XML sitemap

It is possible to generate XML sitemaps for SEO purposes without using 3rd party plugins. When this feature is enabled, a sitemap index file is created with one or more sitemaps in it. By default, there will be one sitemap that contains all pages of the current site and language. You can render different sitemaps for each site and language.

Note

The XML sitemap is provided by the optional system extension EXT:seo. You can find information about how to install and use it in the EXT:seo manual.

Table of Contents

Installation

XML sitemaps are part of the "seo" system extension. If the extension is not available in your installation, require it as described here: Installation, EXT:seo Then include the static TypoScript template XML Sitemap (seo).

How to access your XML sitemap

You can access the sitemaps by visiting https://example.org/?type=1533906435. You will first see the sitemap index. By default, there is one sitemap in the index. This is the sitemap for pages.

Note

Each siteroot and language configured in the site handling has its own XML sitemap depending on the entry point.

Example:

Entry point / - https://example.org/?type=1533906435: for default language
Entry point /fr/ - https://example.org/fr/?type=1533906435: for French
Entry point /it/ - https://example.org/it/?type=1533906435: for Italian

How to setup routing for the XML sitemap

You can use the PageType decorator to map the page type to a fixed suffix. This allows you to expose the sitemap with a readable URL, for example https://example.org/sitemap.xml.

Additionally, you can map the parameter sitemap, so that the links to the different sitemap types (pages and additional ones, for example, from the news extension) are also mapped.

config/sites/<your_site>/config.yaml

routeEnhancers:
  PageTypeSuffix:
    type: PageType
    map:
      /: 0
      sitemap.xml: 1533906435
  Sitemap:
    type: Simple
    routePath: 'sitemap-type/{sitemap}'
    aspects:
      sitemap:
        type: StaticValueMapper
        map:
          pages: pages
          tx_news: tx_news
          my_other_sitemap: my_other_sitemap

XmlSitemapDataProviders

The rendering of sitemaps is based on XmlSitemapDataProviders. EXT:seo ships with two XmlSitemapDataProviders.

For pages

The \TYPO3\CMS\Seo\XmlSitemap\PagesXmlSitemapDataProvider will generate a sitemap of pages based on the detected siteroot. You can configure whether you have additional conditions for selecting the pages. It is also possible to exclude certain doktypes. Additionally, you may exclude page subtrees from the sitemap (e.g internal pages). This can be configured using TypoScript (example below) or using the constants editor in the backend.

EXT:my_extension/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript

plugin.tx_seo {
    config {
        xmlSitemap {
            sitemaps {
                pages {
                    config {
                        excludedDoktypes = 3, 4, 6, 7, 199, 254, 255, 137, 138
                        additionalWhere = AND (no_index = 0 OR no_follow = 0)
                        #rootPage = <optionally specify a different root page. (default: rootPageId from site configuration)>
                        excludePagesRecursive = <comma-separated list of page IDs>
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Note

The doktypes 137 and 138 in the example above are custom doktypes. The other doktypes given are the ones excluded by default by the SEO extension.

For records

If you have an extension installed and want a sitemap of those records, the \TYPO3\CMS\Seo\XmlSitemap\RecordsXmlSitemapDataProvider can be used. The following example shows how to add a sitemap for news records:

EXT:my_extension/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript

plugin.tx_seo {
    config {
        <sitemapType> {
            sitemaps {
                <unique key> {
                    provider = TYPO3\CMS\Seo\XmlSitemap\RecordsXmlSitemapDataProvider
                    config {
                        table = news_table
                        sortField = sorting
                        lastModifiedField = tstamp
                        changeFreqField = news_changefreq
                        priorityField = news_priority
                        additionalWhere = AND (no_index = 0 OR no_follow = 0)
                        pid = <page id('s) containing news records>
                        recursive = <number of subpage levels taken into account beyond the pid page. (default: 0)>
                        url {
                            pageId = <your detail page id>
                            fieldToParameterMap {
                                uid = tx_extension_pi1[news]
                            }
                            additionalGetParameters {
                                tx_extension_pi1.controller = News
                                tx_extension_pi1.action = detail
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

You can add multiple sitemaps and they will be added to the sitemap index automatically. Use different types to have multiple, independent sitemaps:

EXT:my_extension/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript

seo_googlenews < seo_sitemap
seo_googlenews.typeNum = 1571859552
seo_googlenews.10.sitemapType = googleNewsSitemap

plugin.tx_seo {
    config {
        xmlSitemap {
            sitemaps {
                news {
                    provider = GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsXmlSitemapDataProvider
                    config {
                        # ...
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        googleNewsSitemap {
            sitemaps {
                news {
                    provider = GeorgRinger\News\Seo\NewsXmlSitemapDataProvider
                    config {
                        googleNews = 1
                        # ...
                        template = GoogleNewsXmlSitemap.xml
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Change frequency and priority

Change frequencies define how often each page is approximately updated and hence how often it should be revisited (for example: News in an archive are "never" updated, while your home page might get "weekly" updates).

Priority allows you to define how important the page is compared to other pages on your site. The priority is stated in a value from 0 to 1. Your most important pages can get an higher priority as other pages. This value does not affect how important your pages are compared to pages of other websites. All pages and records get a priority of 0.5 by default.

The settings can be defined in the TypoScript configuration of an XML sitemap by mapping the properties to fields of the record by using the options changeFreqField and priorityField. changeFreqField needs to point to a field containing string values (see pages TCA definition of field sitemap_changefreq), priorityField needs to point to a field with a decimal value between 0 and 1.

Note

Both the priority and the change frequency have no impact on your rankings. These options only give hints to search engines in which order and how often you would like a crawler to visit your pages.

Sitemap of records without sorting field

Sitemaps are paginated by default. To ensure that as few pages of the sitemap as possible are changed after the number of records is changed, the items in the sitemaps are ordered. By default, this is done using a sorting field. If you do not have such a field, make sure to configure this in your sitemap configuration and use a different field. An example you can use for sorting based on the uid field:

EXT:my_extension/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript

plugin.tx_seo {
    config {
        <sitemapType> {
            sitemaps {
                <unique key> {
                    config {
                        sortField = uid
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Create your own XmlSitemapDataProvider

If you need more logic in your sitemap, you can also write your own XmlSitemapProvider. You can do this by extending the \TYPO3\CMS\Seo\XmlSitemap\AbstractXmlSitemapDataProvider class. The main methods are getLastModified() and getItems().

The getLastModified() method is used in the sitemap index and has to return the date of the last modified item in the sitemap.

The getItems() method has to return an array with the items for the sitemap:

EXT:my_extension/Classes/XmlSitemap/MyXmlSitemapProvider

$this->items[] = [
    'loc' => 'https://example.org/page1.html',
    'lastMod' => '1536003609'
];

The loc element is the URL of the page to be crawled by a search engine. The lastMod element contains the date of the last update of the specific item. This value is a UNIX timestamp. In addition, you can include changefreq and priority as keys in the array to give search engines a hint.

Use a customized sitemap XSL file

The XSL file used to create a layout for an XML sitemap can be configured at three levels:

For all sitemaps:

EXT:my_extension/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript
```
plugin.tx_seo.config.xslFile = EXT:my_extension/Resources/Public/CSS/mySite.xsl
```
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For all sitemaps of a certain sitemapType:

EXT:my_extension/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript

plugin.tx_seo.config.<sitemapType>.sitemaps.xslFile = EXT:my_extension/Resources/Public/CSS/mySitemapType.xsl

For a specific sitemap:

EXT:my_extension/Configuration/TypoScript/setup.typoscript

plugin.tx_seo.config.<sitemapType>.sitemaps.<sitemap>.config.xslFile = EXT:my_extension/Resources/Public/CSS/mySpecificSitemap.xsl

The value is inherited until it is overwritten.

If no value is specified at all, EXT:seo/Resources/Public/CSS/Sitemap.xsl is used as default.