How many URLs can one sitemap contain?

50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed per file. Larger sites split into multiple sitemaps referenced by a sitemap index file.

Does Google use changefreq and priority?

No, both are ignored. lastmod is used, but only while it stays accurate; Google disregards it site-wide when it detects false values.

Should redirects be in a sitemap?

No. A sitemap should list only canonical, indexable URLs that return 200. Redirected or noindexed entries waste crawl budget and dilute the signal the sitemap exists to send.

SEO.to / 06

XML sitemap checker

Put in a domain or a sitemap URL. The tool reads the file, counts the URLs, checks how many have a lastmod date, and flags anything that breaks the sitemap spec.

Fetched live. A bare domain works.

What should be in a sitemap

Maximum 50,000 URLs and 50MB uncompressed per file; split and index beyond that.
Only canonical, indexable, 200-status URLs. Redirects and noindexed pages in a sitemap waste crawl budget and blur signals.
lastmod that is true. Google has said it ignores lastmod site-wide once it catches a site lying about it.
Absolute URLs on the same host, in the http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 namespace.

What Google ignores

Google ignores changefreq and priority completely, so there is no point tuning them. Keeping lastmod accurate is the part that actually does something.

XML sitemap checker

What should be in a sitemap

What Google ignores

Next