Tutorial: Creating and Submitting Video Sitemaps

Video sitemaps tell Google about video content on your website enabling rich results and faster video discovery. This tutorial covers creating video sitemaps for sites of all sizes and submitting them to Google Search Console.

When You Need a Video Sitemap

A video sitemap is recommended when your site has video content that you want Google to discover and index. It is especially important if your videos are newly published and not yet linked from other sites, embedded using JavaScript that Google may not render, or hosted on your own servers rather than a platform like YouTube.

Video Sitemap Format

A video sitemap uses the standard sitemap protocol with additional video-specific elements in the video namespace. Required elements include video:video as the container, video:thumbnail_loc for the thumbnail URL, video:title for the video title, and video:description for the video description. You must also include either video:content_loc pointing to the actual video file or video:player_loc pointing to the video player URL.

Creating a Video Sitemap

For Small Sites (Under 100 Videos)

Manually create the sitemap XML file. Each URL entry includes the standard loc element plus the video:video element with all required sub-elements. Validate the sitemap using an XML validator before submission.

For Medium Sites (100-1000 Videos)

Use a CMS plugin or sitemap generator that supports video sitemaps. WordPress plugins like Yoast SEO and RankMath can generate video sitemaps automatically. Configure the plugin to include all video pages and specify required video metadata.

For Large Sites (1000+ Videos)

Implement programmatic sitemap generation using server-side scripts. Create a sitemap index that splits video sitemaps into files of up to 50000 URLs each. Automate sitemap regeneration when new videos are published. Set up monitoring to detect sitemap errors promptly.

Submitting to Google Search Console

Submit your video sitemap through GSC: Navigate to Sitemaps section in GSC. Enter the full URL of your video sitemap. Click Submit. Monitor the sitemap report for errors and warnings. Check the Video enhancements report in GSC for indexing status of your video content.

Common Video Sitemap Errors

Thumbnail URL returning 404 or blocked by robots.txt. Missing required elements like title or description. Video URL not accessible to Googlebot. Sitemap exceeds size limits (50MB or 50000 URLs). Duplicate video content across multiple pages. Invalid date or duration format values.

Maintenance and Monitoring

Regularly maintain your video sitemap: Update lastmod dates when video content changes. Remove entries for deleted or unavailable videos. Add entries for newly published videos promptly. Monitor GSC for crawl errors related to video content. Regenerate sitemaps automatically after content updates.

Conclusion

Video sitemaps are a straightforward but powerful tool for ensuring Google discovers and indexes your video content. Invest the time to implement them correctly and maintain them regularly for the best video SEO results.