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Sitemap Glossary

What is Video Sitemap?

A sitemap extension that includes video metadata to help search engines index video content.

A video sitemap extends the standard XML sitemap with video-specific metadata using Google's video namespace. It helps search engines discover, understand, and display video content in search results with rich snippets.

Required fields include `<video:thumbnail_loc>`, `<video:title>`, and `<video:description>`. Optional but recommended fields include `<video:content_loc>` or `<video:player_loc>`, `<video:duration>`, and `<video:publication_date>`.

Video sitemaps are essential for sites hosting their own video content and want it to appear in Google Video search results and as rich results in web search.

Example

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/videos/tutorial</loc>
    <video:video>
      <video:thumbnail_loc>https://example.com/thumbs/tutorial.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:title>Getting Started Tutorial</video:title>
      <video:description>Learn how to get started.</video:description>
    </video:video>
  </url>
</urlset>

Work with sitemaps programmatically

SitemapKit's API lets you discover, extract, and parse XML sitemaps from any domain. Get structured JSON data with all sitemap elements including Video Sitemap.

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