XML Sitemap Examples

Sometimes you just need to see what a correct sitemap looks like. This page has annotated examples for every common sitemap type -- from the simplest possible sitemap to specialized formats for news, images, and video. Each example is valid, copy-paste ready, and explained line by line.

Basic Sitemap

The simplest valid sitemap. Two URLs, no optional fields, nothing extra.

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

Line by line:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> -- XML declaration. Required. Tells parsers this is an XML document with UTF-8 encoding.
<urlset xmlns="..."> -- Root element. The xmlns attribute specifies the sitemap protocol namespace. This is required -- without it, search engines may not recognize the file as a sitemap.
<url> -- Container for a single URL entry.
<loc> -- The URL itself. Must be an absolute URL including the protocol (https://). This is the only required element inside <url>.
</urlset> -- Closing tag for the root element.

This is enough. A sitemap with just <loc> elements is perfectly valid and will be processed by every search engine that supports the protocol.

Sitemap with All Optional Fields

The sitemap protocol defines three optional elements: <lastmod>, <changefreq>, and <priority>. Here's an example using all of them.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-06-15</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>1.0</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/blog/xml-sitemaps-explained</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-06-10T14:30:00+00:00</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/contact</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-01-20</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.3</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Optional fields explained:

<lastmod> -- The date the page was last meaningfully modified. Use W3C Datetime format: YYYY-MM-DD or the full datetime YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+00:00. Google uses this when it's accurate.
<changefreq> -- How often the page is likely to change. Valid values: always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, never. Google has stated that it largely ignores this field.
<priority> -- A value from 0.0 to 1.0 indicating relative importance within your site. Default is 0.5. Google has confirmed that it ignores this field entirely.

Which optional fields to use

Focus on <lastmod> -- it's the only optional field that Google actually uses. Skip <changefreq> and <priority> or include them if your CMS generates them automatically. Don't spend time optimizing fields that search engines ignore.

Sitemap Index

A sitemap index file references multiple individual sitemaps. Use this when your site has more URLs than fit in a single sitemap, or when you want to organize sitemaps by content type.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-06-15</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-blog.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-06-14</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2025-06-15</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

Key differences from a regular sitemap:

The root element is <sitemapindex> instead of <urlset>
Each entry uses <sitemap> instead of <url>
The <loc> points to another sitemap file, not a web page
<lastmod> indicates when the referenced sitemap was last updated
A sitemap index can reference up to 50,000 sitemaps
Sitemap index files cannot reference other sitemap index files (no nesting)

When to use a sitemap index

You don't need tens of thousands of URLs to benefit from a sitemap index. Even a site with 200 URLs can organize them into separate sitemaps by content type. It makes debugging easier and lets search engines re-process only the sitemaps that changed.

Validate your sitemap structure

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News Sitemap

Google News sitemaps use an additional namespace and elements to describe news articles. Only include articles published within the last two days.

<?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://example.com/news/market-update-june-2025</loc>
    <news:news>
      <news:publication>
        <news:name>Example News</news:name>
        <news:language>en</news:language>
      </news:publication>
      <news:publication_date>2025-06-15T08:00:00+00:00</news:publication_date>
      <news:title>Market Update: June 2025 Quarterly Report</news:title>
    </news:news>
  </url>
</urlset>

News-specific elements:

xmlns:news -- Additional namespace declaration for news sitemap elements. Added to the <urlset> tag.
<news:publication> -- Contains the publication name and language.
<news:name> -- The name of your news publication, as it appears in Google News.
<news:language> -- ISO 639 language code (e.g., en, fr, de).
<news:publication_date> -- The date and time the article was published. Must be in W3C Datetime format with timezone.
<news:title> -- The article headline.

Rules for news sitemaps:

Only include articles from the last 48 hours
Maximum 1,000 URLs per news sitemap
You must be registered with Google News Publisher Center
Don't include non-news content in a news sitemap

Image Sitemap

Image sitemaps help search engines discover images that might not be found through normal crawling -- especially images loaded via JavaScript or CSS.

<?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://example.com/products/running-shoes</loc>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://example.com/images/running-shoes-front.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Running Shoes - Front View</image:title>
      <image:caption>Lightweight running shoes with breathable mesh upper, available in blue and black.</image:caption>
    </image:image>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://example.com/images/running-shoes-side.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:title>Running Shoes - Side View</image:title>
    </image:image>
  </url>
</urlset>

Image-specific elements:

xmlns:image -- Image namespace declaration.
<image:image> -- Container for a single image. You can include up to 1,000 images per <url> entry.
<image:loc> -- The URL of the image. Required. Must be an absolute URL.
<image:title> -- The title of the image. Optional but recommended.
<image:caption> -- A description of the image. Optional but helps with image search SEO.

You can combine image entries with regular sitemap elements. The page URL goes in <loc>, and the images associated with that page go in <image:image> blocks within the same <url> entry.

Video Sitemap

Video sitemaps provide metadata about video content on your pages, helping Google surface your videos in search results and Google Video.

<?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/tutorials/getting-started</loc>
    <video:video>
      <video:thumbnail_loc>https://example.com/thumbnails/getting-started.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:title>Getting Started Tutorial</video:title>
      <video:description>A 5-minute walkthrough of setting up your account and running your first project.</video:description>
      <video:content_loc>https://example.com/videos/getting-started.mp4</video:content_loc>
      <video:duration>300</video:duration>
      <video:publication_date>2025-03-20T10:00:00+00:00</video:publication_date>
    </video:video>
  </url>
</urlset>

Video-specific elements:

xmlns:video -- Video namespace declaration.
<video:thumbnail_loc> -- URL of the video thumbnail image. Required.
<video:title> -- The title of the video. Required.
<video:description> -- A description of the video. Required. Maximum 2,048 characters.
<video:content_loc> -- A URL pointing to the actual video file. Use this or <video:player_loc> (for embedded players like YouTube).
<video:duration> -- Duration in seconds. Optional but recommended.
<video:publication_date> -- When the video was first published. Optional.

Comparing Sitemap Types

Type	Root Element	Extra Namespace	Max URLs	Use Case
Standard	<urlset>	None	50,000	Most websites
Sitemap Index	<sitemapindex>	None	50,000 sitemaps	Large sites, organization
News	<urlset>	xmlns:news	1,000	News publishers
Image	<urlset>	xmlns:image	50,000 (1,000 images each)	Image-heavy sites
Video	<urlset>	xmlns:video	50,000	Sites with video content

Common Mistakes in Examples Online

Many sitemap examples you'll find on the web contain errors. Watch out for:

Missing the xmlns namespace -- Without it, the file is valid XML but not a valid sitemap
Using relative URLs -- <loc>/page</loc> is invalid; always use absolute URLs
Unescaped ampersands -- & must be written as & in XML
Wrong date formats -- 06/15/2025 is not valid; use 2025-06-15
Mixing sitemap types incorrectly -- A sitemap index can only contain <sitemap> entries, not <url> entries

Every example on this page is valid and ready to use as a starting point. Copy the structure, replace the URLs and metadata with your own, and validate the result.

Good sitemaps start with good examples. Now go build yours.

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