Video Sitemap

A video sitemap is an XML sitemap, or an extension of one, that gives search engines details about videos on your pages. It lists each video’s title, description, thumbnail and file or player location, helping Google discover and understand videos it might otherwise miss.

Written by Paul Hoda, SEO consultant since 2005. Last updated 8 November 2026.

How a video sitemap works

Video entries use Google’s video namespace inside an XML sitemap. Under each page URL, a <video:video> block describes one video on that page.

You can add video entries to an existing sitemap or keep them in a separate file listed in your sitemap index.

Google’s required tags are:

  • video:thumbnail_loc: the URL of the thumbnail image.
  • video:title: the video’s title.
  • video:description: a short description of the video.
  • video:content_loc or video:player_loc: the URL of the video file itself, or of the embedded player.

Optional tags include duration, publication date, expiration date, family-friendly status, live status and country restrictions. Some older optional tags have been deprecated, so check Google’s current documentation before adding extras.

When it helps

  • Videos embedded with JavaScript players that crawlers struggle to detect.
  • Large libraries of self-hosted videos, such as courses, product demos or recipes.
  • Videos with an expiry date, such as event replays or time-limited offers.
  • Sites wanting their own pages, not just YouTube, to appear for video results.

If your videos are embedded in a standard way and marked up with video schema, Google can often find them without a sitemap. The two methods work well together, and the information in each should match.

Watch pages matter

Google has said it indexes videos mainly from watch pages: pages where the video is the main content, rather than a supporting extra. A video tucked below a long article may be discovered but not shown as a video result. Listing it in a sitemap does not change that. If video traffic matters, give important videos dedicated pages with a clear title, description and transcript.

How to create and check one

  1. See whether your CMS, video host or SEO plugin can generate video entries.
  2. Add the video namespace to the sitemap’s urlset element.
  3. Fill in the required tags for each video, using absolute URLs.
  4. Make sure thumbnails and video files are not blocked by robots.txt and do not need a login.
  5. Submit the sitemap in Google Search Console.
  6. Review the video indexing report to see which videos were indexed and why others were not.

Common mistakes

  • Listing a video against a page where it does not actually appear.
  • Using the same title and description for many videos.
  • Thumbnails that are too small, missing or blocked.
  • Forgetting to remove videos that have been deleted or made private.
  • Expecting a sitemap to rank videos. It aids discovery: relevance and quality decide visibility, as covered in video SEO.

Further reading: Google’s video sitemap documentation.

Key Takeaways

  • A video sitemap gives search engines key details about videos on your pages.
  • Google requires a thumbnail, title, description and a content or player location.
  • It works best alongside video schema, with matching information in both.
  • Google indexes videos mainly on pages where the video is the main content.
  • Use the video indexing report in Search Console to check results.

Related Terms

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