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XML Sitemap

When to Use

Configure an XML sitemap whenever you launch a Drupal site. Search engines use sitemaps to discover and prioritize content. Simple Sitemap 4.2.3 is the recommended choice — it handles multilingual hreflang, IndexNow instant indexing, and image sitemaps out of the box. Use XML Sitemap only if you have a legacy site that already depends on it.

Decision

Situation Choice Why
New Drupal 11 site Simple Sitemap 4.2.3 Active development, IndexNow, hreflang, image support
Multilingual site Simple Sitemap + metatag_hreflang Automatic hreflang per translation
Already using XML Sitemap XML Sitemap 2.0.0 Avoid migration cost if working
Need instant indexing Simple Sitemap + simple_sitemap_engines IndexNow support for Bing/Yandex
Image-heavy site (ecommerce, media) Simple Sitemap with image extension Google Image sitemap protocol
High-volume site (100k+ nodes) Simple Sitemap with cron chunking Configurable chunk size prevents timeout

Pattern

Install and Enable

composer require drupal/simple_sitemap:^4.2
drush en simple_sitemap simple_sitemap_engines

Admin path: /admin/config/search/simplesitemap

Entity Type Configuration

Enable sitemap generation per entity type and bundle at: /admin/config/search/simplesitemap/entities

# simple_sitemap.bundle_settings.node.article.yml
changefreq: daily
priority: 0.8
include_images: true

Key config fields: - Variant — default (XML) or custom variants (news, image) - Priority — 0.0 to 1.0; set higher for cornerstone content - Change frequency — hint to crawlers, not a guarantee - Include images — adds image:image tags for inline images

IndexNow Configuration

# Enable via UI at /admin/config/search/simplesitemap/engines
# Or in settings.php:
$config['simple_sitemap_engines.settings']['enabled'] = TRUE;
$config['simple_sitemap_engines.settings']['engines'] = ['bing', 'yandex'];

IndexNow submits a URL immediately on node save. No API key needed for Bing.

Multilingual / Hreflang

Simple Sitemap automatically generates <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="..."> entries when: 1. Drupal's Language module is enabled 2. Content has translations 3. Simple Sitemap regenerates (cron or manual)

Verify at: /sitemap.xml — each URL entry should contain alternate hreflang links.

Submit to Search Engines

Reference the sitemap in robots.txt: 

Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Submit manually via Google Search Console at https://search.google.com/search-console/sitemaps.

Common Mistakes

  • Wrong: Leaving all content types at default priority 0.5 → Right: Assign 0.8+ to cornerstone pages, 0.4 to archives
  • Wrong: Not regenerating after bulk content imports → Right: Trigger regeneration via drush: drush simple-sitemap:generate
  • Wrong: Enabling sitemap on every entity type including users/taxonomy terms → Right: Only include publicly accessible, indexable content
  • Wrong: Not referencing sitemap in robots.txt → Right: Add Sitemap: line so crawlers auto-discover it
  • Wrong: Image sitemap with alt text missing → Right: Ensure all media has alt text — it populates image:title in the sitemap

See Also