sitemap.(xml|js|ts) is a special file that matches the Sitemaps XML format to help search engine crawlers index your site more efficiently.

Sitemap files (.xml)

For smaller applications, you can create a sitemap.xml file and place it in the root of your app directory.

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>1</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com/blog</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.5</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Generating a sitemap using code (.js, .ts)

You can use the sitemap.(js|ts) file convention to programmatically generate a sitemap by exporting a default function that returns an array of URLs. If using TypeScript, a Sitemap type is available.

Good to know: sitemap.js is a special Route Handler that is cached by default unless it uses a Request-time API or dynamic config option.

import type { MetadataRoute } from 'next'

export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
  return [
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      changeFrequency: 'yearly',
      priority: 1,
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/about',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      changeFrequency: 'monthly',
      priority: 0.8,
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/blog',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      changeFrequency: 'weekly',
      priority: 0.5,
    },
  ]
}

export default function sitemap() {
  return [
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      changeFrequency: 'yearly',
      priority: 1,
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/about',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      changeFrequency: 'monthly',
      priority: 0.8,
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/blog',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      changeFrequency: 'weekly',
      priority: 0.5,
    },
  ]
}

Output:

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
    <changefreq>yearly</changefreq>
    <priority>1</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
    <changefreq>monthly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.8</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com/blog</loc>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.5</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Image Sitemaps

You can use images property to create image sitemaps. Learn more details in the Google Developer Docs.

import type { MetadataRoute } from 'next'

export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
  return [
    {
      url: 'https://example.com',
      lastModified: '2021-01-01',
      changeFrequency: 'weekly',
      priority: 0.5,
      images: ['https://example.com/image.jpg'],
    },
  ]
}

Output:

<?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</loc>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://example.com/image.jpg</image:loc>
    </image:image>
    <lastmod>2021-01-01</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.5</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Video Sitemaps

You can use videos property to create video sitemaps. Learn more details in the Google Developer Docs.

import type { MetadataRoute } from 'next'

export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
  return [
    {
      url: 'https://example.com',
      lastModified: '2021-01-01',
      changeFrequency: 'weekly',
      priority: 0.5,
      videos: [
        {
          title: 'example',
          thumbnail_loc: 'https://example.com/image.jpg',
          description: 'this is the description',
        },
      ],
    },
  ]
}

Output:

<?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</loc>
    <video:video>
      <video:title>example</video:title>
      <video:thumbnail_loc>https://example.com/image.jpg</video:thumbnail_loc>
      <video:description>this is the description</video:description>
    </video:video>
    <lastmod>2021-01-01</lastmod>
    <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
    <priority>0.5</priority>
  </url>
</urlset>

Generate a localized Sitemap

import type { MetadataRoute } from 'next'

export default function sitemap(): MetadataRoute.Sitemap {
  return [
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      alternates: {
        languages: {
          es: 'https://acme.com/es',
          de: 'https://acme.com/de',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/about',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      alternates: {
        languages: {
          es: 'https://acme.com/es/about',
          de: 'https://acme.com/de/about',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/blog',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      alternates: {
        languages: {
          es: 'https://acme.com/es/blog',
          de: 'https://acme.com/de/blog',
        },
      },
    },
  ]
}

export default function sitemap() {
  return [
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      alternates: {
        languages: {
          es: 'https://acme.com/es',
          de: 'https://acme.com/de',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/about',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      alternates: {
        languages: {
          es: 'https://acme.com/es/about',
          de: 'https://acme.com/de/about',
        },
      },
    },
    {
      url: 'https://acme.com/blog',
      lastModified: new Date(),
      alternates: {
        languages: {
          es: 'https://acme.com/es/blog',
          de: 'https://acme.com/de/blog',
        },
      },
    },
  ]
}

Output:

<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9" xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com</loc>
    <xhtml:link
      rel="alternate"
      hreflang="es"
      href="https://acme.com/es"/>
    <xhtml:link
      rel="alternate"
      hreflang="de"
      href="https://acme.com/de"/>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com/about</loc>
    <xhtml:link
      rel="alternate"
      hreflang="es"
      href="https://acme.com/es/about"/>
    <xhtml:link
      rel="alternate"
      hreflang="de"
      href="https://acme.com/de/about"/>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://acme.com/blog</loc>
    <xhtml:link
      rel="alternate"
      hreflang="es"
      href="https://acme.com/es/blog"/>
    <xhtml:link
      rel="alternate"
      hreflang="de"
      href="https://acme.com/de/blog"/>
    <lastmod>2023-04-06T15:02:24.021Z</lastmod>
  </url>
</urlset>

Generating multiple sitemaps

While a single sitemap will work for most applications. For large web applications, you may need to split a sitemap into multiple files.

There are two ways you can create multiple sitemaps:

• By nesting sitemap.(xml|js|ts) inside multiple route segments e.g. app/sitemap.xml and app/products/sitemap.xml.
• By using the generateSitemaps function.

For example, to split a sitemap using generateSitemaps, return an array of objects with the sitemap id. Then, use the id to generate the unique sitemaps.

import type { MetadataRoute } from 'next'
import { BASE_URL } from '@/app/lib/constants'

export async function generateSitemaps() {
  // Fetch the total number of products and calculate the number of sitemaps needed
  return [{ id: 0 }, { id: 1 }, { id: 2 }, { id: 3 }]
}

export default async function sitemap(props: {
  id: Promise<string>
}): Promise<MetadataRoute.Sitemap> {
  const id = await props.id
  // Google's limit is 50,000 URLs per sitemap
  const start = id * 50000
  const end = start + 50000
  const products = await getProducts(
    `SELECT id, date FROM products WHERE id BETWEEN ${start} AND ${end}`
  )
  return products.map((product) => ({
    url: `${BASE_URL}/product/${product.id}`,
    lastModified: product.date,
  }))
}

import { BASE_URL } from '@/app/lib/constants'

export async function generateSitemaps() {
  // Fetch the total number of products and calculate the number of sitemaps needed
  return [{ id: 0 }, { id: 1 }, { id: 2 }, { id: 3 }]
}

export default async function sitemap(props) {
  const id = await props.id
  // Google's limit is 50,000 URLs per sitemap
  const start = id * 50000
  const end = start + 50000
  const products = await getProducts(
    `SELECT id, date FROM products WHERE id BETWEEN ${start} AND ${end}`
  )
  return products.map((product) => ({
    url: `${BASE_URL}/product/${product.id}`,
    lastModified: product.date,
  }))
}

Your generated sitemaps will be available at /.../sitemap/[id]. For example, /product/sitemap/1.xml.

See the generateSitemaps API reference for more information.

Returns

The default function exported from sitemap.(xml|ts|js) should return an array of objects with the following properties:

type Sitemap = Array<{
  url: string
  lastModified?: string | Date
  changeFrequency?:
    | 'always'
    | 'hourly'
    | 'daily'
    | 'weekly'
    | 'monthly'
    | 'yearly'
    | 'never'
  priority?: number
  alternates?: {
    languages?: Languages<string>
  }
}>

Version History

Source: docs/01-app/03-api-reference/03-file-conventions/01-metadata/sitemap.mdx