Google has announced that it will discontinue use of several image and video sitemap extensions. Google said they decided to stop using these sitemap extensions after evaluating the value of tags.
Google has announced that it has removed the documentation for the removed tags and attributes.
Image and video sitemaps will continue to be part of the sitemap specification and won’t go away.
Reasons for deprecating image and video sitemap tags and attributes
Deprecated, computationally and software-wise, means that a version is declared obsolete and should no longer be used.
According to Google, the value of information conveyed through now-deprecated tags and attributes no longer warrants the hassle of using them.
Google didn’t say why in this announcement, other than to say that the value of the tag had been evaluated and the decision to deprecate the tag was based on that evaluation.
The statement stated:
“Over the years, we’ve introduced a number of tags and tag attributes for Google Sitemap extensions, particularly the Image and Video extensions. Most of these tags were added to make it easier for site owners to provide data to search.
After evaluating the value of the Google Sitemap extension tags, we have decided to officially deprecate some tags and attributes and remove them from our documentation. “
this notice did say Google Search Console may notify you once these deprecations are included in the next schema version of the affected extension.
To understand what this means, listen to the recent Search Off the Record podcast on sitemaps.
Google’s Gary Ellis explained this in the podcast Regarding deprecated sitemap tags and attributes:
“I think it’s worth looking into these tags and attributes to see if they’re still useful, since some of them have been replaced or not, supplemented, say, with patterns…
So some of these things, some of these tags and attributes have structured data counterparts.
If they have corresponding structural data, it is better to provide them in the structural data, because then all the parsing is in one place rather than two different places. “
So that might be the reason why those tags and attributes are deprecated.
Deprecation is not immediate
Google has set August 6, 2022 as the date to officially retire tags and attributes, giving plugin and theme makers time to remove deprecated tags from their sitemap output.
If publishers choose to keep deactivated tags in their sitemaps, there will be no penalties or negative results.
However, there is no benefit to using these labels either.
Deprecated image and video tags
Deprecated sitemap image tags and attributes:
these are Discontinued Labels and Attributes:
- <圖像：標題>
- <圖像：地理位置>
- <圖像：標題>
- <圖像：許可證>
Google has issued a special note on licensing data:
“Continue to use IPTC metadata to provide licensing data.”
Deprecated sitemap video tags and attributes:
these are Deprecated sitemap video tags and attributes:
- <視頻：類別>
- <視頻：gallery_loc>
Citation
Read the official notice of image and video sitemap deprecation
Spring cleaning: some sitemap extension tags are disappearing
