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Ryan Siddle, an SEO, asked John Mueller of Google if Google supports nested XML sitemap index files. The answer is no, Google does not support it. John said on Twitter "no, it's not supported -- sorry."
Here are those tweets:
Having the XML Sitemap Index of Sitemap Index URLs would enable new categories to be automatically discovered (some contain tens of millions of pages) without submitting the Sitemap Index files for each new category.
— Ryan Siddle (@ryansiddle) November 11, 2020
😣
— Ryan Siddle (@ryansiddle) November 11, 2020
But Google does have a help document on how to split up your large sitemap files.
It does not appear Google will be supporting this method any time soon either.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
Comments:
Jacques Bouchard
12/01/2020 07:20 pm
Really stupid question. I'm sure, but can anyone explain in simple terms what a nested XML sitemap indexed file is? Is this an example of one? https://yoast.com/sitemap_index.xml , or would the sitemap index be linking to other sitemap indexes to be considered "nested"?
Coffee
12/01/2020 10:07 pm
... or would the sitemap index be linking to other sitemap indexes to be considered "nested"? Yup!
Jacques Bouchard
12/01/2020 11:25 pm
Got it. Thanks so much! :-)
Dean Williams
12/02/2020 01:22 am
So why on earth does it work then and has done since FOREVER?? https://www.dropbox.com/s/cyn59cyet6otxg3/opera_IE5WPfy8Yv.png?dl=0
Dean Williams
12/02/2020 01:24 am
Ah I see, an index file linking to another index file...
Jacob Hurwith
12/02/2020 02:58 pm
So it basically an sitemap index file within a sitemap index file?
Colin McDermott
12/02/2020 03:00 pm
Yes