Using Sitemap Indexes and Pagination

One of the features in All in One SEO is the use of indexes and pagination for the XML Sitemap and Video Sitemap.

Sitemap indexes are enabled by default in All in One SEO, and pagination is set to 1000 URLs per sitemap. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl a sitemap on large or slow sites and it avoids any problems with search engines timing out when requesting your sitemap.

Disabling Sitemap Indexes

If you have a small site with not much content, you may wish to disable sitemap indexes.

Enable Sitemap Indexes setting in All in One SEO

To do this for your XML Sitemap, click on Sitemaps in the All in One SEO menu. In the Sitemap Settings section, you’ll see Enable Sitemap Indexes. Set this to Disabled if you want to disable sitemap indexes.

To do this for your Video Sitemap, click on Sitemaps in the All in One SEO menu and then click on the Video Sitemap tab. In the Video Sitemap Settings section, you’ll see Enable Sitemap Indexes. Set this to Disabled if you want to disable sitemap indexes.

Setting the Number of URLs per Sitemap

If you want to change the number of URLs listed in each sitemap then you can do this using the Links Per Sitemap setting. This setting is only displayed when sitemap indexes are enabled.

Go to Sitemaps in the All in One SEO menu and you’ll see the Links Per Sitemap setting in the Sitemap Settings section.

Links Per Sitemap setting in All in One SEO

The default setting is 1000 URLs per sitemap. Once a sitemap reaches this limit a new page is generated. For example, if you have 2500 posts on your site, then your sitemap index will look like this:

Example sitemap index showing sitemap pagination

In the example above, post-sitemap1 and post-sitemap2 will each have 1000 URLs and post-sitemap3.xml will have 500 URLs.

You can change the number in the Links Per Sitemap field to lower the number of URLs in each sitemap. It’s advisable not to increase the number.

There is a Links Per Sitemap setting for the Video Sitemap as well which can be found under All in One SEO » Sitemaps » Video Sitemap » Video Sitemap Settings.

One of the features in All in One SEO is the use of indexes and pagination for the XML Sitemap and Video Sitemap.

Sitemap indexes are enabled by default in All in One SEO, and pagination is set to 1000 URLs per sitemap. This makes it easier for search engines to crawl a sitemap on large or slow sites and it avoids any problems with search engines timing out when requesting your sitemap.

Disabling Sitemap Indexes

If you have a small site with not much content, you may wish to disable sitemap indexes.

To do this for your XML Sitemap, click on XML Sitemap in the All in One SEO menu. You'll see the Enable Sitemap Indexes setting. Uncheck this setting if you want to disable sitemap indexes.

To do this for your Video Sitemap, click on Video Sitemap in the All in One SEO menu. You'll see the Enable Sitemap Indexes setting. Uncheck this setting if you want to disable sitemap indexes.

Setting the Number of URLs per Sitemap

If you want to change the number of URLs listed in each sitemap then you can do this using the the Maximum Posts Per Sitemap Page setting. This setting is only displayed when sitemap indexes are enabled.

Go to XML Sitemap in the All in One SEO menu and you'll see the Maximum Posts Per Sitemap Page setting.

The default setting is 1000 URLs per sitemap. Once a sitemap reaches this limit a new page is generated. For example, if you have 2500 posts on your site, then your sitemap index will looks like this:

Example sitemap index showing sitemap pagination

In the example above, post-sitemap1 and post-sitemap2 will each have 1000 URLs and post-sitemap3.xml will have 500 URLs. The newest content is added to the last sitemap, in this case post-sitemap3.

You can change the number in the Maximum Posts Per Sitemap Page field to lower the number of URLs in each sitemap. It's advisable not to increase the number.

There is a Maximum Posts Per Sitemap Page setting for the Video Sitemap as well which can be found under All in One SEO » Video Sitemap.