Guide : Video Sitemap

TL;DR — A video sitemap is a special sitemap que indique Google à propos de the videos on votre pages. Pour chaque video vous give Google four choses: a thumbnail image, a title, a description, and a lien to soit the video fichier or the player que plays it. It helps Google trouver votre videos — it doesn’t guarantee they’ll montrer up in search.

Ce que a video sitemap is

A regular sitemap listes lune pages on votre site. A video sitemap adds supplémentaire information à propos de quelconque videos on ceux pages, en utilisant a définir of special video: tags. Pour chaque video vous tell Google lune page it lives on, a thumbnail image to montrer, a title, a description, and où the video en réalité is (the fichier itself, or the player que plays it).

It’s the même idea as an image sitemap, simplement pour video, and it slots into the même family as votre XML sitemap.

Quand vous en réalité besoin un

Google frames the valeur cas narrowly: a video sitemap helps la plupart with videos que are newly ajouté or sinon hard to découvrir — pas with every video on votre site. It’s la plupart utile quand:

• votre videos are nouveau, or chargé with JavaScript, or served in a façon that’s hard to découvrir from lune page’s HTML, or
• vous vouloir to give Google clean, explicit metadata (titles, descriptions, thumbnails) au lieu de leaving it to guess.

Si vous have simplement un or two embedded YouTube videos, vous probably don’t besoin a separate fichier pour it.

The four choses every video nécessite

Pour chaque video, four pieces are requis:

1. A thumbnail — a lien to an image Google peut montrer pour the video.
2. A title.
3. A description.
4. Où the video is — soit a lien to the réel video fichier or a lien to the player page que plays it (vous besoin au moins un of ces).

Everything sinon — duration, upload date, view count, a “live” flag — is optional.

The un rule personnes forget

Every lien in votre video sitemap has to be reachable by Google: lune page, the thumbnail, and the video fichier or player can’t be blocked in robots.txt or hidden behind a login. Si Google can’t récupérer the thumbnail or the video, the entry won’t do vous quelconque bon.

And comme every sitemap, a video sitemap helps Google découvrir votre videos — it’s pas a guarantee they’ll be indexé or affiché.

Vouloir the complet tag liste, the limites, and the exact fichier types Google accepts? Switch to the Avancé tab.

TL;DR — A video sitemap is an XML sitemap en utilisant the video:video extension (namespace http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1), la plupart utile pour videos que are newly ajouté or sinon hard to découvrir. Requis per video: <video:thumbnail_loc>, <video:title>, <video:description>, plus au moins un of <video:content_loc> (the media fichier) or <video:player_loc> (the player) — neither peut be the même URL as lune page’s propre <loc>. Optional tags refine it dans limites — the repeated <video:tag> element caps at 32 per video (pas a total-tag-count limite), duration 1–28 800 s, description ≤2 048 chars. Vous pouvez nest multiple <video:video> blocks sous un <loc> pour une page with several videos. Every referenced URL doit be crawlable (pas robots-blocked, aucun login wall), and content_loc can’t be a streaming-only protocol. Utiliser Google’s current content_loc and thumbnail file-type listes; the tags Google deprecated in 2022 are safe to leave in placer. mRSS is an accepted alternative. Bing ne fait pas document video-sitemap prise en charge.

Ce que a video sitemap en réalité is

A video sitemap is a normal XML sitemap with Google’s video extension switched on. Vous ajouter the video namespace to votre <urlset> — http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1 — and alors, à l’intérieur chaque <url> block, vous décrire the videos on que page with <video:video> tags. The <loc> points at the page the video sits on (its landing page or watch page), pas at the video fichier; the fichier lives à l’intérieur <video:content_loc>.

Vous don’t have to maintain a separate fichier. Vous pouvez ajouter video:video blocks to an existing XML sitemap correct alongside (or in the même façon as) votre page URLs — the même façon image tags obtenir folded into a regular sitemap. And there’s a non-XML option: Google aussi accepts an mRSS (Media RSS) feed as a façon to provide the même video information.

Quand vous besoin un

A video sitemap is the explicit façon to tell Google ce que videos vous have and how to présent les. Google’s propre framing is narrower que “use this for every video”: it calls out newly ajouté videos and sinon hard-to-discover content as où the extension earns its garder — Par exemple, videos que are lazy-loaded, JavaScript-injected, or behind a custom player, or où vous vouloir complet contrôler over the title, description, and thumbnail Google associates with chaque video au lieu de letting it infer ceux. As with every sitemap, it’s a discovery aid — it helps Google trouver and comprendre votre videos, but it jamais guarantees a video is indexé or surfaced.

Requis tags

Every video nécessite a parent <video:video> block and, à l’intérieur it, four requis pieces of metadata:

• <video:video> — the parent element wrapping tout the information à propos de a unique video.
• <video:thumbnail_loc> — “UNE URL pointing to the video thumbnail image fichier.”
• <video:title> — “The title of the video. Tout HTML entities doit be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA block.”
• <video:description> — the description of the video (≤2 048 characters).
• Au moins un of:
  • <video:content_loc> — “A URL pointing to the actual video media file.” Ce is the un Google recommends quand vous pouvez supply it.
  • <video:player_loc> — une URL to a player que embeds/plays the video.

Si vous pouvez give les deux content_loc and player_loc, do — but un is suffisant to be valid. Un constraint s’applique to les deux: neither content_loc nor player_loc peut be the même URL as lune page’s propre <loc>. Google documents ce requirement separately pour chaque tag — it’s pas optional, and it trips up sitemaps que reuse the landing-page URL as a placeholder media/player lien.

Optional and recommended tags (and the limites)

Au-delà the requis définir, vous pouvez refine chaque video with optional tags: <video:duration>, <video:expiration_date>, <video:rating>, <video:view_count>, <video:publication_date>, <video:family_friendly>, <video:restriction>, <video:platform>, <video:requires_subscription>, <video:uploader>, <video:live>, and <video:tag>. Ils aider Google comprendre freshness, eligibility, and context — Par exemple, expiration_date indique Google quand to arrêter showing a video, and live flags a live stream.

Three limites to respect:

• <video:tag> caps at 32 per video. Ce is a limite on the repeated keyword-tag element specifically (créer un <video:tag> per keyword, up to 32) — it is pas a cap on the total number of metadata fields a <video:video> block peut carry. A video with the four requis tags plus several optional ones (duration, rating, publication date, and so on) is fine; seulement the count of <video:tag> elements is bounded at 32.
• <video:duration> doit be 1–28 800 seconds (that’s a hard ceiling of 8 hours).
• <video:description> ≤2 048 characters.

Multiple videos on un page

Si a unique page hosts plus que un video, vous don’t créer multiple <url> entries — vous garder un <loc> pour lune page and nest multiple <video:video> blocks à l’intérieur que même <url>. Chaque <video:video> describes un video, with its propre thumbnail, title, description, and content/player lien.

Accessibility: everything vous référence doit be crawlable

Ce is the rule que quietly breaks video sitemaps. Every URL vous put in the fichier — lune page in <loc>, the <video:thumbnail_loc>, and the <video:content_loc>/<video:player_loc> — has to be fetchable by Google:

• Pas blocked in robots.txt. Si the thumbnail directory or the media fichier is disallowed, Google can’t utiliser it.
• Pas behind a login wall or quelconque accès gate.
• content_loc doit be a directement fetchable fichier — streaming-only protocols are non pris en charge. Si votre video is seulement disponible over a streaming protocol plutôt que as a fichier Google peut download, point Google at the player with player_loc à la place, or provide a fetchable media fichier pour content_loc.

Accepted fichier types

Utiliser Google’s current listes ici — the older enumeration que inclus formats comme .flv and .ra/.ram is stale, and a lot of third-party guides encore quote it.

<video:content_loc> media fichiers — Google’s pris en charge video formats are: 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DivX, M2V, M3U, M3U8, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, OGV, QVT, RAM, RM, VOB, WebM, WMV, XAP. The fichier at que URL devrait be un of ces and directement fetchable.

<video:thumbnail_loc> thumbnails — pris en charge image formats are BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, and AVIF. The thumbnail doit be au moins 60×30 pixels (plus grand is preferred) and sit at a stable, crawlable URL — don’t point it at a URL que rotates or expires.

Deprecated tags (safe to leave)

Google announced ce deprecation on May 6, 2022, effective August 6, 2022: <video:category>, the allow_embed and autoplay attributes on <video:player_loc>, <video:gallery_loc>, <video:price>, and <video:tvshow>. Vous don’t besoin to rush to strip ces out. Per Google’s announcement, ces tags “va have aucun effect on indexation and search fonctionnalités” and there’s “aucun immediate action requis” — vous pouvez leave les in placer sans drawbacks. Supprimer les on votre propre schedule, or pas at tout.

How ce fits the rest of le sitemap family

A video sitemap is un extension among several. The XML sitemap is the base format; the image sitemap is the parallel pour images; a sitemap index ties multiple sitemap fichiers ensemble une fois vous cross the 50 000-URL / 50MB-per-file limite; and le sitemaps overview covers quand vous besoin quelconque of ce at tout and how to submit it. Video tags peut live in leur propre fichier or be combined into a regular sitemap. Pour the bigger picture of how engines trouver votre URLs in the premier placer, voir discovery.

Un scope remarque: ce is Google’s extension. Bing ne fait pas document video-sitemap prise en charge — it defers to the base sitemaps.org protocol — so treat video:video as a Google fonctionnalité and don’t expect Bing to act on it.

AI summary

A condensed prendre on the Avancé version:

• A video sitemap is an XML sitemap with Google’s video:video extension (namespace http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1). The <loc> points at lune page; the video metadata lives in <video:video> blocks à l’intérieur it.
• Requis per video: <video:thumbnail_loc>, <video:title>, <video:description>, plus au moins un of <video:content_loc> (the media fichier, recommended) or <video:player_loc> (the player) — neither peut equal lune page’s propre <loc>.
• Optional tags (duration, expiration_date, rating, view_count, publication_date, family_friendly, restriction, platform, requires_subscription, uploader, live, tag) refine it, dans limites: the repeated <video:tag> element caps at 32/video (pas a total-tag cap), duration 1–28 800 s (8 h), description ≤2 048 chars.
• Multiple videos on un page → nest multiple <video:video> blocks sous a unique <loc>, pas separate <url> entries.
• Everything doit be crawlable: page, thumbnail, and media/player URLs can’t be robots-blocked or behind a login. content_loc can’t be a streaming-only protocol — utiliser a fetchable fichier or point at player_loc.
• Fichier types (current liste): content_loc accepts 3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DivX, M2V, M3U, M3U8, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, OGV, QVT, RAM, RM, VOB, WebM, WMV, XAP; thumbnails accept BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, AVIF (min 60×30 px, stable crawlable URL). The old .flv/.ra liste is stale.
• Deprecated (announced May 2022, effective Aug 2022, safe to leave): category, player_loc allow_embed/autoplay, gallery_loc, price, tvshow.
• mRSS is an accepted alternative format. Bing ne fait pas document video-sitemap prise en charge. A sitemap helps discovery; it jamais guarantees indexation.

Documentation officielle

Primary-source documentation pour video sitemaps.

Google

• Video sitemaps and alternatives — the référence pour video:video and every requis/optional tag, the namespace, the limites, and the mRSS alternative.
• Video meilleur practices — pris en charge fichier types — the current accepted content_loc media formats (3GP, 3G2, ASF, AVI, DivX, M2V, M3U, M3U8, M4V, MKV, MOV, MP4, MPEG, OGV, QVT, RAM, RM, VOB, WebM, WMV, XAP).
• Video meilleur practices — thumbnails — thumbnail formats and the minimum 60×30 px requirement.
• Construire and submit a sitemap — the base XML format, UTF-8 encoding, and the 50 000-URL / 50MB limites a video sitemap inherits.
• Combine sitemap extensions — how video, image, and hreflang tags coexist in un sitemap.
• Sitemaps overview — quand vous besoin a sitemap at tout, and pourquoi it helps discovery but doesn’t guarantee indexation.
• Spring cleaning sitemap extensions — the May 6, 2022 announcement of the tags Google deprecated (effective August 6, 2022) and pourquoi leaving les in placer is harmless.

Bing / Microsoft

• Bing fait pas publish dedicated video-sitemap documentation; it defers to the base sitemaps.org protocol. Treat video:video as a Google-specific extension.

Quotes from the source

On-the-record wording from Google’s video-sitemaps documentation. Chaque lien is a deep lien que jumps to the quoted passage on the source page.

Google — the requis tags

• “A URL pointing to the video thumbnail image file.” — on <video:thumbnail_loc>. Jump to quote
• “The title of the video. All HTML entities must be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA block.” — on <video:title>. Jump to quote
• “A URL pointing to the actual video media file.” — on <video:content_loc> (the un Google recommends supplying). Jump to quote

Video sitemap — cheat sheet

Requis vs optional video:video tags

Limites

Accepted fichier types

Don’t forget

• Every URL (page, thumbnail, media/player) doit be crawlable — aucun robots.txt block, aucun login wall.
• content_loc can’t be a streaming-only protocol — it doit be a fetchable fichier.
• content_loc and player_loc can’t be the même URL as lune page’s propre <loc>.
• The 32 limite is on <video:tag> elements specifically — pas on total tags per video.
• Deprecated May 2022 (effective Aug 2022, safe to leave): category, player_loc allow_embed/autoplay, gallery_loc, price, tvshow.
• Bing fait pas document video-sitemap prise en charge.

A minimal valid video sitemap

The smallest video sitemap que validates: a urlset with the video namespace, un <url> pour lune page, and un <video:video> carrying the requis tags (thumbnail + title + description + a content/player lien).

<?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/videos/some_video_landing_page.html</loc>
    <video:video>
      <video:thumbnail_loc>https://www.example.com/thumbs/123.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:title>Grilling steaks for summer</video:title>
      <video:description>How to get perfectly done steaks every time.</video:description>
      <video:content_loc>https://www.example.com/video123.mp4</video:content_loc>
      <video:player_loc>https://www.example.com/videoplayer.php?video=123</video:player_loc>
    </video:video>
  </url>
</urlset>

Two videos on un page

Quand une page hosts plus que un video, garder a unique <loc> and nest a second <video:video> block — don’t ajouter un autre <url>.

<url>
  <loc>https://www.example.com/videos/roundup.html</loc>
  <video:video>
    <video:thumbnail_loc>https://www.example.com/thumbs/a.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
    <video:title>Part one</video:title>
    <video:description>The first video on the page.</video:description>
    <video:content_loc>https://www.example.com/a.mp4</video:content_loc>
  </video:video>
  <video:video>
    <video:thumbnail_loc>https://www.example.com/thumbs/b.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
    <video:title>Part two</video:title>
    <video:description>The second video on the same page.</video:description>
    <video:content_loc>https://www.example.com/b.mp4</video:content_loc>
  </video:video>
</url>

Reminder: content_loc doit be a directement fetchable media fichier (aucun streaming-only protocols), and every URL ici — page, thumbnail, media — has to be crawlable.

Video sitemap setup audit

Run via ce avant vous submit (or resubmit) a video sitemap:

• <urlset> declares the video namespace: xmlns:video="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1".
• Every <video:video> block has tout three requis text tags — <video:thumbnail_loc>, <video:title>, <video:description>.
• Every <video:video> block has au moins un of <video:content_loc> or <video:player_loc> (les deux si vous pouvez supply les deux).
• <video:content_loc> points at a directement fetchable media fichier — pas a streaming-only protocol.
• <video:thumbnail_loc> is a stable, non-expiring URL, au moins 60×30 px, in a pris en charge format (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, AVIF).
• <video:description> is 2 048 characters or fewer.
• Quelconque <video:duration> présent is entre 1 and 28 800 seconds.
• Aucun unique video has plus que 32 <video:tag> elements (ce cap is on the repeated keyword tag seulement, pas on the video’s total metadata fields).
• <video:content_loc> and <video:player_loc> ne sont pas the même URL as the page’s propre <loc>.
• Lune page URL, thumbnail URL, and media/player URL are tout crawlable — none blocked in robots.txt, none behind a login wall.
• Multiple videos on un page are nested as multiple <video:video> blocks sous a unique <loc>, pas spread à travers duplicate <url> entries.
• Sitemap is submitted dans la recherche Google Console. (Skip Bing ici — it doesn’t document video-sitemap prise en charge.)
• Sitemap validates cleanly avant and après submission.

Outils pour building and checking a video sitemap

• Sitemap Validator — paste, upload, or récupérer votre sitemap by URL and obtenir errors, warnings, and a health score with line numbers, entirely in votre navigateur. Utiliser it on the video sitemap itself to catch malformed XML, manquant requis video: tags, and namespace mistakes avant vous submit.
• XML Sitemap Generator — generates a base XML sitemap from a capped, robots-respecting explorer of votre site. It builds lune page inventory (<loc>, lastmod) but doesn’t ajouter video:video tags — utiliser it pour the base fichier, alors couche video metadata in yourself or via votre CMS/generator.
• Recherche Google Console — Sitemaps report — confirms Google récupéré and processed the fichier, and flags parsing errors it trouvé on its side.
• Recherche Google Console — Inspection d’URL — checks si a spécifique video page was crawled and indexé, utile quand a sitemap validates cleanly but a video encore isn’t showing up.

Courant problèmes

Video isn’t indexé même though le sitemap validates

• Probable causer: a sitemap seulement helps Google découvrir the video — it’s jamais a guarantee of indexation.
• Fix: confirmer lune page itself isn’t noindex, vérifier Search Console’s URL Inspection pour explorer/indexation errors on que spécifique page, and assurez-vous the thumbnail and content/player URLs are en réalité reachable (pas simplement présent in the XML).

Thumbnail rejected or pas showing

• Probable causer: image is plus petit que 60×30 px, in an unsupported format, or sits at une URL que rotates/expires.
• Fix: utiliser a stable, crawlable URL with a pris en charge format (BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, WebP, SVG, AVIF) au moins 60×30 px — bigger is preferred.

content_loc jamais obtient picked up

• Probable causer: l’URL points at a streaming-only protocol plutôt que a directement fetchable fichier.
• Fix: point content_loc at a fetchable media fichier, or drop back to player_loc si vous pouvez seulement offer a streaming player.

Whole <video:video> entry seems ignored

• Probable causer: un of the four requis pieces is manquant — thumbnail, title, description, or les deux of content/player liens.
• Fix: vérifier the entry contre the required-tag liste; a manquant requis tag peut invalidate the whole video block, pas simplement que field.

Description semble truncated or the tag throws a parsing error

• Probable causer: <video:description> exceeds the 2 048-character limite.
• Fix: trim to an excerpt sous the limite plutôt que the complet text.

Video sitemap “doesn’t work” on Bing

• Probable causer: Bing ne fait pas document prise en charge pour the video:video extension at tout.
• Fix: don’t rely on a video sitemap to influence Bing — it defers to the base sitemaps.org protocol regardless of ce que video tags vous ajouter.

AI prompts pour video sitemaps

Audit an existing video:video entry pour manquant or invalid tags

Paste in un or plus <video:video> XML blocks from votre sitemap.

Here is a <video:video> entry from my video sitemap:

[paste the XML block]

Check it against these rules and list every violation:
- Required: video:thumbnail_loc, video:title, video:description, and at least
  one of video:content_loc or video:player_loc.
- video:content_loc and video:player_loc must not be the same URL as the page's
  own <loc>.
- video:description must be 2,048 characters or fewer.
- video:duration (if present) must be between 1 and 28,800 seconds.
- No more than 32 video:tag elements inside this one video:video block (this
  limit applies to repeated video:tag elements only, not to total tags).
Report each violation as: tag name, what's wrong, and the minimal fix.

Expect back a short liste of réussir/échouer checks contre the rules ci-dessus — pas a general opinion on video quality.

Draft a compliant video:video block from raw metadata

Paste a row (or a few rows) of video metadata vous déjà have — page URL, thumbnail URL, title, description, media/player URL, duration in seconds.

I have this video metadata:
Page URL: [url]
Thumbnail URL: [url]
Title: [title]
Description: [description, under 2048 characters]
Media file URL (or player URL): [url]
Duration in seconds: [number]

Generate a valid <video:video> XML block using Google's video sitemap
extension (namespace http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-video/1.1),
escaping any HTML entities in the title, and confirm the description is
under 2,048 characters.

Expect back un ready-to-paste <video:video> block — vérifier the escaped title and the character count yourself avant shipping it, since the model peut miscount.

Ressources utiles

My connexe writing

• The Beginner’s Guide to SEO technique — où sitemaps and discovery fit in the bigger picture.
• Quand Devrait Vous Worry À propos de Budget d’exploration? — keeping a clean, accurate inventory of l’URLs (and media) vous vouloir crawled.
• Enterprise SEO technique — my cas pour automating sitemaps from lune pages vous en réalité have, so ils don’t rot.

From others

• Google’s video sitemaps référence — the balise canonical liste and limites.
• Google’s video meilleur practices — the current accepted media and thumbnail fichier types (the source pour the listes la plupart third-party guides obtenir incorrect).
• Google’s combining sitemap extensions — official guidance on mixing video, image, and hreflang tags in a unique sitemap fichier.
• sitemaps.org protocol — the base XML schema que video sitemaps extend; aussi ce que Bing defers to.
• r/TechSEO — the community pour sitemap and indexation debugging.

Testez vos connaissances: Video sitemaps

Five rapide questions on video sitemap requirements and limites. Pick an réponse pour chaque, alors vérifier.

Journal des modifications