Google News Sitemap Guide: Setup, Submission & Troubleshooting
Complete guide to Google News sitemaps. Learn the XML format, required fields, how to submit to Google Search Console, and how to troubleshoot common errors.
A Google News sitemap is one of the most effective technical tools for news publishers. It tells Google exactly which articles you've recently published and helps ensure rapid indexing. This guide covers everything you need to know.
What is a Google News Sitemap?
A Google News sitemap is a specialized XML file that lists your most recently published articles, using a news-specific XML namespace that includes metadata like publication name, language, and article title. Unlike regular sitemaps that list all your pages, news sitemaps only include articles published in the last 48 hours.
The key benefit: Google's news crawler checks your news sitemap frequently (every few minutes in some cases) to discover new articles. With a properly configured news sitemap, your articles can be indexed in Google News within minutes of publication.
News Sitemap Structure
<?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://example.com/news/breaking-story</loc>
<news:news>
<news:publication>
<news:name>Example News</news:name>
<news:language>en</news:language>
</news:publication>
<news:publication_date>2025-06-15T09:00:00Z</news:publication_date>
<news:title>Breaking: Major Tech AnnouncementRequired News Sitemap Fields
- loc: The full URL of the article
- news:name: Your publication name (must match your Google News Publisher Center name)
- news:language: ISO 639 language code (en, es, fr, de, etc.)
- news:publication_date: ISO 8601 datetime when article was published
- news:title: Article title (can differ from the HTML title tag)
Submitting to Google Search Console
Steps to submit your news sitemap:
- Log in to Google Search Console
- Select your property
- Go to Sitemaps in the left navigation
- Enter your news sitemap URL (e.g., https://yourdomain.com/news-sitemap.xml)
- Click Submit
Also add a Sitemap directive to your robots.txt:
Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/news-sitemap.xmlCommon News Sitemap Errors and Fixes
- Sitemap contains URLs that are not in the news sitemap format: Make sure your news sitemap URL only returns the news sitemap XML, not a regular sitemap
- URLs older than 2 days: Remove articles older than 48 hours from your news sitemap automatically
- Missing required news fields: Validate with our News Sitemap Validator
- Wrong character encoding: Ensure the file is UTF-8 encoded with no BOM
- XML parsing errors: Validate XML structure with an online XML validator
CMS-Specific Setup
WordPress with Yoast SEO: Enable the news sitemap in Yoast SEO > Search Appearance > News SEO (requires Yoast News SEO plugin or premium).
WordPress with Rank Math: Enable News Sitemap in Rank Math > Sitemap Settings.
Ghost CMS: Uses a standard sitemap; consider a custom integration for news sitemap format.
Custom CMS: Generate dynamically by querying articles published in the last 48 hours and formatting as news sitemap XML.