Lazy-loaded galleries
Sitemap hints help crawlers discover URLs even when rendering paths are complex.
Technical SEO
Image Sitemap Guide
Image sitemap entries improve discoverability for important visual assets, especially when lazy loading or JS rendering can hide images from crawlers.
Core rule:
Page URL and image URL must be stable, crawlable, and publicly reachable.
Minimal XML Example
<url>
<loc>https://example.com/product/blue-shoe</loc>
<image:image>
<image:loc>https://example.com/storage/products/blue-shoe-main.webp</image:loc>
</image:image>
</url>You can also include multiple <image:image> nodes per URL when a page has more than one important image.
When Image Sitemaps Help Most
Large media libraries
Explicit listing improves crawl efficiency for key assets.
CDN-hosted images
Sitemap clarifies canonical image locations when domain architecture is split.
Programmatic content pages
Generated pages can include stable image references in sitemap output.
Submission and Monitoring Checklist
- Image URL returns
200and has correct content type. - Image is not blocked by robots.txt or authentication.
- Sitemap references canonical image URLs only (no expiring signed links).
- Page contains the image in rendered HTML context.
- Submit sitemap in Google Search Console and monitor coverage reports.
- Re-generate sitemap when assets or routes change.
Frequently Asked Questions
-
Not required. You can include image entries inside your main sitemap URLs.
-
Usually no. Include primary canonical assets that matter for search discovery.
-
Yes, as long as they are stable, crawlable, and public.
-
No guarantee, but it strongly improves discovery and crawl consistency.
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