For any website that uses videos, it is pretty essential to have a video sitemap. Video sitemap helps Google and other search bots easily find more information about where videos are placed so that they can be indexed.
Rank Math automatically looks for the presence of video content inside your posts as you write them, and if it finds any video content, it will add that post/page/CPT to the Video Sitemap.
Table of Contents
How to Enable Video Sitemap in Rank Math?
To enable the Video Sitemap, head over to WordPress Dashboard → Rank Math SEO → Dashboard → Modules section. Then, from the list of different modules, enable the Video Sitemap module as shown below.
Note: The Video sitemap module can be enabled only if you have already enabled the Schema and Sitemap module. If any of the modules (Sitemap or Schema) is not activated, you’ll be prompted to activate both the Schema and Sitemap modules, before you enable the Video Sitemap module.
Benefits of Having Video Sitemap
Using a video sitemap gives your video content the best chance of ranking in the Videos tab in the search result. It’s worth noticing that although the video is originally uploaded to Youtube, your website page where the video has been embedded gets the chance to rank for the keyword.
PRO Tip: Include relevant Youtube videos (even if you aren’t the original creator) on your pages and make use of a video sitemap to improve the visibility of your pages.
Configuring Video Sitemap
Once you have enabled the Video Sitemap, click on the Settings button or head over to the Sitemap Settings at WordPress Dashboard → Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings → Video Sitemap, and it will look like this:
Now, let us look at the different options available for us to configure.
Hide Sitemap
You have an option to hide the sitemap from normal visitors and only show the sitemap to bots. By default, this option to hide sitemap is disabled, and it is completely based on your preference.
Video Post Type
You can choose what post types to be considered for the Video Sitemaps. Once you’ve chosen the post types, Rank Math will automatically detect videos only from these selected post types.
Custom Fields
And, you can instruct Rank Math to scan custom fields and look for the presence of video content. By default, we look for the videos in the default content.
Add only one entry per line so that Rank Math can understand them and include them in your sitemap.
Finding Your Video Sitemap
After making the necessary changes, click the Save Changes button, and your Video Sitemap URL is available at the top of your page. You can copy the URL to submit it to search engines or simply access your video sitemap URL from this page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Does My Video Sitemap Lead to a 404 Error Page?
Your video sitemap index is likely returning a 404 error because of caching issues. You can refer to this guide on excluding sitemaps from caching.
And that’s it! Once Rank Math detects the presence of a video in selected post types, we will automatically add it to the Video sitemap and add the Video Schema to the post along with all the required Schema fields like thumbnails, embed URL, video duration, etc…
If you still have any questions about using the Video sitemap with Rank Math, feel free to reach our support team, as we’re always here to help.