What belongs in it
The test is simple: would you be pleased to see this page in search results. If yes, it belongs. If no, it does not.
That rules out a surprising amount of what generators emit by default. Tag and category archives that duplicate your content, paginated listings, internal search results, print variants, thank-you pages, and anything carrying a noindex tag.
That last one matters most. A page with noindex in a sitemap is a direct contradiction: you are asking crawlers to consider a page you have told them to ignore.
- Include: pages you want people to find in search
- Exclude: anything marked noindex
- Exclude: thank-you and confirmation pages
- Exclude: internal search results and paginated listings
- Exclude: URLs with tracking parameters
The hard limits
Google's documentation states that all formats limit a single sitemap to 50MB uncompressed or 50,000 URLs, whichever you hit first.
Gzip does not help, because the ceiling is on the uncompressed size. Long URLs, or sitemaps carrying image and video extensions, can reach 50MB well before 50,000 entries.
Past either limit, split the file and reference the parts from a sitemap index. Splitting by content type rather than arbitrarily is worth the small extra effort, because it turns Search Console reporting into something diagnostic.
Comparing the count to reality
The count is most useful as a comparison rather than a number in isolation.
If the sitemap lists far more URLs than you believe you have pages, something is publishing content you did not intend. Archives, parameter URLs, or old content are the usual culprits.
If it lists far fewer, something is filtering pages out. Usually a plugin exclusion setting or noindex tags applied more broadly than intended.
And if the count roughly matches but your indexed count in Search Console is much lower, the sitemap is fine and the question is about the pages themselves.
Common questions
What is the maximum number of URLs in a sitemap?+
50,000, or 50MB uncompressed, whichever comes first. Google states these limits apply to all sitemap formats, and compression does not raise the size ceiling.
Should every page be in my sitemap?+
Every page you want indexed. Exclude anything with a noindex tag, thank-you pages, internal search results, paginated listings and parameter URLs.
Can a noindex page be in a sitemap?+
It can, but it should not be. It is a direct contradiction: asking crawlers to consider a page you have told them to ignore.
My sitemap has far more URLs than I expected. Why?+
Usually tag or category archives, paginated listings, or parameter URLs being published automatically. Worth checking your generator's settings, since most of those do not belong in a sitemap.
Sources