XML sitemap
An XML file listing URLs a site wants crawled, optionally with lastmod dates, used as a discovery aid by Google, Bing and other engines.
Crawling IndexingImage sitemapVideo sitemap
Image and video sitemap extensions
Namespace extensions to XML sitemaps that declare images and videos associated with a page so they can be discovered for Images and Video search.
In full
The image extension lets you list image URLs per page; the video extension carries thumbnail, title, description, content or player URL and duration. They matter most when media is loaded by JavaScript, served from a separate CDN host, or lazy-loaded in ways a crawler may miss. For video, the sitemap and VideoObject structured data can both be supplied and should agree.
Example
A recipe site adds `<video:video>` entries with thumbnail and duration so its how-to clips are eligible for video results.
Related terms
Image pack
A horizontal or grid block of image results embedded within the web SERP, linking through to Google Images.
Video results and carousels
Video thumbnails shown individually or in a carousel on the SERP, eligible through VideoObject markup, video sitemaps and on-page embedding.
Structured data
Machine-readable annotations on a page, usually Schema.org vocabulary in JSON-LD, that describe entities and make pages eligible for rich…
Lazy loading
Deferring the download of offscreen images and iframes until they are near the viewport, using the native `loading="lazy"` attribute or…