Sitemaps

https://www.sitemaps.org/
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Sitemaps is an XML protocol that helps webmasters inform search engines about all available pages on...
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### XML Sitemap Structure Example

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

This is a sample XML Sitemap file demonstrating the structure for listing URLs. It includes elements like <loc>, <lastmod>, <changefreq>, and <priority>. URLs within the <loc> tag must be properly entity escaped.

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">

   <url>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>

      <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>

      <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

      <priority>0.8</priority>

   </url>

   <url>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=12&amp;desc=vacation_hawaii</loc>

      <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>

   </url>

   <url>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=73&amp;desc=vacation_new_zealand</loc>

      <lastmod>2004-12-23</lastmod>

      <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>

   </url>

   <url>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=74&amp;desc=vacation_newfoundland</loc>

      <lastmod>2004-12-23T18:00:15+00:00</lastmod>

      <priority>0.3</priority>

   </url>

   <url>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/catalog?item=83&amp;desc=vacation_usa</loc>

      <lastmod>2004-11-23</lastmod>

   </url>

</urlset>
```

--------------------------------

### XML Sitemap Index Structure Example

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

This is a sample XML Sitemap index file used to group multiple Sitemap files. It contains <sitemap> entries, each with a <loc> child pointing to an individual Sitemap. The <lastmod> tag is optional. URLs must be entity escaped.

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">

   <sitemap>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/sitemap1.xml.gz</loc>

      <lastmod>2004-10-01T18:23:17+00:00</lastmod>

   </sitemap>

   <sitemap>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/sitemap2.xml.gz</loc>

      <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>

   </sitemap>

</sitemapindex>
```

--------------------------------

### Getting Lastmod Date with UNIX date command

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/faq

Shows how to obtain the last modification date of a file in ISO 8601 format using the UNIX `date` command. This is useful for setting the `lastmod` attribute in Sitemaps for static files.

```bash
date --iso-8601=seconds -u -r /home/foo/www/bar.html
```

--------------------------------

### URL Encoding Examples

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

Demonstrates how to encode URLs containing non-ASCII characters and characters requiring entity escaping. Shows ISO-8859-1 and UTF-8 encoding, followed by full entity escaping for XML compatibility.

```plaintext
http://www.example.com/ümlat.html&q=name
http://www.example.com/%FCmlat.html&q=name
http://www.example.com/%C3%BCmlat.html&q=name
http://www.example.com/%C3%BCmlat.html&amp;q=name
```

--------------------------------

### URL Entity Escaping Examples

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

These examples demonstrate how to properly escape special characters and non-ASCII characters in URLs for inclusion in sitemaps. It shows ISO-8859-1 and UTF-8 encoding with entity escaping.

```text
http://www.example.com/ümlat.php&q=name
http://www.example.com/%C3%BCmlat.php&q=name
http://www.example.com/%C3%BCmlat.php&amp;q=name
```

--------------------------------

### Submit Sitemap via HTTP Request (Ping)

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

How to submit a sitemap to search engines using an HTTP GET request.

```APIDOC
## Submit Sitemap via HTTP Request (Ping)

### Description
This endpoint allows you to notify search engines about your sitemap by sending an HTTP GET request to their ping URL.

### Method
GET

### Endpoint
`<searchengine_URL>/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url`

### Parameters
#### Query Parameters
- **sitemap** (string) - Required - The URL of your sitemap file. This should be URL-encoded.

### Request Example
**Basic Request:**
```
<searchengine_URL>/ping?sitemap=http://www.example.com/sitemap.gz
```

**URL Encoded Request:**
```
<searchengine_URL>/ping?sitemap=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yoursite.com%2Fsitemap.gz
```

### Response
#### Success Response (200)
- **HTTP 200**: Indicates the search engine has received your sitemap. This does not guarantee the sitemap is valid.

#### Response Example
(No specific response body is defined, only the HTTP status code is relevant.)
```

--------------------------------

### Ping Search Engine with Sitemap URL via HTTP Request

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

Illustrates how to notify a search engine about a sitemap's location using an HTTP GET request. The sitemap URL needs to be URL-encoded.

```http
<searchengine_URL>/ping?sitemap=sitemap_url
```

```http
<searchengine_URL>/ping?sitemap=http://www.example.com/sitemap.gz
```

```http
<searchengine_URL>/ping?sitemap=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yoursite.com%2Fsitemap.gz
```

--------------------------------

### Sample XML Sitemap Structure

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

This snippet demonstrates the basic XML structure of a sitemap file, including the required <urlset> and <url> tags, and optional tags like <loc>, <lastmod>, <changefreq>, and <priority>. It adheres to the sitemaps.org protocol specification.

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
   <url>
      <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
      <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>
      <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
      <priority>0.8</priority>
   </url>
</urlset>
```

--------------------------------

### Extending Sitemaps Protocol with Namespaces

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

Demonstrates how to extend the sitemaps protocol by adding custom namespaces.

```APIDOC
## Extending the Sitemaps Protocol

### Description
This section explains how to extend the sitemaps protocol by incorporating custom namespaces for additional data.

### Method
N/A (Protocol Extension Example)

### Endpoint
N/A

### Parameters
N/A

### Request Example
```xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd"
        xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:example="http://www.example.com/schemas/example_schema"> <!-- namespace extension -->
    <url>
        <example:example_tag>
            ...
        </example:example_tag>
        ...
    </url>
</urlset>
```

### Response
N/A
```

--------------------------------

### Multiple Sitemaps in robots.txt

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

Illustrates how to specify multiple sitemap file locations within a single robots.txt file, useful for sites with distributed sitemaps.

```text
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap-host1.xml

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap-host2.xml
```

--------------------------------

### Sample XML Sitemap Structure

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

This snippet demonstrates the basic structure of an XML Sitemap file, including required and optional tags. It shows a single URL entry with all optional tags.

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">

   <url>

      <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>

      <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>

      <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>

      <priority>0.8</priority>

   </url>

</urlset>
```

--------------------------------

### Specify Sitemap in robots.txt

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

Instructions on how to inform search engines about your sitemap location using the robots.txt file.

```APIDOC
## Specifying Sitemap in robots.txt

### Description
This method details how to add a directive to your `robots.txt` file to inform search engines about the location of your sitemap(s).

### Method
N/A (robots.txt configuration)

### Endpoint
N/A

### Parameters
N/A

### Request Example
```
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
```

Multiple sitemaps can be specified:

```
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap-host1.xml
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap-host2.xml
```

### Response
N/A
```

--------------------------------

### URL Entity Escaping in Python

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/faq

Demonstrates how to escape special characters in URLs for XML compatibility using Python's `xml.sax.saxutils.escape` function. This is crucial for ensuring URLs are correctly represented in Sitemap files.

```python
import xml.sax.saxutils
xml.sax.saxutils.escape("http://www.example.com/view?widget=3&count>2")
```

--------------------------------

### Specify Sitemap Location in robots.txt

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

Shows how to inform search engines about the location of your sitemap file by adding a 'Sitemap:' directive to your robots.txt file. Multiple sitemaps can be listed.

```robots.txt
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
```

```robots.txt
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap-host1.xml

Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap-host2.xml
```

--------------------------------

### Specify Sitemap Location in robots.txt

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

Shows how to inform search engines about the location of your sitemap file by adding a 'Sitemap:' directive to your robots.txt file.

```text
Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
```

--------------------------------

### Extending Sitemap Protocol with Custom Namespace

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

Demonstrates how to extend the sitemap protocol by adding a custom XML namespace to the root element, allowing for additional metadata within sitemap entries.

```xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd"
        xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:example="http://www.example.com/schemas/example_schema"> <!-- namespace extension -->
    <url>
        <example:example_tag>
            ...
        </example:example_tag>
        ...
    </url>
</urlset>
```

--------------------------------

### Sitemap Index XML Structure

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

Defines the XML structure for a sitemap index file, which is used to list multiple sitemap files. It includes namespaces and schema location for validation.

```xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<sitemapindex xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/siteindex.xsd"
              xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <sitemap>
        ...
    </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>
```

--------------------------------

### Sitemap Index XML Schema

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

The XML schema for sitemap index files, used to list multiple sitemap files.

```APIDOC
## Sitemap Index XML Schema

### Description
This schema defines the structure for a sitemap index file, which can contain multiple sitemap file references.

### Method
N/A (Schema Definition)

### Endpoint
N/A

### Parameters
N/A

### Request Example
```xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<sitemapindex xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/siteindex.xsd"
              xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <sitemap>
        ...
    </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>
```

### Response
N/A
```

--------------------------------

### Sitemaps XML Format

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

Defines the structure and elements of an XML sitemap file according to the sitemaps.org protocol.

```APIDOC
## Sitemaps XML Format

### Description
This document describes the XML schema for the Sitemap protocol. The Sitemap protocol format consists of XML tags. All data values in a Sitemap must be entity-escaped. The file itself must be UTF-8 encoded.

### Method
N/A (This describes a file format, not an API endpoint)

### Endpoint
N/A

### Parameters
#### Path Parameters
N/A

#### Query Parameters
N/A

#### Request Body
N/A

### Request Example
```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <url>
        <loc>http://www.example.com/</loc>
        <lastmod>2005-01-01</lastmod>
        <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
        <priority>0.8</priority>
    </url>
</urlset>
```

### Response
#### Success Response (200)
N/A (This describes a file format)

#### Response Example
N/A

## XML Tag Definitions

### `<urlset>`
*   **Description**: Encapsulates the file and references the current protocol standard.
*   **Required**: Yes

### `<url>`
*   **Description**: Parent tag for each URL entry. The remaining tags are children of this tag.
*   **Required**: Yes

### `<loc>`
*   **Description**: URL of the page. This URL must begin with the protocol (e.g., http) and end with a trailing slash, if your web server requires it. This value must be less than 2,048 characters.
*   **Required**: Yes

### `<lastmod>`
*   **Description**: The date of last modification of the page. This date should be in W3C Datetime format (YYYY-MM-DD).
*   **Optional**: Yes

### `<changefreq>`
*   **Description**: How frequently the page is likely to change. Valid values: `always`, `hourly`, `daily`, `weekly`, `monthly`, `yearly`, `never`.
*   **Optional**: Yes

### `<priority>`
*   **Description**: The priority of this URL relative to other URLs on your site. Valid values range from 0.0 to 1.0. The default priority is 0.5.
*   **Optional**: Yes
```

--------------------------------

### Sitemap XML Structure

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/en_GB/protocol

Defines the basic XML structure for a sitemap file, including the necessary namespaces and schema location for validation.

```xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd"
        xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <url>
        ...
    </url>
</urlset>
```

--------------------------------

### Sitemap XML Schema

Source: https://www.sitemaps.org/protocol

The XML schema for sitemap files defines the structure and elements allowed in a sitemap.

```APIDOC
## Sitemap XML Schema

### Description
This schema defines the structure for a standard sitemap file.

### Method
N/A (Schema Definition)

### Endpoint
N/A

### Parameters
N/A

### Request Example
```xml
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
        xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd"
        xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <url>
        ...
    </url>
</urlset>
```

### Response
N/A
```
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