Sitemap requirements at a glance
The format comes from the open sitemaps.org protocol, which Google and Yandex both follow. A sitemap does not force a search engine to index anything. It is a list of URLs you recommend, and the cleaner that list is, the less crawl time is wasted on pages that should never appear in search.
In practice, files fail on small things: a stray character in a URL, an outdated file left over from a CMS migration, or a sitemap uploaded to the wrong folder.
Required structure and tags
A sitemap opens with an XML declaration and a urlset root element that carries the protocol namespace. Each page sits in its own url block, and the only mandatory field inside it is loc, the full address.
Everything else is optional. The lastmod tag helps when it reflects a real content change, and does nothing useful if your generator stamps today's date on every page at each build. Google ignores changefreq and priority, so leaving them out is not an error. Dates follow the W3C Datetime format.
Size limits and sitemap index files
One file can hold up to 50,000 URLs and up to 50 MB uncompressed. Gzip makes transfer faster, but the limit applies to the unpacked file, so compression does not let you fit more pages.
Larger sites split the list into several files and tie them together with a sitemapindex file. Each sitemap entry in it holds the loc of a child file and, optionally, lastmod. An index cannot point to another index, so nesting stops at one level.
Splitting early is useful even far below the limit. A Tashkent online store, for example, can keep separate files for categories, product pages and blog posts. Search Console then shows which group is indexed poorly, and the cause is easier to trace.
Encoding and URL format
Save the file as UTF-8. Special characters in URLs must be replaced with XML entities: ampersand, apostrophe, quotation marks and the less-than and greater-than signs. An unescaped ampersand in a URL with parameters is one of the most common reasons a parser stops understanding the file.
Cyrillic letters and spaces in addresses need percent-encoding. That is one more reason to use Latin transliterated slugs: the sitemap stays cleaner, and links are easier to share in Telegram chats and Instagram bios.
- Absolute URLs only, with protocol and domain
- Protocol and domain match your preferred version: if the site runs on https without www, so does the sitemap
- One consistent trailing-slash style across all URLs
- Each URL listed once
- No URLs outside the file's own folder, and no other domains without verified ownership
Which pages belong in the file
A technically valid file can still be a bad one. Include only pages that should be found in search: status 200, no noindex, a canonical URL pointing to itself, and no redirect.
Leave out filter and sorting URLs, pagination, the cart, account pages and internal search results. Copies with UTM tags from ads belong outside the file too, otherwise you are offering the crawler several addresses for one page.
File location and Russian–Uzbek versions
A sitemap covers URLs in its own folder and below, so the main file goes in the site root, for example site.uz/sitemap.xml. A file inside /blog/ can only describe the blog. Reference the path with a Sitemap line in robots.txt and submit it in Search Console and Yandex Webmaster.
If your site runs in Russian and Uzbek, list both versions. You can express the relationship with link elements using rel alternate and hreflang: every version points to all the others and to itself. The matching namespace must be declared in the root element, or the file counts as invalid. Pick one place for language annotations, the sitemap or the page code, so you do not maintain two sources of truth.
Pre-submission checklist and next step
Any XML validator will catch syntax errors, while Search Console and Yandex Webmaster reports show processing problems. If a CMS plugin generates your sitemap, recheck it after each major update or settings change, because the format can break unnoticed.
A short checklist before you submit:
The markdev team handles SEO optimisation in Uzbekistan, including the technical side: sitemaps, robots.txt and indexing. If you want to find out what is wrong with your file, tell us about your task and we will take a look.
- Valid XML declaration and namespace
- A loc in every entry
- No more than 50,000 URLs and 50 MB per file
- UTF-8 with escaped special characters
- Absolute canonical URLs of the preferred domain version
- An index file with no nested indexes for large sites
- A Sitemap line in robots.txt and submission in webmaster tools
FAQ
Do I have to include changefreq and priority?
No. Only loc is required. Google does not use changefreq or priority, so you can skip them. Add lastmod only if the date matches a real change to the page.
How many URLs can one sitemap contain?
Up to 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. Larger sites split the list into several files and combine them with a sitemapindex file.
Should redirected or noindex pages be in a sitemap?
No. Include only canonical pages that return status 200 and should appear in search. Anything else adds noise and muddles your reports.
Where should sitemap.xml be placed?
In the site root, since a sitemap covers its own folder and everything below it. Point to it from robots.txt and submit it in your webmaster tools.
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