{"id":14740,"date":"2026-02-19T22:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:06:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.huntbee.com\/resources\/docs\/seo-xml-sitemap-generator-pro\/best-strategy-for-settings\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T13:33:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T08:03:09","slug":"best-strategy-for-settings","status":"publish","type":"docs","link":"https:\/\/www.huntbee.com\/resources\/docs\/seo-xml-sitemap-generator-pro\/best-strategy-for-settings\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Strategy for Settings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This page provides recommended configurations for different store types and use cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For a New \/ Small Store (&lt; 500 Products)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Setting<\/th><th>Recommended<\/th><th>Reason<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Enable Extension<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Essential<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Product Sitemap<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Core requirement<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Category Sitemap<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Core requirement<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Manufacturer Sitemap<\/td><td>If you have brands<\/td><td>Adds brand pages<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Information Sitemap<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Covers about, contact, policy pages<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Products per Page<\/td><td>1000<\/td><td>Likely one sitemap file<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Smart SEO Mode<\/td><td>Off initially, On after first sales<\/td><td>Needs real sales data to be meaningful<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>File Cache (Sitemap)<\/td><td>Optional<\/td><td>Small stores rarely need it<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>AI Feed<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Future-proof your discoverability<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>IndexNow<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Benefit from instant Bing indexing from day one<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For a Medium Store (500\u20135000 Products)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Setting<\/th><th>Recommended<\/th><th>Reason<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Products per Page<\/td><td>2000\u20133000<\/td><td>Balance between file count and size<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Smart SEO Mode<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Enough sales data to matter<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Sitemap File Cache<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Significant server load reduction<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Sitemap Cache Lifetime<\/td><td>3600 (1 hour)<\/td><td>Balances freshness with performance<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>AI Feed File Cache<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>AI crawlers may hit feed pages repeatedly<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>AI Feed Limit per Page<\/td><td>1000<\/td><td>Manageable file sizes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>IndexNow Retry Limit<\/td><td>5<\/td><td>Default is fine<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>IndexNow Queue Retention<\/td><td>30 days<\/td><td>Default keeps the table manageable<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Cron Frequency<\/td><td>Every 5 minutes<\/td><td>Near-real-time submission<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">For a Large Store (5000+ Products)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Setting<\/th><th>Recommended<\/th><th>Reason<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Products per Page<\/td><td>3000<\/td><td>Maximum. Reduces total file count<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Smart SEO Mode<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Critical at this scale for crawl budget<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Sitemap File Cache<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Mandatory \u2014 without it, generation is very slow<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Sitemap Cache Lifetime<\/td><td>14400\u201386400 (4\u201324 hrs)<\/td><td>Large stores update less frequently per individual page<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>AI Feed Limit per Page<\/td><td>500\u20131000<\/td><td>Smaller pages load faster<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>AI Feed File Cache<\/td><td>\u2705 On<\/td><td>Essential at this scale<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>IndexNow Cron Frequency<\/td><td>Every 2\u20135 minutes<\/td><td>High volume needs fast processing<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Failure Rate Threshold<\/td><td>0.5<\/td><td>More aggressive auto-disable to catch issues early<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Priority &amp; Frequency Recommendations by Sitemap Type<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Product Sitemap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Priority:<\/strong> 0.8\u20131.0 \u2014 Use Smart SEO Mode to let sales data set this automatically<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Frequency:<\/strong> <code>daily<\/code> for stores with regular inventory updates; <code>weekly<\/code> for stable catalogs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Category Sitemap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Priority:<\/strong> 0.7\u20130.9 \u2014 Important navigation pages but typically secondary to top products<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Frequency:<\/strong> <code>weekly<\/code> \u2014 categories change less often than products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Brand \/ Manufacturer Sitemap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Priority:<\/strong> 0.6\u20130.8<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Frequency:<\/strong> <code>monthly<\/code> \u2014 brand pages rarely change<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Information Pages<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Priority:<\/strong> 0.3\u20130.5 \u2014 These are support\/policy pages, not primary commercial pages<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Frequency:<\/strong> <code>monthly<\/code> or <code>yearly<\/code><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Custom Links<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Priority:<\/strong> Set individually. Landing pages: 0.8\u20131.0. Blog posts: 0.5\u20130.7<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Frequency:<\/strong> Based on how often each page is updated<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Complete Setup Checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Use this checklist when setting up the extension for the first time:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Install and activate the extension<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add <code>.htaccess<\/code> rules (use the admin panel button or add manually)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enable all relevant sitemap types in the Sitemap tab<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enable Smart SEO Mode (especially with existing sales data)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enable File Cache for both sitemaps and AI feed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enable the AI Feed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add AI feed index URL to <code>robots.txt<\/code><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Add AI feed index URL to Custom Links (optional but recommended)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Enable IndexNow<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Generate and save the IndexNow API key<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Generate and save the Cron Secret Key<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Set up the cron job on your server<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Click <strong>Validate Key<\/strong> to confirm the key file is accessible<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Click <strong>Sync All<\/strong> to queue all existing URLs for initial IndexNow submission<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Submit the sitemap index to Google Search Console<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Submit the sitemap index to Bing Webmaster Tools<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monitor the IndexNow dashboard for success\/failure rates over the next 24 hours<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check the Dashboard sitemap links panel to confirm all expected sitemaps are listed<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":245,"menu_order":13,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","doc_tag":[],"class_list":["post-14740","docs","type-docs","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Best Strategy for Settings - HuntBee Resources<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huntbee.com\/resources\/docs\/seo-xml-sitemap-generator-pro\/best-strategy-for-settings\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Best Strategy for Settings - HuntBee Resources\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This page provides recommended configurations for different store types and use cases. 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