A video sitemap is a sitemap with additional information about videos hosted on your pages. Creating a video sitemap is a good way to help Google find and understand the video content on your site, especially content that was recently added or that we might not otherwise discover with our usual crawling mechanisms.
Google recommends using video sitemaps, however we also support mRSS feeds.
Video sitemap best practices
Video sitemaps are based on generic sitemaps, so the general sitemap best practices also apply to video sitemaps. You can create a separate sitemap or mRSS feed just for video, or you can add video sitemap tags within an existing sitemap, whichever is more convenient for you.
Additionally, the following requirements apply to video sitemaps specifically:
Don’t list videos that are unrelated to the content of the host page. For example, a video that is a small addendum to the page, or unrelated to the main text content.
All files referenced in the video sitemap must be accessible to Googlebot. This means that all URLs in the video sitemap:
must not be disallowed for crawling by robots.txt rules,
must be accessible without metafiles and without logging in,
must not be blocked by firewalls or similar mechanism,
and must be accessible on a supported protocol: HTTP and FTP (streaming protocols are not supported).
The following example shows a regular sitemap with video extension. It includes two video entries nested in the single <url> tag. The first <video> entry includes all the tags that Google can use while the second only the required tags.
To make sure Google can use your video sitemap, you must use the following required tags:
Required tags
<video:video>
The parent element for all information about a single video on the page specified by the <loc> tag. You can include multiple <video:video> tags nested in the <loc> tag, one for each video on the hosting page.
The title of the video. All HTML entities must be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA block. We recommend that this match the video title displayed on the web page where the video is embedded.
<video:description>
A description of the video. Maximum 2048 characters. All HTML entities must be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA block. It must match the description displayed on the web page where the video is embedded, but it doesn’t need to be a word-for-word match.
<video:content_loc>
A URL pointing to the actual video media file. The file must be one of the supported formats.
Additional guidelines
HTML and Flash aren’t supported formats.
Must not be the same as the URL in the parent <loc> tag.
Best practice: If you want to restrict access to your content but still have it crawled, ensure that Googlebot can access your content by using verifying Googlebot.
<video:player_loc>
A URL pointing to a player for a specific video. Usually this is the information in the src attribute of an <embed> tag.
Additional guidelines
Must not be the same as the <loc> URL.
For Vimeo, YouTube, and other video hosting platforms that allow embedding videos through iframe videos, this value is used rather than video:content_loc. This is the equivalent of VideoObject.embedUrl in structured data.
Best practice: If you want to restrict access to your content but still have it crawled, ensure that Googlebot can access your content by using verifying Googlebot.
Additionally, the following optional tags may help Google better understand your videos and its properties:
Optional tags
<video:duration>
The duration of the video, in seconds. Value must be from 1 to 28800 (8 hours).
<video:expiration_date>
The date after which the video is no longer be available, in W3C format. Omit this tag if your video doesn’t expire. If present, Google Search won’t show your video after this date. For recurring videos at the same URL, update the expiration date to the new expiration date.
Supported values are complete date (YYYY-MM-DD), or complete date plus hours, minutes and seconds, and timezone (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+TZD).
Example:2012-07-16T19:20:30+08:00.
<video:rating>
The rating of the video. Supported values are float numbers in the range 0.0 (low) to 5.0 (high).
<video:view_count>
The number of times the video has been viewed.
<video:publication_date>
The date the video was first published, in W3C format. Supported values are complete date (YYYY-MM-DD) or complete date plus hours, minutes and seconds, and timezone (YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss+TZD).
Example:2007-07-16T19:20:30+08:00
<video:family_friendly>
Whether the video is available with SafeSearch. If you omit this tag, the video is available when SafeSearch is turned on.
Supported values:
yes: The video is available when SafeSearch is turned on.
no: The video is only available when SafeSearch is turned off.
<video:restriction>
Whether to show or hide your video in search results from specific countries.
Specify a space-delimited list of country codes in ISO 3166 format. If there’s no <video:restriction> tag, Google assumes that the video can be shown in all locations. Note that this tag only affects search results; it doesn’t prevent a user from finding or playing your video in a restricted location through other means. Learn more about applying country restrictions.
Attributes:
If the parent tag <video:restriction> is used, the following attribute is required:
relationship: Whether the video is allowed or denied in search results in the specified countries. Supported values are:
allow: The listed countries are allowed and unlisted countries are denied.
deny: The listed countries are denied and unlisted countries are allowed.
Example: This example allows the video search result to be shown only in Canada and Mexico:
Whether to show or hide your video in search results on specified platform types. This is a list of space-delimited platform types. Note that this only affects search results on the specified device types; it doesn’t prevent a user from playing your video on a restricted platform.
mobile: Mobile browsers, such as those on cellular phones or tablets.
tv: TV browsers, such as those available through Google TV devices and game consoles.
Attributes:
If the parent tag <video:platform> is used, the following attributes are required:
relationship: Specifies whether the video is restricted or permitted for the specified platforms. Supported values are:
allow: Any omitted platforms will be denied.
deny: Any omitted platforms will be allowed.
Example: The following example allows users on web or TV, but not mobile devices: <video:platform relationship="allow">web tv</video:platform>
<video:requires_subscription>
Indicates whether a subscription (either paid or free) is required to view the video. Supported values are:
yes: Subscription is required.
no: Subscription is not required.
<video:uploader>
The video uploader’s name. The string value can be a maximum of 255 characters.
Attributes:
info [Optional]: Specifies the URL of a web page with additional information about this uploader. This URL must be in the same domain as the <loc> tag.
<video:live>
Indicates whether the video is a livestream. Supported values are:
yes: The video is a livestream.
no: The video is not a livestream.
<video:tag>
An arbitrary string tag describing the video. Tags are generally very short descriptions of key concepts associated with a video or piece of content. A single video could have several tags, although it might belong to only one category. For example, a video about grilling food may belong in the “grilling” category, but could be tagged “steak”, “meat”, “summer”, and “outdoor”. Create a new <video:tag> element for each tag associated with a video. A maximum of 32 tags is permitted per video.
Sitemap alternative: mRSS
While Google recommends using video sitemaps, we also support mRSS feeds.
Google supports mRSS, an RSS module that supplements the element capabilities of RSS 2.0. mRSS feeds are very similar to video sitemaps and can be tested, submitted, and updated just like sitemaps.
To make sure Google can use your mRSS feed, you must use the following required tags:
Required tags
<media:content>
Encloses information about the video.
Attributes:
medium: Type of content. Set to video.
url: The direct URL to the raw video content. If this isn’t specified, you must specify the <media:player> tag.
duration [Optional but recommended]: Length of the video in seconds.
For all of the other optional attributes and child fields of the <media:content> tag, see the mRSS specification.
<media:player>
You must specify at least one of <media:player> or the url attribute in <media:content>.
A URL pointing to a player for a specific video. Usually this is the information in the src attribute of an <embed> tag and must not be the same as the content of the <loc> tag. It can’t be the same URL as the <link> tag. The <link> tag points to the URL of the page hosting the video, while this tag points to a player.
<media:title>
The title of the video. Maximum 100 characters. All HTML entities must be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA bock.
<media:description>
The description of the video. Maximum 2048 characters. All HTML entities must be escaped or wrapped in a CDATA block.
A space-delimited list of countries where the video may or may not be played, in ISO 3166 format. If there’s no <media:restriction> tag, Google assumes that the video can be played in all countries.
Attributes:
If the parent tag <media:restriction> is used, the following attributes are required:
type: Set the type attribute to country. Only country restrictions are supported.
relationship: Specifies whether the video may or may not be played in the specified list of countries. Supported values:
allow: The listed countries are allowed and unlisted countries are denied.
deny: The listed countries are denied and unlisted countries are allowed.
The price to download or view the video. Don’t use this tag for videos that are available without payment. More than one <media:price> element can be listed (for example, in order to specify various currencies or purchasing options).
Attributes:
If the parent tag <media:price> is used, the following attributes are required:
subscription: The video is available with a subscription.
Troubleshooting sitemaps
If you’re having trouble with your sitemap, you can investigate the errors with Google Search Console. See Search Console’s sitemaps troubleshooting guide for help.
Additional resources
Want to learn more? Check out the following resources:
Video sitemaps are the reliable path to video results when on-page markup is inconsistent. We use them alongside structured data rather than instead of it.