In 2020, is there an established approach to describe an international site using XML sitemaps?

Question

I've been writing XML Sitemaps for a decade, but I've never before needed to write an XML Sitemap for an international site.

It occurs to me that there are three clear approaches (and there may be additional, even better approaches).

Approach 1 : Single XML Sitemap (primary language URLs only, with corresponding pages)

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-1/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-2/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
</url>

---

Approach 2 : Single XML Sitemap (all relevant URLs, with corresponding pages)

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-1/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-2/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
</url>

---

Approach 3: Multiple XML Sitemaps (relevant URLs listed for each language, with corresponding pages)

sitemap-en.xml:

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-1/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-2/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
</url>

sitemap-de.xml:

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
</url>

---

Much of the advice available on the web is from the first half of the 2010s.

In 2020, is there an established approach to describe an international site using XML sitemaps?

Answer 1

The answers are all here:

• Tell Google about localized versions of your page

Two of the most important key points to note are:

Each language version must list itself as well as all other language versions.

and

If two pages don't both point to each other, the tags will be ignored. This is so that someone on another site can't arbitrarily create a tag naming itself as an alternative version of one of your pages.

This suggests:

• Approach 1 is definitely wrong
• Approach 2 in the question is almost right, but needs extending to satisfy all requirements
• Approach 3 would also be legitimate, if it were similarly extended to satisfy all requirements

---

Google gives the following example:

<url>
    <loc>http://www.example.com/english/page.html</loc>
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/page.html"/>
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-ch" href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/page.html"/>
    <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://www.example.com/english/page.html"/>
</url>

<url>
  <loc>http://www.example.com/deutsch/page.html</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/page.html"/>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-ch" href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/page.html"/>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://www.example.com/english/page.html"/>
</url>

<url>
  <loc>http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/page.html</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="http://www.example.com/deutsch/page.html"/>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de-ch" href="http://www.example.com/schweiz-deutsch/page.html"/>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="http://www.example.com/english/page.html"/>
</url>

This means an extended version of Approach 2 will satisfy all requirements:

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-1/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/example-page-2/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-1/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-1/" />
</url>

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/</loc>
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.com/de/beispielseite-2/" />
  <xhtml:link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/example-page-2/" />
</url>