How to best set up international XML site map?

[DocdataCommerce]

Hi everyone,

I've been searching about a problem, but haven't been able to find an answer.

We would like to generate a XML site map for an international web shop. This shop has one domain for Dutch visitors (.nl) and another domain for visitors of other countries (Germany, France, Belgium etc.) (.com). The website on the 2 domains looks the same, has the same template and same pages, but as it is targeted to other countries, the pages are in different languages and the urls are also in different languages (see example below for a category bags).

Example Netherlands:
Dutch domain: www.client.nl 
Example Dutch bags category page: www.client.nl/tassen

Example France:
International domain: www.client.com 
Example French bags category page: www.client.com/sacs

When a visitor is on the Dutch domain (.nl) which shows the Dutch content, he can switch country to for example France in the country switch and then gets redirected to the other, international .com domain. Also the other way round.

Now we want to generate a XML sitemap for these 2 domains. As it is the same site, but on 2 domains, development wants to make 1 sitemap, where we take the Dutch version with Dutch domain as basis and in the alternates we specify the other language versions on the other domain (see example below).

<loc>http://www.client.nl/tassen</loc>
<xhtml:link<br>rel="alternate"
hreflang="fr"
href="http://www.client.com/sacs"
/></xhtml:link<br>

Is this the best way to do this? Or would we need to make 2 site maps, as it are 2 domains?

[DmitriiK]

Hi.

Sitemaps are done per domain, that's for sure. And use of hreflang is just saying that "Here is a link to a different language version of the website you're on right now". So, it doesn't cover both websites.

Example:
You went to Paris and bought a map of Paris with labels all in french. As you're looking at that map, you have no clue what those labels say, since you can't speak/write/read French. Then you notice that at the bottom of this map there is a sentence "To buy a map of Paris in english, go to such-and-such store".
Now, does that sentence (reference) help you anyhow to translate what's on a map you're holding in your hands? No.

The same thing with sitemaps. Reference to a different language version of the website doesn't pass the content of that website. Especially, since you have all URLs in different languages.

Long answer short - you'll need to sitemaps.

Hope this makes sense and helps.

[DocdataCommerce]

Hi Dmitrii,

Thanks for your reply. At first, I also thought that using multiple domains in one sitemap was not possible, however I came across this article from Google that mentions this possibility:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/75712?hl=en

Does anyone have experience with this?

[DmitriiK]

Hi.

Interesting, I didn't see that article. Well, then, I guess, it's matter of preference.

I'd still go with different sitemaps. cause managing them individually allows script and code based automation.