Video Sitemap PRO

Automatically generate video sitemaps for better visibility in Google Video Search.

This is a PRO feature. Requires Prime SEO PRO ($59/year). Learn more →
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Overview

The Video Sitemap module automatically detects videos embedded in your posts and pages, then generates a dedicated video sitemap following Google's video sitemap specification. This helps your video content appear in Google Video Search results.

The video sitemap is separate from your regular XML sitemap and specifically targets video indexing.

Supported Video Platforms

Prime SEO PRO detects videos from all major platforms and self-hosted sources:

Platform Detection Method Example
YouTube iframe embed, oEmbed youtube.com/watch, youtu.be
Vimeo iframe embed, oEmbed vimeo.com/12345
Dailymotion iframe embed dailymotion.com/video
Self-hosted HTML5 video tag <video src="...">
WordPress blocks Gutenberg embed blocks wp:embed, wp:video
Note
Videos are detected from your post content automatically. No need to manually register them — just embed videos as you normally would.

How Detection Works

When generating the sitemap, Prime SEO scans each post's content using multiple parsers:

  • iframe parser — detects YouTube, Vimeo embeds via iframes
  • oEmbed parser — detects [embed]URL[/embed] shortcodes
  • Gutenberg parser — detects wp:embed and wp:video blocks
  • HTML5 parser — detects <video> tags for self-hosted videos

Each detected video becomes an entry in the video sitemap with: title (from post title), description (from post excerpt), thumbnail URL, and video URL.

Sitemap URLs

The Video Sitemap module generates the following URLs on your site:

URL Description
/video-sitemap.xml Main video sitemap
/video-sitemap2.xml Page 2 (if more than 1,000 entries)
/video-sitemap.xsl XSL stylesheet for browser display

The sitemap is generated dynamically and always reflects your latest content. XSL styling makes it readable in browsers.

Configuration

The Video Sitemap module is enabled by default in PRO. Configure which post types to include from the settings. By default, posts and pages are scanned for videos.

Tip
If you embed videos primarily in a custom post type (like “tutorials” or “courses”), make sure that post type is enabled in the settings.

Submitting to Google

To get your video content indexed by Google, submit the video sitemap through Search Console:

Open Google Search Console Go to search.google.com/search-console and select your property.
Go to the Sitemaps section In the left sidebar, click Sitemaps under the Indexing category.
Add video-sitemap.xml Enter video-sitemap.xml in the "Add a new sitemap" field and click Submit.
Wait for indexing Google will start processing your video sitemap. Video results may begin appearing in search within a few days.

The video sitemap is also automatically referenced from your robots.txt file.

Warning
Videos must be publicly accessible for Google to index them. Private or password-protected videos won't appear in search results.
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