# How do you design XML sitemaps for millions of URLs?

> Use sitemap indexes and split URL sets into manageable sitemap files according to the sitemap protocol limits.

Common segmentation:

`sitemap-index.xml
├── products-001.xml
├── products-002.xml
├── categories.xml
├── articles-001.xml
└── locations.xml
`
Segmenting by content type also improves diagnostics.

Monitor each sitemap separately in Search Console.

## Sources

- [Google Search Central — Build Sitemap](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap)
- [Sitemaps.org — Protocol](https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol.html)

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Answered by Abhinav Krishna (https://www.theseocentral.com/author/abhinav-krishna)
Source: https://www.theseocentral.com/technical-seo-faq/how-do-you-design-xml-sitemaps-for-millions-of-urls