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If the sitemap at the root domain https://example.com/sitemap.xml contains a reference to another sitemap on a subdomain:

<sitemapindex xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <sitemap>
        <loc>https://app.example.com/sitemap.xml</loc>
    </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

And the sitemap at the subdomain https://app.example.com/sitemap.xml contains a location on the root domain:

<urlset xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <url>
        <loc>https://example.com/my-page</loc>
        <changefreq>daily</changefreq>
        <priority>0.8</priority>
    </url>
</urlset>

Will Google still index https://example.com/my-page, despite the sitemap chain being:

example.com/sitemap.xml -> app.example.com/sitemap.xml -> example.com/my-page

In other words, will it work despite the subdomains being different?

Improve this question
  • Sitemaps have almost nothing to do with what gets indexed or how search engines rank your pages. At best, sitemaps get Googlebot to fully crawl your site and give you extra stats in Google Search Console. To get pages indexed and ranked, you need to make sure every page has links from other pages. See The Sitemap Paradox – Stephen Ostermiller♦ Jan 5 at 11:57
  • @StephenOstermiller thanks for that insight. If I still want to use sitemaps, do you also have an answer to the question given? – Mathias Lykkegaard Lorenzen Jan 5 at 12:22
  • It's fine to use site maps. They certainly don't hurt. Just don't expect them to do miracles for your SEO. I don't know the answer to your question. – Stephen Ostermiller♦ Jan 5 at 12:53

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