A video sitemap is an XML sitemap, or a section of one, that describes the videos on your pages: for each page, the video's thumbnail, title, description and the address of the video file or its player. It helps Google find videos it might otherwise miss, just as image sitemaps help with images and news sitemaps with fresh articles. This guide explains when each extension is worth adding, the tags Google still reads in 2026, and when ordinary HTML does the job without one. For sitemaps in general, start with the XML sitemap guide.
Quick answer
- Most sites need none of these. Google finds images and videos in normal HTML, and your regular sitemap already lists the pages.
- Add a video sitemap when videos load through JavaScript, sit behind a custom player, or when you publish many videos and want them in video results.
- A video only gets video results when it is the main content of its page, a Google rule since December 2023. A sitemap does not change that.
- Add image entries when images load in ways Google cannot see, such as JavaScript galleries or lazy-loading without a real
src. - Image entries hold only
<image:loc>today. Caption, title, geo-location and licence were retired in 2022. - News sitemaps are for sites in Google News: articles from the last two days, up to 1,000 per file.
- Structured data (
VideoObject) is an alternative or complement to a video sitemap.
What video, image and news sitemaps are
They are extensions to the standard sitemap format, published by Google, each with its own XML namespace. The entries go inside a page's <url>, either in your normal sitemap or in a separate file listed in your sitemap index.
| Extension | Namespace | What it adds per page |
|---|---|---|
| Image | http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1 | The address of each image on the page |
| Video | http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1 | Thumbnail, title, description, file or player URL, optional details |
| News | http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9 | Publication name and language, publication date, headline |
The complete annotated files, ready to copy, are in sitemap examples.
Video sitemaps
When a video sitemap is worth it
Google finds videos through <video> elements, common embeds and structured data on the page. A video sitemap earns its place when:
- the video is loaded by JavaScript after the page renders, or through a player Google does not recognise;
- you publish many videos, for example a course library, product demos or a media site, and want Search Console's video indexing report to show each one;
- the video's page is new or has few links, so Google might not reach it soon.
It does not help a page whose video is secondary. In December 2023 Google changed video results so that only pages where the video is the main content show in them: visible without scrolling, prominent, and the reason the page exists. A blog post with a supporting video, a product page with a demo and a category page listing several videos do not qualify. Search Console's video indexing report says "Video is not the main content of the page" for these, and no sitemap changes that.
The tags Google reads
Each <video:video> inside a <url> needs:
| Tag | Required | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
<video:thumbnail_loc> | Yes | URL of the thumbnail image |
<video:title> | Yes | The video's title |
<video:description> | Yes | A description, up to 2,048 characters |
<video:content_loc> | One of these two | URL of the video file itself |
<video:player_loc> | One of these two | URL of an embeddable player for this video |
<video:duration> | No | Length in seconds, 1 to 28,800 |
<video:publication_date> | No | When the video was first published, as a W3C date |
<video:expiration_date> | No | When it stops being available |
<loc> is the page the video plays on, not the video file. For a self-hosted MP4, use <video:content_loc>. For a hosted player, such as a YouTube embed, use the player URL, for example https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIDEO_ID, in <video:player_loc>.
Google stopped using <video:category>, <video:gallery_loc>, <video:price>, <video:tvshow> and the autoplay and allow_embed attributes in August 2022, announced in its Search Central post "Spring cleaning: some sitemap extension tags are going away". Leave them out of new files; they do nothing.
A minimal entry:
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/videos/how-to-lace-hiking-boots/</loc>
<video:video>
<video:thumbnail_loc>https://example.com/thumbs/lacing.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
<video:title>How to lace hiking boots</video:title>
<video:description>Three lacing methods that stop heel lift on steep descents.</video:description>
<video:content_loc>https://cdn.example.com/video/lacing.mp4</video:content_loc>
<video:duration>184</video:duration>
</video:video>
</url>The <urlset> tag must declare xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1", or the file is invalid.
Video sitemap or VideoObject structured data?
Google accepts both, and they carry the same core facts. Structured data sits on the page itself, where it also makes the page eligible for video rich results and key moments; a sitemap keeps the details in one file. Many sites use structured data on the watch page and skip the sitemap. Whichever you use, keep the thumbnail, title and description identical to what the page shows. The JSON-LD basics guide covers structured data, and the schema validator checks it.
Image sitemaps
When image entries are worth it
Google finds images in <img> elements with a real src and in CSS it can render. You gain from image entries when:
- a gallery or slider builds its images with JavaScript, or lazy-loading stores the URL only in a
data-srcattribute until a script swaps it in; - images sit on a CDN or image host whose connection to the page Google might not make;
- image search traffic matters to you, as it does for shops, recipe sites and photographers.
If your images are ordinary <img src> tags with good alt text, image entries add little. Fixing the markup helps more; see lazy loading done right and image optimisation.
The one tag Google reads
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/shoes/alpina-pro/</loc>
<image:image>
<image:loc>https://cdn.example.com/img/alpina-pro-side.jpg</image:loc>
</image:image>
</url>Each <image:image> holds one <image:loc>, and a page can list up to 1,000 images. The images may be on another host, such as a CDN. In the same 2022 announcement, Google retired <image:caption>, <image:title>, <image:geo_location> and <image:license>; use alt text on the page for descriptions and structured data for licence information.
Platforms that add images for you
Yoast SEO adds the images in each post to its sitemap automatically, Rank Math has a setting for it, and Shopify's product sitemap includes each product's main image. WordPress core's own sitemap does not list images. The WordPress sitemap guide compares the options.
News sitemaps
A news sitemap is for publishers whose articles appear in Google News. Each entry adds the publication name and language, the publication date and the headline:
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/news/trail-closures-autumn-2026/</loc>
<news:news>
<news:publication>
<news:name>Example Trail News</news:name>
<news:language>en</news:language>
</news:publication>
<news:publication_date>2026-09-25T14:30:00+02:00</news:publication_date>
<news:title>Five alpine trails close early this autumn</news:title>
</news:news>
</url>The rules are stricter than for other sitemaps:
- List only articles published in the last two days, and remove them after that. They stay in your regular sitemap.
- At most 1,000
<news:news>entries per file; split larger volumes across files in an index. <news:name>must match the name Google News shows for your publication.- Update the file as you publish, rather than on a daily schedule.
A news sitemap is not required to appear in Google News, and it does not make a site eligible on its own. It helps Google pick up fresh articles faster on sites that publish many a day. A blog that posts twice a week gains nothing from one.
One file or separate files?
Both work. You can add image and video entries to the <url> entries in your normal sitemap, declaring each namespace on the <urlset> tag, or keep them in separate files listed in your sitemap index. Separate files suit news, because they change hourly and must drop old articles, and they make Search Console's Sitemaps report show media and pages apart. The size limits are the same as for any sitemap: 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed per file. Sitemap index files shows how to split.
How to check media sitemaps
The sitemap checker finds your sitemaps through robots.txt and /sitemap.xml, validates the XML and the standard sitemap elements, and requests up to 25 listed pages. Image and video extensions are accepted, but their tags are not validated yet, so compare them with the tables above. A missing namespace declaration makes the XML itself invalid, and that the checker does catch.
After submitting, Search Console shows a "Discovered videos" count for the sitemap in the Sitemaps report, and the Video indexing report lists which videos were indexed and why others were not.
Common mistakes
- Using a video sitemap to push supporting videos into video results. Only pages where the video is the main content qualify.
- Pointing
<loc>at the video file instead of the page that plays it. - Forgetting the namespace on
<urlset>, which makes the whole file invalid. - Keeping retired tags such as
<image:caption>or<video:category>and expecting them to do something. - Leaving week-old articles in a news sitemap. Only the last two days belong there.
- A thumbnail URL blocked in robots.txt. Google must be able to fetch it.
Questions people ask
Do I need a video sitemap for YouTube embeds?
Usually not. Google recognises standard YouTube embeds on your page, and the video also has its own YouTube watch page. A sitemap entry with the embed URL in <video:player_loc> can help when the embed is loaded by a script or when the page is new. Remember that your page only gets video results when the video is its main content.
Does an image sitemap help images rank in Google Images?
It helps Google find images it might miss, which is a precondition for ranking, but it does not rank them. Ranking in image search depends on the page, the alt text, the file name and the image quality. If your images are plain <img> tags with a real src, Google already finds them and image entries add little.
Which tags does Google ignore in video sitemaps?
Since August 2022, Google ignores <video:category>, <video:gallery_loc>, <video:price>, <video:tvshow> and the autoplay and allow_embed attributes of <video:player_loc>. They have no effect on indexing or search features. Keep the required thumbnail, title, description and file or player URL, plus optional details such as duration and publication date.
How many articles can a news sitemap contain?
Up to 1,000 <news:news> entries per file, and only for articles published in the last two days. Remove older articles from the news sitemap as they age, while keeping them in your regular sitemap. Publishers with more than 1,000 articles in two days split them over several news sitemaps listed in a sitemap index.