Sitemap Glossary

What is Gzipped Sitemap?

A compressed sitemap file (.xml.gz) that reduces bandwidth and speeds up sitemap delivery.

Written by SitemapKit Editorial TeamUpdated: Jul 21, 2026

Key takeaways

  • Interpret Gzipped Sitemap in its sitemap XML context; the detailed definition below explains its role and constraints.
  • Validate Gzipped Sitemap against a real XML example instead of relying on the field or tag name alone.

A gzipped sitemap is a standard XML sitemap compressed using gzip to reduce file size. The file typically has the extension `.xml.gz` (e.g., `sitemap.xml.gz`). Search engines support gzipped sitemaps natively.

Gzip compression is especially useful for large sitemaps approaching the 50MB uncompressed limit. A typical sitemap compresses to about 10-20% of its original size.

When using gzipped sitemaps, the `Sitemap:` directive in robots.txt should reference the compressed file URL. The server should also serve the file with the correct `Content-Encoding: gzip` header.

SitemapKit's extract endpoint automatically handles gzipped sitemaps, decompressing them before parsing.

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Sources and further reading

Work with sitemaps programmatically

SitemapKit's API discovers and parses XML sitemaps into structured JSON, including fields such as Gzipped Sitemap.

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