next-sitemap

Table of contents

• Getting started
  • Installation
  • Create config file
  • Building sitemaps
    • Custom config file
    • Building sitemaps with pnpm
• Index sitemaps
• Splitting large sitemap into multiple files
• Configuration Options
• Custom transformation function
• Full configuration example
• Generating dynamic/server-side sitemaps
• Typescript JSDoc

Getting started

Installation

yarn add next-sitemap

Create config file

next-sitemap requires a basic config file (next-sitemap.config.js) under your project root

✅ next-sitemap will load environment variables from .env files by default.

/** @type {import('next-sitemap').IConfig} */
module.exports = {
  siteUrl: process.env.SITE_URL || 'https://example.com',
  generateRobotsTxt: true, // (optional)
  // ...other options
}

Building sitemaps

Add next-sitemap as your postbuild script

{
  "build": "next build",
  "postbuild": "next-sitemap"
}

Custom config file

You can also use a custom config file instead of next-sitemap.config.js. Just pass --config <your-config-file>.js to build command (Example: custom-config-file)

{
  "build": "next build",
  "postbuild": "next-sitemap --config awesome.config.js"
}

Building sitemaps with pnpm

When using pnpm you need to create a .npmrc file in the root of your project if you want to use a postbuild step:

//.npmrc
enable-pre-post-scripts=true

Index sitemaps (Optional)

📣 From next-sitemap v2.x onwards, sitemap.xml will be Index Sitemap. It will contain urls of all other generated sitemap endpoints.

Index sitemap generation can be turned off by setting generateIndexSitemap: false in next-sitemap config file. (This is useful for small/hobby sites which does not require an index sitemap) (Example: no-index-sitemaps)

Splitting large sitemap into multiple files

Define the sitemapSize property in next-sitemap.config.js to split large sitemap into multiple files.

/** @type {import('next-sitemap').IConfig} */
module.exports = {
  siteUrl: 'https://example.com',
  generateRobotsTxt: true,
  sitemapSize: 7000,
}

Above is the minimal configuration to split a large sitemap. When the number of URLs in a sitemap is more than 7000, next-sitemap will create sitemap (e.g. sitemap-0.xml, sitemap-1.xml) and index (e.g. sitemap.xml) files.

Configuration Options

Custom transformation function

Custom transformation provides an extension method to add, remove or exclude path or properties from a url-set. Transform function runs for each relative path in the sitemap. And use the key: value object to add properties in the XML.

Returning null value from the transformation function will result in the exclusion of that specific relative-path from the generated sitemap list.

/** @type {import('next-sitemap').IConfig} */
module.exports = {
  transform: async (config, path) => {
    // custom function to ignore the path
    if (customIgnoreFunction(path)) {
      return null
    }

    // only create changefreq along with path
    // returning partial properties will result in generation of XML field with only returned values.
    if (customLimitedField(path)) {
      // This returns `path` & `changefreq`. Hence it will result in the generation of XML field with `path` and  `changefreq` properties only.
      return {
        loc: path, // => this will be exported as http(s)://<config.siteUrl>/<path>
        changefreq: 'weekly',
      }
    }

    // Use default transformation for all other cases
    return {
      loc: path, // => this will be exported as http(s)://<config.siteUrl>/<path>
      changefreq: config.changefreq,
      priority: config.priority,
      lastmod: config.autoLastmod ? new Date().toISOString() : undefined,
      alternateRefs: config.alternateRefs ?? [],
    }
  },
}

Additional paths function

additionalPaths this function can be useful if you have a large list of pages, but you don't want to render them all and use fallback: true. Result of executing this function will be added to the general list of paths and processed with sitemapSize. You are free to add dynamic paths, but unlike additionalSitemap, you do not need to split the list of paths into different files in case there are a lot of paths for one file.

If your function returns a path that already exists, then it will simply be updated, duplication will not happen.

/** @type {import('next-sitemap').IConfig} */
module.exports = {
  additionalPaths: async (config) => {
    const result = []

    // required value only
    result.push({ loc: '/additional-page-1' })

    // all possible values
    result.push({
      loc: '/additional-page-2',
      changefreq: 'yearly',
      priority: 0.7,
      lastmod: new Date().toISOString(),

      // acts only on '/additional-page-2'
      alternateRefs: [
        {
          href: 'https://es.example.com',
          hreflang: 'es',
        },
        {
          href: 'https://fr.example.com',
          hreflang: 'fr',
        },
      ],
    })

    // using transformation from the current configuration
    result.push(await config.transform(config, '/additional-page-3'))

    return result
  },
}

Google News, image and video sitemap

Url set can contain additional sitemaps defined by google. These are Google News sitemap, image sitemap or video sitemap. You can add the values for these sitemaps by updating entry in transform function or adding it with additionalPaths. You have to return a sitemap entry in both cases, so it's the best place for updating the output. This example will add an image and news tag to each entry but IRL you would of course use it with some condition or within additionalPaths result.

/** @type {import('next-sitemap').IConfig} */
const config = {
  transform: async (config, path) => {
    return {
      loc: path, // => this will be exported as http(s)://<config.siteUrl>/<path>
      changefreq: config.changefreq,
      priority: config.priority,
      lastmod: config.autoLastmod ? new Date().toISOString() : undefined,
      images: [{ loc: 'https://example.com/image.jpg' }],
      news: {
        title: 'Article 1',
        publicationName: 'Google Scholar',
        publicationLanguage: 'en',
        date: new Date(),
      },
    }
  },
}

export default config

Full configuration example

Here's an example next-sitemap.config.js configuration with all options

/** @type {import('next-sitemap').IConfig} */

module.exports = {
  siteUrl: 'https://example.com',
  changefreq: 'daily',
  priority: 0.7,
  sitemapSize: 5000,
  generateRobotsTxt: true,
  exclude: ['/protected-page', '/awesome/secret-page'],
  alternateRefs: [
    {
      href: 'https://es.example.com',
      hreflang: 'es',
    },
    {
      href: 'https://fr.example.com',
      hreflang: 'fr',
    },
  ],
  // Default transformation function
  transform: async (config, path) => {
    return {
      loc: path, // => this will be exported as http(s)://<config.siteUrl>/<path>
      changefreq: config.changefreq,
      priority: config.priority,
      lastmod: config.autoLastmod ? new Date().toISOString() : undefined,
      alternateRefs: config.alternateRefs ?? [],
    }
  },
  additionalPaths: async (config) => [
    await config.transform(config, '/additional-page'),
  ],
  robotsTxtOptions: {
    policies: [
      {
        userAgent: '*',
        allow: '/',
      },
      {
        userAgent: 'test-bot',
        allow: ['/path', '/path-2'],
      },
      {
        userAgent: 'black-listed-bot',
        disallow: ['/sub-path-1', '/path-2'],
      },
    ],
    additionalSitemaps: [
      'https://example.com/my-custom-sitemap-1.xml',
      'https://example.com/my-custom-sitemap-2.xml',
      'https://example.com/my-custom-sitemap-3.xml',
    ],
  },
}

Above configuration will generate sitemaps based on your project and a robots.txt like this.

# *
User-agent: *
Allow: /

# test-bot
User-agent: test-bot
Allow: /path
Allow: /path-2

# black-listed-bot
User-agent: black-listed-bot
Disallow: /sub-path-1
Disallow: /path-2

# Host
Host: https://example.com

# Sitemaps
Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml # Index sitemap
Sitemap: https://example.com/my-custom-sitemap-1.xml
Sitemap: https://example.com/my-custom-sitemap-2.xml
Sitemap: https://example.com/my-custom-sitemap-3.xml

Generating dynamic/server-side sitemaps

next-sitemap now provides two APIs to generate server side sitemaps. This will help to dynamically generate index-sitemap(s) and sitemap(s) by sourcing data from CMS or custom source.

• getServerSideSitemapIndex: Generates index sitemaps based on urls provided and returns application/xml response. Supports next13+ route.{ts,js} file.

  • To continue using inside pages directory, import getServerSideSitemapIndexLegacy instead.

• getServerSideSitemap: Generates sitemap based on field entires and returns application/xml response. Supports next13+ route.{ts,js} file.

  • To continue using inside pages directory, import getServerSideSitemapLegacy instead.

Server side index-sitemaps (getServerSideSitemapIndex)

Here's a sample script to generate index-sitemap on server side.

// app/server-sitemap-index.xml/route.ts
import { getServerSideSitemapIndex } from 'next-sitemap'

export async function GET(request: Request) {
  // Method to source urls from cms
  // const urls = await fetch('https//example.com/api')

  return getServerSideSitemapIndex([
    'https://example.com/path-1.xml',
    'https://example.com/path-2.xml',
  ])
}

// pages/server-sitemap-index.xml/index.tsx
import { getServerSideSitemapIndexLegacy } from 'next-sitemap'
import { GetServerSideProps } from 'next'

export const getServerSideProps: GetServerSideProps = async (ctx) => {
  // Method to source urls from cms
  // const urls = await fetch('https//example.com/api')

  return getServerSideSitemapIndexLegacy(ctx, [
    'https://example.com/path-1.xml',