Hi I need to know whether I should keep sitemap.xml.gz file on my web server? I already installed sitemap.xml on server. Should I need to keep both the files in the root directory? What is advantages of Sitemap.xml.gz?
The.gz is the compressed version of your sitemap.xml. To be honest if you have already submitted your sitemap.xml to Google then use that. But if you haven't then use the sitemap.xml.gz and submit it to Google. Any compressed file serves three purposes. One it will save on your web server space, two anyone downloading that compressed file will be able to download it faster and three if it is a file that your visitors see then it will save on page load time. Yes you can you both without any problems.
i think you can use both. xml and zip. it not take too much space on your host..but maybe it will be useful sometimes.
I think that is actually the use of compressed sitemaps - to reduce space. But if you have a small site, I don't think you need to use the compressed sitemap.
In addition to the space, time and bandwidth savings the compressed sitemap may actually work better if your host is very slow. For example Google will give up on downloading a big sitemap if it takes a long time so compressing it will improve your odds of getting through.