What Google indexes - sitemap, Table of Contents page, or other?

Question

I have a website that provides lists of events, sort-of like meetup.com.

The system presently has several hundred events and will soon have thousands, or hopefully tens of thousands. There is a page for each event and I want Google to index each of those pages. So:

1. Should I have it build a sitemap with each page individually listed? Or do I create a sequence of TOC pages (country - list of states, state - list of cities, city - list of events) and put the top TOC page in the sitemap? Or another approach?
2. When a new event is added, what's the best way to get Google to index the page for that new event ASAP?

Answer 1

To ensure Google indexes all of your event pages effectively, it's best to create a dynamic sitemap that lists each event individually. This will help Google discover and index every page, even as your number of events grows. Additionally, maintaining a structured navigation system with TOC pages (like country > state > city > events) can help both users and search engines understand the content hierarchy.

When new events are added, update your sitemap and submit it through Google Search Console to prompt quicker indexing. You can also use the "URL Inspection" tool in Search Console to request immediate indexing of new pages. This combined approach should help ensure that all your event pages are indexed promptly.