Lightweight Video Sitemap for WordPress

A zero-bloat plugin that generates a dedicated video sitemap at /video-sitemap.xml for posts and pages that contain embedded or self-hosted videos.

Works alongside your existing XML sitemap plugin. No settings pages, no tracking, no “powered by” links.

Features

• Detects:
  • YouTube embeds (watch URLs, short links, iframe embeds)
  • Vimeo embeds
  • HTML5 <video> tags
  • Direct .mp4, .webm, .ogg URLs
• Outputs a valid video sitemap at /video-sitemap.xml
• Uses featured images as thumbnails when needed
• Sanitizes titles/descriptions for XML (no broken entities)
• Filter hooks for custom post types and custom video fields

Installation

1. Download or clone this repository.
2. Create a folder named lightweight-video-sitemap in wp-content/plugins/.
3. Upload the files into that folder.
4. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Installed Plugins and activate Lightweight Video Sitemap for WordPress.
5. Visit Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes once to refresh rewrite rules.
6. Open https://yourdomain.com/video-sitemap.xml to confirm the sitemap is generated.
7. Submit that URL in Google Search Console → Sitemaps.

Usage

• Keep your existing main XML sitemap plugin active.
• This plugin adds an additional sitemap specifically for videos:
  • https://yourdomain.com/video-sitemap.xml

Customization

Include custom post types:

add_filter( 'lvs_post_types', function( $types ) {
    $types[] = 'my_custom_post_type';
    return $types;
} );