News Sitemap Generator

Format Errors

• •Missing news XML namespace declaration causing sitemap rejection
• •Incorrect publication_date format — must be full ISO 8601 with timezone
• •Publication name not matching Google News Publisher Center registration
• •Including articles older than 48 hours in the news sitemap

Content Policy Issues

• •Site not meeting Google News content policies for original reporting
• •Missing author information on articles — required for News eligibility
• •Paywalled content without free article access for crawlers
• •Thin or aggregated content that doesn't meet News quality standards

Technical Setup

• •News sitemap not separate from standard sitemap — Google requires separation
• •No automatic expiry of articles older than 48 hours from news sitemap
• •News sitemap not submitted separately in Google Search Console
• •Publication language code incorrect or missing

Correct News Sitemap XML Format

A properly formatted Google News sitemap with all required fields:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset
  xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
  xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">

  <url>
    <loc>https://www.example.com/guides/breaking-news-article</loc>

    <news:news>
      <!-- Publication name must match Google News Publisher Center exactly -->
      <news:publication>
        <news:name>Your Publication Name</news:name>
        <news:language>en</news:language>
      </news:publication>

      <!-- Full ISO 8601 datetime with timezone — article published time -->
      <news:publication_date>2026-02-28T14:30:00+00:00</news:publication_date>

      <!-- Exact article headline -->
      <news:title>Your Exact Article Headline Here</news:title>
    </news:news>

  </url>

</urlset>

Dynamic News Sitemap in Next.js

Generate a news sitemap that automatically includes only articles from the last 48 hours:

// app/news-sitemap.xml/route.ts
import { getAllPosts } from "@/lib/posts";

export async function GET() {
  const allPosts = await getAllPosts();

  // Only include articles published in last 48 hours
  const cutoff = new Date(Date.now() - 48 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
  const recentPosts = allPosts.filter(
    (post) => new Date(post.publishedAt) > cutoff
  );

  const xml = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset
  xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
  xmlns:news="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-news/0.9">
${recentPosts.map((post) => `  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/guides/${post.slug}</loc>
    <news:news>
      <news:publication>
        <news:name>Your Publication Name</news:name>
        <news:language>en</news:language>
      </news:publication>
      <news:publication_date>${new Date(post.publishedAt).toISOString()}</news:publication_date>
      <news:title>${post.title.replace(/&/g, "&amp;").replace(/</g, "&lt;")}</news:title>
    </news:news>
  </url>`).join("\n")}
</urlset>`;

  return new Response(xml, {
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/xml",
      // Revalidate frequently — news content is time-sensitive
      "Cache-Control": "public, max-age=300, stale-while-revalidate=600",
    },
  });
}

Submit News Sitemap to Google Search Console

Submit your news sitemap separately from your standard sitemap in GSC:

// Steps to submit news sitemap in Google Search Console:
// 1. Go to Google Search Console → Sitemaps
// 2. Enter your news sitemap URL: https://example.com/news-sitemap.xml
// 3. Click Submit

// Also reference in robots.txt:
// Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml
// Sitemap: https://example.com/news-sitemap.xml

// For Next.js, add to robots.ts:
export default function robots() {
  return {
    rules: { userAgent: "*", allow: "/" },
    sitemap: [
      "https://example.com/sitemap.xml",
      "https://example.com/news-sitemap.xml", // Separate news sitemap
    ],
  };
}