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Image sitemaps
Image sitemaps are a way of telling Google about other images on your site, especially those that
we might not otherwise find (such as images your site reaches with JavaScript code). You can
create a separate image sitemap or add image sitemap tags to your existing sitemap; either
approach is equally fine for Google.
To make sure Google can use your image sitemap, you must use the following required tags:
Required tags
<image:image>
Encloses all information about a single image. Each <url> tag can
contain up to 1,000 <image:image> tags.
<image:loc>
The URL of the image.
In some cases, the image URL may not be on the same domain as your main site. This is
fine, as long as you verify both domains in Search Console. If, for example, you use
a content delivery network such as Google Sites to host your images, make sure that
the hosting site is verified in Search Console. In addition, make sure that your
robots.txt file doesn't
disallow the crawling of any content you want indexed.
Deprecated tags and attributes
We removed the following tags and attributes from our documentation:
<image:caption>, <image:geo_location>,
<image:title>, <image:license>. See the
deprecation announcement
for more information.
Additional resources
Want to learn more? Check out the following resources:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-03-06 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eImage sitemaps inform Google about images on your site, including those loaded with JavaScript, which can be created separately or integrated into existing sitemaps.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eGeneral sitemap best practices and image publishing guidelines should be followed for optimal image indexing.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eEach \u003ccode\u003e<url>\u003c/code\u003e tag in an image sitemap can contain up to 1,000 \u003ccode\u003e<image:image>\u003c/code\u003e tags, with \u003ccode\u003e<image:loc>\u003c/code\u003e specifying the image URL, even if hosted on a different verified domain.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003ePreviously supported tags like \u003ccode\u003e<image:caption>\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003e<image:geo_location>\u003c/code\u003e, \u003ccode\u003e<image:title>\u003c/code\u003e, and \u003ccode\u003e<image:license>\u003c/code\u003e are now deprecated.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eYou can submit your image sitemap to Google and combine it with other sitemap extensions for comprehensive indexing.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Image sitemaps inform Google about images on a site, including those found via JavaScript. Create a separate image sitemap or add image tags to an existing one. Use the `\u003cimage:image\u003e` tag to enclose image details, allowing up to 1,000 per `\u003curl\u003e`, and utilize the `\u003cimage:loc\u003e` tag for the image's URL. Ensure both your main and any image hosting domains are verified in Search Console. Deprecated tags include `\u003cimage:caption\u003e`, `\u003cimage:geo_location\u003e`, `\u003cimage:title\u003e`, and `\u003cimage:license\u003e`.\n"],null,["Image sitemaps\n\n\nImage sitemaps are a way of telling Google about other images on your site, especially those that\nwe might not otherwise find (such as images your site reaches with JavaScript code). You can\ncreate a separate image sitemap or add image sitemap tags to your existing sitemap; either\napproach is equally fine for Google.\n\n\nImage sitemaps are based on generic sitemaps so the\n[general sitemap best practices](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap#general-guidelines)\nalso apply to image sitemaps. We also recommend that you follow the\n[general best practices for publishing images](/search/docs/appearance/google-images).\n\nExample image sitemap\n\n\nThe following example shows a regular sitemap with image sitemap extension, with two\n`\u003curl\u003e` elements:\n\n- `https://example.com/sample1.html`, which contains two images\n- `https://example.com/sample2.html`, which contains one image\n\n```text\n\u003c?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?\u003e\n\u003curlset xmlns=\"http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9\"\n xmlns:image=\"http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1\"\u003e\n \u003curl\u003e\n \u003cloc\u003ehttps://example.com/sample1.html\u003c/loc\u003e\n \u003cimage:image\u003e\n \u003cimage:loc\u003ehttps://example.com/image.jpg\u003c/image:loc\u003e\n \u003c/image:image\u003e\n \u003cimage:image\u003e\n \u003cimage:loc\u003ehttps://example.com/photo.jpg\u003c/image:loc\u003e\n \u003c/image:image\u003e\n \u003c/url\u003e\n \u003curl\u003e\n \u003cloc\u003ehttps://example.com/sample2.html\u003c/loc\u003e\n \u003cimage:image\u003e\n \u003cimage:loc\u003ehttps://example.com/picture.jpg\u003c/image:loc\u003e\n \u003c/image:image\u003e\n \u003c/url\u003e\n\u003c/urlset\u003e\n```\n\nImage sitemap reference\n\n\nThe `image` tags are defined in the Image Sitemaps namespace:\n[`http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1`](http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1)\n\n\nTo make sure Google can use your image sitemap, you must use the following required tags:\n\n| Required tags ||\n|-----------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|\n| `\u003cimage:image\u003e` | Encloses all information about a single image. Each `\u003curl\u003e` tag can contain up to 1,000 `\u003cimage:image\u003e` tags. |\n| `\u003cimage:loc\u003e` | The URL of the image. In some cases, the image URL may not be on the same domain as your main site. This is fine, as long as you verify both domains in Search Console. If, for example, you use a content delivery network such as Google Sites to host your images, make sure that the hosting site is verified in Search Console. In addition, make sure that your [robots.txt](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/robots/intro) file doesn't disallow the crawling of any content you want indexed. |\n\nDeprecated tags and attributes\n\n\nWe removed the following tags and attributes from our documentation:\n`\u003cimage:caption\u003e`, `\u003cimage:geo_location\u003e`,\n`\u003cimage:title\u003e`, `\u003cimage:license\u003e`. See the\n[deprecation announcement](/search/blog/2022/05/spring-cleaning-sitemap-extensions)\nfor more information.\n\nAdditional resources\n\n\nWant to learn more? Check out the following resources:\n\n- [Submit your sitemap to Google](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/build-sitemap#addsitemap)\n- [Learn how to combine sitemap extensions](/search/docs/crawling-indexing/sitemaps/combine-sitemap-extensions)"]]