The Sitemap: line in a robots.txt file that tells crawlers where to find XML sitemaps.
The `Sitemap:` directive in robots.txt is a standardized way to tell search engine crawlers where to find a website's XML sitemaps. It's placed at the top or bottom of the robots.txt file and can appear multiple times for multiple sitemaps.
The directive is not tied to any `User-agent` block — it applies globally to all crawlers. The URL must be absolute (including protocol and domain).
This is the most reliable method of sitemap discovery because robots.txt is always the first file a search engine crawler checks when visiting a domain.
User-agent: *
Allow: /
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap-news.xmlInspect Sitemap Directive in robots.txt in a real sitemap.
Turn XML sitemap fields into structured, exportable URL data.
See how this concept appears in SitemapKit API responses.
Apply sitemap concepts to SEO, monitoring, and data pipelines.
SitemapKit's API discovers and parses XML sitemaps into structured JSON, including fields such as Sitemap Directive in robots.txt.