Sitemap

A sitemap is a form of SEO that allows for Search Engines to discover all pages of a website more efficiently

Formats

Best practice — Machine readable sitemap.xml + Human readable sitemap.html


No sitemap	Website pages well linked	Appropriate for small sites
HTML sitemap	An HTML page with all of the links	Human readable format
XML sitemap	sitemap.xml	Recommended
Feed sitemap	rss.xml · mrss.xml · atom.xml	Limited · Convenient format
Text sitemap	sitemap.txt	Limited · Simplest format

Google Search Central — Sitemap · Supported formats

No sitemap

A website well linked is equivalent to having a sitemap

It must be possible to navigate to every public page on your website from index.html

<a href='/other-page'>Link to other page</a>

Google Search Central — Do I need a sitemap?

HTML sitemap

An HTML sitemap is a page dedicated to linking every page on your website

It is equivalent to having No sitemap

It is not a Sitemap protocol standard

It is human readable

Your HTML sitemap page must be linked from index.html

8 collapsed lines
<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Sitemap</title>
</head>
<body> 
    <ul>
        <li><a href='/'>Home page</a></li>
        <li><a href='/blog'>Blog page</a></li>
        <li><a href='/about'>About page</a></li>
    </ul>
2 collapsed lines
</body> 
</html>

XML Sitemap

sitemap.xml is the standard Machine readable format

sitemap.xml must be specified in robots.txt or submited in Google Search Console

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>    
Every  xml file starts with the XML declaration
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">    
A  Sitemap is defined by the <urlset> element


The  version is 0.9 and constant since 2009

    <url>       
The <urlset> consists of <url> entries
        <loc>https://stephcraft.net/blog</loc>           
The  url of the  page
        <lastmod>2020-01-01</lastmod>             
The  last modified date of the  page 

Must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD 

This attribute is optional
Deprecated attributes — 2 collapsed lines
        <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>               
The expected  frequency of updates for this  page 

always — dynamic or SSR/CSR pages 
hourly
daily
weekly
monthly
yearly
never

This attribute is optional

This attribute is deprecated · use <lastmod> instead
        <priority>0.8</priority>              
The  priority of this  page relative to other pages on the website


Must be between 0 and 1
Defaults to 0.5

This attribute is optional

This attribute is deprecated
    </url>
Example — 4 collapsed lines
    <url> 
        <loc>https://stephcraft.net/docs/sitemap</loc>
        <lastmod>2020-01-01</lastmod>
    </url> 
    ...
</urlset>

Sitemaps.org — Protocol

XML Sitemap Index

sitemap.xml can be split into multiple files by defining it as a Sitemap Index

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>    
Every  xml file starts with the XML declaration
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">       
A  Sitemap Index is defined by the <sitemapindex> element


The  version is 0.9 and constant since 2009 
    <sitemap>    The <sitemapindex> consists of <sitemap> entries
        <loc>https://stephcraft.net/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>           
The  url of the  Sitemap
        <lastmod>2020-01-01</lastmod>             
The  last modified date of the  Sitemap

Must be in the format YYYY-MM-DD 

This attribute is optional
   </sitemap>
Example — 4 collapsed lines
   <sitemap> 
         <loc>https://stephcraft.net/sitemap-core.xml</loc>
        <lastmod>2020-01-01</lastmod>
   </sitemap> 
    ...
</sitemapindex>

Sitemaps.org — Protocol · Index
Google Search Central — Sitemap Index

Localization Sitemap Extension

sitemap.xml can specify translated page variants

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
    xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">          
Apply the  Localization sitemap  extension


Developed by  W3C
    <url>
        <loc>https://stephcraft.net/blog</loc>
        <lastmod>2020-01-01</lastmod>
        <xhtml:link              
Add <xhtml:link> entries for each translated  page variant 
            rel="alternate"              
The  relationship must be set to "alternate" 
            hreflang="en"                
Specify the  language here 

Must be in en or en-US format 
Use x-default for a fallback page 
            href="https://stephcraft.net/en/blog"              
The  url of the translated  page variant
        />
Example — 5 collapsed lines
        <xhtml:link 
            rel="alternate"
            hreflang="fr"
            href="https://stephcraft.net/fr/blog"
        /> 
        ...
    </url>
    ...
</urlset>

The Localization Sitemap Extension is developed by W3C

Google Search Central — Localized Sitemap

Media Sitemap Extensions

sitemap.xml can specify Images, Videos and News articles

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
    xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1"             
Apply the  Image sitemap  extension

The  version is 1.1 and constant since 2010

Developed by  Google
    xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1"             
Apply the  Video sitemap  extension

The  version is 1.1 and constant since 2010

Developed by  Google
    xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">            
Apply the  News sitemap  extension

The  version is 0.9 and constant since 2006

Developed by  Google
    <url>
        <loc>https://stephcraft.net/docs/ai</loc>
        <lastmod>2020-01-01</lastmod>
        <image:image>            
Add <image:image> entries for each  Image on the  page
            <image:loc>https://stephcraft.net/assets/logo.png</image:loc>                     
The  url of the  Image
        </image:image>
Image Example — 3 collapsed lines
        <image:image> 
            <image:loc>https://stephcraft.net/assets/vibe-code.png</image:loc>
        </image:image> 
        ...
        <video:video>            
Add <video:video> entries for each  Video on the  page
            <video:thumbnail_loc>https://stephcraft.net/thumbs/0.png</video:thumbnail_loc>                          
The  url of the  Thumbnail image
            <video:title>Zombiecraft trailer</video:title>                      
The  title of the video
            <video:description>An awesome video</video:description>                         
The  descriptiom of the video
            <video:content_loc>http://streamserver.stephcraft.net/video0.mp4</video:content_loc>                         
The  url of the  Video
Optional — 16 collapsed lines
            <video:player_loc>https://stephcraft.net/videoplayer.php?video=0</video:player_loc>                         
The  url of a player for the  Video


Either <video:content_loc> or <video:player_loc> must be defined
When both are defined, <video:player_loc> acts as a fallback
            <video:duration>1150</video:duration>                    
The  duration of the video (in seconds)
            <video:expiration_date>2020-01-01T19:20:30+08:00</video:expiration_date>                        
The  date after which the video is no longer available


Format is YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+TZD

            <video:rating>4.2</video:rating>                   
The  rating of the video


number between 0.0 and 5.0
            <video:view_count>1000000</video:view_count>                     
The number of times the video has been  viewed
            <video:publication_date>2020-01-01T19:20:30+08:00</video:publication_date>                        
The  date the video was published


Format is YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+TZD

            <video:family_friendly>yes</video:family_friendly>                        
Whether the video is available with  SafeSearch


 yes or no
            <video:restriction relationship="allow">IE GB US CA</video:restriction>                      
Restrictions for the availability of the video in certain  countries


Country codes in the format US separated by space

 relationship="allow"  allow access for the listed countries
 relationship="deny"  deny access for the listed countries
            <video:platform relationship="allow">web tv</video:platform>                    
Whether to show or hide your video in search results on specified  platforms


List of keywords separated by space:

web  Desktop browsers
mobile  Mobile browsers
tv  TV browsers


 relationship="allow"  allow access for the listed platforms
 relationship="deny"  deny access for the listed platforms
            <video:requires_subscription>yes</video:requires_subscription>                           
Indicates whether a  subscription (either paid or free) is required to view the video


 yes or no
            <video:uploader info="https://stephcraft.net/self">Stephcraft</video:uploader>                    
The video  uploader's name


optional —  info the url of the uploader (must be in the same domain)
            <video:live>no</video:live>                  
Whether the video is a  livestream


 yes or no
            <video:tag>dev</video:tag>
            <video:tag>gaming</video:tag>
            <video:tag>web</video:tag>                  
A  tag associated with the  Video

Many <video:tag> can be present
            ... 
        </video:video>
Example Video — 6 collapsed lines
        <video:video> 
            <video:thumbnail_loc>https://stephcraft.net/thumbs/0.png</video:thumbnail_loc>
            <video:title>Zombiecraft trailer</video:title>
            <video:description>An awesome video</video:description>
            <video:content_loc>http://streamserver.stephcraft.net/video0.mp4</video:content_loc>
        </video:video> 
        ...
        <news:news>           
Add <news:news> entries for each  News on the  page
            <news:publication>
                <news:name>The Example Times</news:name>                The  title of the news publisher
                <news:language>en</news:language>                          
The  language of the news article


Must be in en format 
            </news:publication>
            <news:publication_date>2020-01-01</news:publication_date>                        
The  date the news article was published


Format is YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+TZD

            <news:title>How Gradle became the #1 buildtool</news:title>                     
The  title of the news article
        </news:news>
Example News — 8 collapsed lines
        <news:news> 
            <news:publication>
                <news:name>The Example Times</news:name>
                <news:language>en</news:language>
            </news:publication>
            <news:publication_date>2020-01-01</news:publication_date>
            <news:title>Why Kotlin is the best programming language</news:title>
        </news:news> 
        ...
    </url>
    ...
</urlset>

The Media Sitemap Extensions are developed by Google

Image

Video

News

Google Search Central — Sitemap Extensions

Feed sitemap

This section is currently undocumented

Let @Stephcraft know on Discord you'd like this section Documented

Join Discord

Sitemaps.org — Protocol · Syndication feed
Google Search Central — Feed Sitemap
Google Search Central — mRSS Sitemap

Text sitemap

sitemap.txt is the simplest format

sitemap.txt must be specified in robots.txt or submited in Google Search Console

https://stephcraft.net/blog
https://stephcraft.net/docs/ai
https://stephcraft.net/docs/sitemap   
List each  url per line
...

Sitemaps.org — Protocol · Text file
Google Search Central — Text Sitemap

Tools

XML Sitemap Generator

Resources

Sitemaps.org
Google Search Central — Sitemaps
Wikipedia — Sitemaps
Wikipedia — Sitemap

Frameworks

Astro Docs — Sitemap
Next.js Docs — Sitemap
TanStack Start Docs — Sitemap