Sitemap files

Use the Sitemap file to inform Yandex about the current structure of the website. To learn more about the format and requirements, see Using the Sitemap file.

Point to the Sitemap file using a special directive in the robots.txt file or on the Sitemap files page in Yandex Webmaster:

Download the Sitemap

Go to the Sitemap files section.
Choose the site from the list.
Enter the file URL. For example, https://example.com/sitemap.xml.
Click the Add site button.

The file is put into the processing queue. The robot will download it within two weeks. Every added file, including the ones listed in the Sitemap index file, is handled by the robot separately.

Once the file is downloaded you will see one of the statuses:

Status	Description	Note
«OK»	The file is formed correctly and loaded into the robot's database.	The date of the last download is displayed next to the file. Indexed pages appear in the search results within two weeks.
“Redirect”	The URL redirects to another address.	Remove the redirect and inform the robot about the update
“Error”	File is formed incorrectly.	Click the Error link to view the details. Edit the file and inform the robot about the update
“Not indexed”	When the robot tries to download the `Sitemap` file, the server returns HTTP status other than 200.	Check if the file is available to the robot. To do this, use the Server response check tool. Specify the full path to the file. If the file is unavailable, contact the site or the hosting server administrator. If the file is available, notify the robot about the update.
“Not indexed”	The access to the file is denied in `robots.txt` with the Disallow directive.	Allow access to `Sitemap` and inform the robot about the update

Update Sitemap

If you have updated the Sitemap file added to Yandex Webmaster, there is no need to delete it and upload it again. The indexing bot regularly checks the file for updates and errors.

To speed up the file indexing, click the icon. If you use the Sitemap index file you can launch the processing of each file listed in it. The robot will download the data within two weeks. You can use this function up to 10 times for each host.

When you run out of all attempts, you will be able to try again 30 days after the first try. The exact date is shown in Yandex Webmaster.

Delete the Sitemap

Files added on the Sitemap files page can be removed from Yandex Webmaster:

Choose the file from the list.
Click the icon next to the file.

If the Sitemap directive was added in the robots.txt file, delete it. After you make the changes, the information about your Sitemap will disappear from the indexing bot's database and from Yandex Webmaster within a few weeks.

Questions and answers

How do I set up a Sitemap for a large site?

The Sitemap usually includes all significant site pages. If the site has many pages, you can delete the pages known to Yandex from Sitemap and add only new ones or frequently updated ones to the file.

If you use the Sitemap index file mark the frequently updated Sitemap files with the lastmod tag.

To find out which site pages Yandex already recognizes, go to Indexing → Crawl statistics in Yandex Webmaster.

Sitemap is displayed in the service as an excluded page with the “Invalid document format” status

The Sitemap file (and other XML files) are displayed as excluded pages. This is, however, only for information purposes and doesn't affect the site indexing or the Sitemap processing.

The Sitemap file can be displayed in a group of excluded pages if the robot tried to index it as a regular page. Despite this, the Sitemap files don't participate in the search.

The “Unknown tag” error occurred while processing Sitemap

The Sitemap file may contain only certain XML elements. If Yandex Webmaster finds other elements in the file (for example, a reference to the mobile version), it displays the "Unknown tag" error. The robot ignores unsupported elements when processing Sitemap and takes into account the data from the supported elements. Therefore, you don't need to change the Sitemap file.

If the file content is changed, the information in Yandex Webmaster is updated within two weeks.

The Sitemap file has the “Not indexed” status

The Sitemap file may be not indexed for several reasons:

The robot crawled the file Sitemap recently and didn't process it yet. Wait for two weeks. If you use the indexing file Sitemap with multiple files, their processing may take longer than a single Sitemap file.
The site was previously unavailable for the indexing robot. You need to wait for the next site visit by the robot.
Access to Sitemap is prohibited in the robots.txt file. The server returns an HTTP code other than 200 when the robot tries accessing Sitemap. Check if the file is available to the robot. To do this, use the Server response check tool. Specify the full path to the file.

If there is an access problem, contact the administrator of the site or the server where it is located. If the file is compiled correctly, it will be re-processed within two weeks from the last request by the robot. You can check the file using the Sitemap validator tool.

The Sitemap file is in the “Document contains no text” status

This status is displayed in the Server response check tool and notifies that the robot can't index the file as a regular site page and include its contents in search results. This status doesn't affect the Sitemap processing. To check for Sitemap correctness, use the webmaster tool Sitemap validator tool in Yandex Webmaster.

The Sitemap file has the status “URL has been excluded from indexing with the "noindex" tag”

This status is displayed in the Server response check tool and reports that the file is closed for indexing. As a rule, the prohibition is written in the HTTP header X-Robots-Tag. The directive prohibits a file from appearing in search results, but doesn't affect the processing of the Sitemap content. To check for Sitemap correctness, use the webmaster tool Sitemap validator tool in Yandex Webmaster.

Sitemap isn't processed

Usually, the Sitemap file is processed by the robot within two weeks of adding it to Yandex Webmaster. If this doesn't happen, check:

That the Sitemap belongs to the website for which you added it in Yandex Webmaster. Make sure that the site address matches, including the protocol (HTTP/HTTPS) and the www prefix (if it is included).
The server response to the Sitemap request. If access to Sitemap is prohibited in the robots.txt file or an HTTP code other than 200 is returned when the robot tries accessing it, the file will not be processed by the robot. If the check displays “Forbidden by the noindex” meta tag, this doesn't indicate an error. The noindex meta tag prevents the file from being included in the search database, but doesn't prevent the robot from processing its contents.
The validity of the file using the Sitemap validator tool. Correct the mistakes if they are found.

Sitemap is compiled correctly and available for the robot, but it isn't processed for more than two weeks

What is the maximum number of characters per URL in Sitemap?

The total character limit is 2048. 1024 Characters are intended for the site’s domain name, for example, https://site.com. The remaining 1024 characters are intended for the path to internal pages of the site, i.e. the characters that follow the domain name, for example, /page_1/page_2/...

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