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Best Strategy for Settings

This page provides recommended configurations for different store types and use cases.

For a New / Small Store (< 500 Products)

SettingRecommendedReason
Enable Extension✅ OnEssential
Product Sitemap✅ OnCore requirement
Category Sitemap✅ OnCore requirement
Manufacturer SitemapIf you have brandsAdds brand pages
Information Sitemap✅ OnCovers about, contact, policy pages
Products per Page1000Likely one sitemap file
Smart SEO ModeOff initially, On after first salesNeeds real sales data to be meaningful
File Cache (Sitemap)OptionalSmall stores rarely need it
AI Feed✅ OnFuture-proof your discoverability
IndexNow✅ OnBenefit from instant Bing indexing from day one

For a Medium Store (500–5000 Products)

SettingRecommendedReason
Products per Page2000–3000Balance between file count and size
Smart SEO Mode✅ OnEnough sales data to matter
Sitemap File Cache✅ OnSignificant server load reduction
Sitemap Cache Lifetime3600 (1 hour)Balances freshness with performance
AI Feed File Cache✅ OnAI crawlers may hit feed pages repeatedly
AI Feed Limit per Page1000Manageable file sizes
IndexNow Retry Limit5Default is fine
IndexNow Queue Retention30 daysDefault keeps the table manageable
Cron FrequencyEvery 5 minutesNear-real-time submission

For a Large Store (5000+ Products)

SettingRecommendedReason
Products per Page3000Maximum. Reduces total file count
Smart SEO Mode✅ OnCritical at this scale for crawl budget
Sitemap File Cache✅ OnMandatory — without it, generation is very slow
Sitemap Cache Lifetime14400–86400 (4–24 hrs)Large stores update less frequently per individual page
AI Feed Limit per Page500–1000Smaller pages load faster
AI Feed File Cache✅ OnEssential at this scale
IndexNow Cron FrequencyEvery 2–5 minutesHigh volume needs fast processing
Failure Rate Threshold0.5More aggressive auto-disable to catch issues early

Priority & Frequency Recommendations by Sitemap Type

Product Sitemap

  • Priority: 0.8–1.0 — Use Smart SEO Mode to let sales data set this automatically
  • Frequency: daily for stores with regular inventory updates; weekly for stable catalogs

Category Sitemap

  • Priority: 0.7–0.9 — Important navigation pages but typically secondary to top products
  • Frequency: weekly — categories change less often than products

Brand / Manufacturer Sitemap

  • Priority: 0.6–0.8
  • Frequency: monthly — brand pages rarely change

Information Pages

  • Priority: 0.3–0.5 — These are support/policy pages, not primary commercial pages
  • Frequency: monthly or yearly

Custom Links

  • Priority: Set individually. Landing pages: 0.8–1.0. Blog posts: 0.5–0.7
  • Frequency: Based on how often each page is updated

Complete Setup Checklist

Use this checklist when setting up the extension for the first time:

  • Install and activate the extension
  • Add .htaccess rules (use the admin panel button or add manually)
  • Enable all relevant sitemap types in the Sitemap tab
  • Enable Smart SEO Mode (especially with existing sales data)
  • Enable File Cache for both sitemaps and AI feed
  • Enable the AI Feed
  • Add AI feed index URL to robots.txt
  • Add AI feed index URL to Custom Links (optional but recommended)
  • Enable IndexNow
  • Generate and save the IndexNow API key
  • Generate and save the Cron Secret Key
  • Set up the cron job on your server
  • Click Validate Key to confirm the key file is accessible
  • Click Sync All to queue all existing URLs for initial IndexNow submission
  • Submit the sitemap index to Google Search Console
  • Submit the sitemap index to Bing Webmaster Tools
  • Monitor the IndexNow dashboard for success/failure rates over the next 24 hours
  • Check the Dashboard sitemap links panel to confirm all expected sitemaps are listed