XML namespace
Sitemap protocol 0.9
The namespace every sitemap.xml and sitemap index must declare, almost always as the default. Declare the https:// form and crawlers reject the file.
xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"This is the only namespace search engines recognise for sitemap files. It is shared by both document types in the protocol: <urlset> for a sitemap and <sitemapindex> for an index that points at other sitemaps.
It is nearly always declared as the default namespace, so the elements inside appear unprefixed. A sitemap that omits the declaration, or declares the https:// form instead of http://, is a well-formed XML document that crawlers will still reject — the URI is matched literally.
- URI
http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9- Prefix
- Usually the default namespace
- Elements
urlsetsitemapindexurlsitemaploclastmodchangefreqpriority
Specification: sitemaps.org protocol
Formats that use it
XML sitemap
<urlset>A list of a site's URLs with optional freshness hints, read by every major search engine. One <urlset> root, one <url> per page, <loc> mandatory.
Sitemap index
<sitemapindex>A sitemap of sitemaps, used once a site outgrows a single 50,000-URL file. Indexes cannot nest: every child must be a sitemap, not another index.
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