increasing sitemaps

I've been keeping the setting at 20,000 and it's been hitting a window at around 18,000 where it stops indexing. Last night I increased the number to 30,000 to watch what it does.

for each site the number of URLs in web index went down, any idea why? and why if you put it at 30,000 does it not submit more than it did at 20,000

traffic is still climbing for me though, very happy!

The number of urls in each file has no bearing on what is indexed. I recommend keeping them small. 20k max. When you change it around, it needs to re-calculate what urls are where and the results will not be instant. Webmaster tools can be anywhere from 7-30 days behind real time.

ok, changing it back

a general observation - when it was at 20k the average indexed was around 18k

I just saw a 30k from last night and it indexed 22k?

Again, it needs time to figure out what of those 30k urls it has in its index. It will NEVER be 100% unless you have like 10 urls.

18/20 is good.

I kept it at 20k but just wanted to throw that in there since it was different.

Thanks again Brian for your help with me adventure