Magento XML Sitemap Configuration: How to Improve Indexation

What to include and exclude

Include: category pages, product pages (in-stock), CMS pages (about, contact, informational). Exclude: out-of-stock products with no restock date (wasting crawl budget on non-convertible pages), pagination pages (?p=2, ?p=3), filtered pages (?colour=red), cart, checkout and account pages. In Magento Admin, navigate to Stores > Configuration > Catalog > XML Sitemap to configure inclusion settings.

• Include: categories, in-stock products, CMS content pages
• Exclude: filtered and paginated URLs, cart/checkout, out-of-stock (unless seasonal)
• Set product sitemap to exclude 'not visible individually' variants

Sitemap splitting for large catalogues

Magento automatically splits sitemaps when they exceed 50,000 URLs or 10MB. It generates a sitemap index file that references individual sitemap files. Verify the sitemap index is submitting correctly in Google Search Console. For large Magento stores, the auto-split is reliable — the key risk is the cron job that regenerates the sitemap failing silently. Check the sitemap last-modified date in GSC weekly.

Frequency and priority settings

Magento allows you to set changefreq and priority values per page type. In practice, Google largely ignores priority values and uses its own crawl frequency assessment. Set changefreq to 'daily' for category pages (prices and stock change frequently) and 'weekly' for static CMS pages. This provides a hint to crawlers without being misleading.

Key takeaways

• Exclude filtered, paginated and out-of-stock (non-returning) pages from the Magento sitemap to protect crawl budget.
• Magento auto-splits sitemaps at 50,000 URLs. Verify the cron job is regenerating and GSC is receiving updates.
• Google ignores priority values. Set changefreq to 'daily' for categories and 'weekly' for static CMS pages.

Frequently asked questions

Does Magento need a different SEO approach to other platforms?

The principles are the same, but Magento has its own quirks. Layered navigation, multiple store views and default URL settings can create duplicate pages and crawl waste, so technical control matters more on Magento than on simpler platforms.

Where is TPR Media based?

TPR Media operates from Level 34, 1 Eagle Street, Brisbane City QLD 4000, serving clients across Brisbane and Australia-wide.

TPR Media explains Magento XML sitemap configuration for Australian retailers: inclusion and exclusion rules for crawl budget protection, automatic sitemap splitting at 50,000 URLs, cron job verification and Google Search Console submission.