By Shad Super in Questions —

How Can I Manage Multiple Sitemaps, Such as Image or Video Sitemaps, Alongside the Main sitemap.xml File?

Summary

Managing multiple sitemaps—including Image, Video, and News sitemaps—alongside the main sitemap file can enhance your website's SEO by ensuring that all content types are indexed by search engines. This guide covers how to structure, create, and submit multiple sitemaps for better accessibility and indexing.

Understanding the Role of Different Sitemaps

Main Sitemap

The main sitemap (sitemap.xml) provides a general map of your website's URL structure, facilitating efficient crawling by search engines.

Image Sitemap

An Image Sitemap helps search engines find and index images on your site, improving visibility in image search results.

Video Sitemap

A Video Sitemap improves the discoverability of video content, enabling search engines to index videos more effectively.

News Sitemap

A News Sitemap is designed for news content and helps search engines to find and index news articles promptly.

Creating and Structuring Multiple Sitemaps

Main Sitemap Example

Below is an example of a basic sitemap.xml file that includes references to other sitemaps:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap_images.xml</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap_videos.xml</loc>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/sitemap_news.xml</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

Image Sitemap Example

An example sitemap_images.xml file:

<?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">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/image1.jpg</loc>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.example.com/image1.jpg</image:loc>
    </image:image>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/image2.jpg</loc>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://www.example.com/image2.jpg</image:loc>
    </image:image>
  </url>
</urlset>

Video Sitemap Example

An example sitemap_videos.xml file:

<?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://www.example.com/video1.html</loc>
    <video:video>
      <video:thumbnail_loc>https://www.example.com/video1_thumbnail.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:title>Example Video Title</video:title>
      <video:description>A description of the video</video:description>
      <video:content_loc>https://www.example.com/video1.mp4</video:content_loc>
    </video:video>
  </url>
</urlset>

News Sitemap Example

An example sitemap_news.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/news_article1.html</loc>
    <news:news>
      <news:publication>
        <news:name>Example News</news:name>
        <news:language>en</news:language>
      </news:publication>
      <news:publication_date>2023-10-04</news:publication_date>
      <news:title>Example News Article 1</news:title>
    </news:news>
  </url>
</urlset>

Submitting Multiple Sitemaps

Google Search Console

To submit multiple sitemaps, follow these steps:

  1. Log in to Google Search Console.
  2. Select your property.
  3. Navigate to Sitemaps under the Index section.
  4. Enter the URL of each sitemap and click Submit.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Submit your sitemaps through Bing Webmaster Tools:

  1. Log in to Bing Webmaster Tools.
  2. Select your site.
  3. Navigate to Configure My Site > Sitemaps.
  4. Enter the URL of each sitemap and click Submit.

Best Practices

Monitor Sitemaps

Regularly monitor the status of your sitemaps in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to ensure they are being crawled and indexed properly.

Keep Sitemaps Updated

Ensure that your sitemaps are up-to-date with the latest URLs, images, videos, and news articles. This maximizes the effectiveness of sitemaps and ensures efficient crawling and indexing.

Conclusion

Managing multiple sitemaps effectively involves creating structured files for different content types and submitting them through search engine tools. This practice enhances your website's SEO and ensures comprehensive indexing of all content formats.

References