Image Sitemap Generator: Create an XML Sitemap for Your Images

Separate multiple images with commas. Same page on several lines is merged.
image-sitemap.xml

		

	
















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This image sitemap generator builds an XML sitemap that lists each page and the images on it, using Google’s image:image and image:loc tags. It is for site owners, ecommerce teams and SEOs who want Google to find product photos, CDN-hosted images and images loaded by JavaScript. Paste page and image URLs, click Generate image sitemap, and download a file ready to submit in Search Console.





The tool works from the list you paste and never crawls your site. It merges repeated pages, removes duplicate images and skips anything that is not a valid URL.













What an Image Sitemap Adds





A normal XML sitemap lists pages. An image sitemap adds the images that belong to each page, so Google can discover files it might otherwise miss.





image:image and image:loc





An image sitemap uses the standard sitemap format plus Google’s image extension namespace. Each page sits in a <url> block with its <loc>. Inside it, every image gets an <image:image> element containing an <image:loc> with the image’s full URL. Google allows up to 1,000 images per page entry. You can add the image tags to your existing sitemap or keep them in a separate file. The generator produces a separate, standalone file with the correct namespace declarations, which is often easier to manage and debug.





Images on other domains





Many sites serve images from a CDN or a separate media subdomain, such as cdn.example.com. Google allows image URLs in your sitemap to point to other domains, so you can list CDN images under your own pages. The important part is that Google can fetch them: make sure the CDN does not block Googlebot in its own robots.txt or through hotlink protection. If you control the CDN domain, verifying it in Search Console makes it easier to see crawl problems.













How to Generate an Image Sitemap





The tool uses one simple line format: page URL, a pipe character, then the images on that page.





Step 1: Enter page URLs





Start each line with the full URL of the page that displays the images, such as https://example.com/product-a/. Use the canonical version of the URL, the same one listed in your main sitemap. If the same page appears on several lines, the tool merges them into one entry.





Step 2: Add image URLs per page





After the page URL, type | and list the image URLs, separated by commas. For example: https://example.com/product-a/ | https://example.com/img/a1.jpg, https://example.com/img/a2.jpg. Use absolute URLs to the actual image files. Duplicate images on the same page are removed automatically.





Step 3: Generate XML





Click Generate image sitemap. The stats show how many pages and images were included and how many entries were invalid. If any URL was skipped, a warning names the first one so you can fix it. Review the XML in the output panel before downloading.





Step 4: Submit in Search Console





Download image-sitemap.xml and upload it to your site, usually at the root. Submit its URL in Search Console under Sitemaps, and add a Sitemap: line to your robots.txt. Check the report later for errors or warnings.













When Image Sitemaps Help Most





Google finds most images by crawling pages, so an image sitemap matters most when crawling alone falls short.





JavaScript and lazy-loaded images





Images inserted by JavaScript, carousels, galleries and some lazy-loading scripts may not appear in the initial HTML. Google renders JavaScript, but it can miss images that load only after scrolling, clicking or other interaction. Listing those images in a sitemap gives Google a direct path to them. It does not replace proper markup: images should still use <img> elements with a src or srcset once loaded, because Google does not index CSS background images as image results.





Large ecommerce catalogues





Stores with thousands of products, several photos per product and frequent changes benefit most. A sitemap shows Google every product image in one place, even for products deep in category pages that are crawled less often. Generate the file from your product export by combining each product URL with its image URLs in a spreadsheet, then pasting the lines into the tool.













Deprecated Tags You Can Skip





Older guides list several extra image tags. Google no longer uses them.





image:caption and image:title removed





In 2022, Google deprecated the image:caption, image:title, image:geo_location and image:license tags. Sitemaps that still contain them will not cause errors, but the data is ignored. Captions and titles now come from the page itself: the alt text, nearby text and the page title. Licensing information is better provided through image metadata or structured data.





Current minimal format





The current format needs only <image:image> with <image:loc> inside each <url> entry. That is exactly what this generator outputs. Keeping the file minimal makes it smaller, easier to validate and less likely to break when your CMS changes.













Image SEO Beyond the Sitemap





A sitemap helps discovery. Ranking in Google Images depends on the page and the image itself.





Alt text and file names





Write alt text that describes the image in plain words, which helps both screen reader users and search engines. Use descriptive file names like red-trail-running-shoe.jpg rather than IMG_4821.jpg. Place images near related text on the page.





Image formats and speed





Serve modern formats such as WebP or AVIF where possible, size images to their display dimensions, and use responsive markup. The Srcset Generator builds that markup for you.













Image Sitemap Errors





These are the problems most often seen in Search Console’s sitemap report.





Blocked image URLs





If robots.txt disallows your image folder or CDN, Google cannot fetch the files. Check rules with the Robots.txt Generator.





Pages not in the main sitemap





List only canonical, indexable pages. Images on noindexed or redirected pages will not help.





Wrong namespace





The image namespace must be http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1. Typos make Google ignore the image tags.













Get Every Important Image Discovered





Paste your page and image URLs above and download a clean image sitemap in seconds. For your other content, build page sitemaps with the XML Sitemap Generator, list videos with the Video Sitemap Generator, or cover fresh articles with the News Sitemap Generator. More free tools are on FHSEO Hub.













Image Sitemap Generator: Create an XML Sitemap for Your Images FAQs









An image sitemap is an XML file that lists your pages and the image URLs on each one, using Google’s image:image and image:loc tags. It helps Google discover images it might miss while crawling, such as JavaScript-loaded or CDN-hosted files. You submit it in Search Console like any other sitemap.









No, you do not need a separate image sitemap, because image tags can be added to your existing XML sitemap. A separate file is often easier to generate and maintain, especially when images come from a different system. Either way works, as long as Google can fetch the file and the images.









Yes, image sitemaps can include CDN URLs and images hosted on other domains. Google allows the image:loc value to point anywhere, as long as the file is publicly accessible and not blocked by robots.txt. Verifying the CDN domain in Search Console helps you spot crawl issues.









Each page entry in a sitemap can contain up to 1,000 image tags. The sitemap file itself follows normal limits of 50,000 URLs and 50 MB uncompressed. For larger catalogues, split images across several sitemaps and list them all in a sitemap index file submitted to Search Console.









Image sitemaps improve discovery, not rankings directly. They help Google find and crawl images it might miss. How images rank depends on page relevance, alt text, surrounding content, image quality and page speed. A sitemap makes sure important images get considered, then on-page signals decide where they appear.