robots.txt is a plain text file at the root of a website that instructs search engine crawlers which URLs they are allowed or disallowed from accessing.
Indexation
Indexation is the process by which search engines discover, crawl, and store web pages in their database (index) so they can be returned in search results.
Stop shipping broken SEO
Indxel validates your metadata, guards your CI/CD pipeline, and monitors indexation — so you never miss an SEO issue again.