Create and Configure sitemap.xml in ASP.NET Core

Istiaque Chowdhury

ASP.NET CoreConfigure sitemap.xml In ASP.NET Coresitemap.xmlsitemap.xml In ASP.NET Core

6 Comments

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Nalin Jayasuriya5y ago
Thank you. I just want to say that in addition to this approach, another is to manually create a sitemap.xml and place the file in the ASP.NET application's wwwroot folder (make sure you have app.UseStaticFiles(); in the startup.cs ). Also do the same for the robots.txt file. You can then submit your sitemap.xml to a search engine (e.g. Google)
Gert VanNuffel5y ago
It's not working. When I go to https://localhost:{port}/sitemap.xml, the sitemap is empty. "This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below."
Christian Ponzi5y ago
Hi i follow your istruction and i copy every single code line. the result is an empty xml. Did I forgot something?javascript:void(0)
- Joel Wynes5y ago
  I am having the same issue
- Joel Wynes5y ago
  Christian Ponzi I literally figured this out right after I posted me previous comment... I created an action method that I can call from the browser that then executes the CreateSiteMapInRootDirectory() method. This created the XML file with no problem and it is viewable through the https://localhost:{port}/sitemap.xml link.
- Gert VanNuffel5y ago
  Joel Wynes i made it work like that too, but with this solution the sitemap is not generated automatically, but I have to do it manually

Introduction

A sitemap is an XML file that contains all URLs of a website. When a website creates dynamic web pages, it is very difficult for Search Engines to search all URLs and index them. That is why we created a sitemap XML file and include all required URLs in it. It helps search engines find URLs easily and index them quickly. In this article, we will create a sitemap.xml file and add a middleware for sitemap routing.

The default URL is https://example.com/sitemap.xml

Required Packages

Let's create an ASP.NET Core Web Application and open the Package Manager Console and install the AspNetCore.SEOHelper NuGet package .

We can execute the following command in the Package Manager Console window:

Install-Package AspNetCore.SEOHelper

Sitemaps Format

The sitemap.xml file must be encoded with UTF-8. Example of sitemap:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
<url>
<loc>https://www.codingwithesty.com/</loc>
<lastmod>2020-05-07T13:32:30+06:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>1.0</priority>
</url>
<url>
<loc>https://www.codingwithesty.com/search-engine-optimization-library-for-dot-net-code-developers</loc>
<lastmod>2020-05-07T13:32:30+06:00</lastmod>
<changefreq>daily</changefreq>
<priority>0.8</priority>
</url>
</urlset>

urlset - Sitemap start and ending tag. Sitemap document start with <urlset> and ends with </urlset>

URL - parent tag for each URL entry

loc - URL of our site.

priority - represents site map priority.

lastmod - when the web page was last modified.

changefreq - This is an optional tag. It suggests how often a user agent should visit it again

The values are:

always
hourly
daily
weekly
monthly
yearly
never

Create sitemap.xml

SEOHelper package provides SitemapNode class for new URL. CreateSitemapXML method helps to create sitemap.xml file. Let's create a list of URLs and then create sitemap.xml file in our project root directroy

public class HomeController : Controller
{
private readonly ILogger<HomeController> _logger;
private readonly IWebHostEnvironment _env;
public HomeController(ILogger<HomeController> logger, IWebHostEnvironment env)
{
_logger = logger;
_env = env;
}
//not returning any view
public string CreateSitemapInRootDirectory()
{
var list = new List<SitemapNode>();
list.Add(new SitemapNode { LastModified = DateTime.UtcNow, Priority = 0.8, Url = "https://www.example.com/asp-dot-net-turotial-part1", Frequency = SitemapFrequency.Daily });
list.Add(new SitemapNode { LastModified = DateTime.UtcNow, Priority = 0.8, Url = "https://www.example.com/asp-dot-net-turotial-part2", Frequency = SitemapFrequency.Yearly });
list.Add(new SitemapNode { LastModified = DateTime.UtcNow, Priority = 0.7, Url = "https://www.example.com/asp-dot-net-turotial-part3", Frequency = SitemapFrequency.Monthly });
new SitemapDocument().CreateSitemapXML(list, _env.ContentRootPath);
return "sitemap.xml file should be create in root directory";
}
}

CreateSitemapInRootDirectory() methid creates sitemap.xml in our project root directory.

Routing sitemap.xml in Asp.net Core

Now go to startup.cs and add app.UseXMLSitemap(env.ContentRootPath); in the middleware.

public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
{
app.UseXMLSitemap(env.ContentRootPath);
app.UseRouting();
app.UseEndpoints(endpoints => { endpoints.MapControllerRoute( name: "default", pattern: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}"); });
}

Now, run your project and navigate to https://localhost:port/sitemap.xml .

Conclusion

This is the end of our sitemap.xml article. Thanks a lot for reading. Write in the comment box in case you have any questions.