How to create an Image Sitemap from a visual studio project

How to create an Image Sitemap from a visual studio project

🧭 How to Create an Image Sitemap in a Visual Studio Project

If you’re building a site in ASP.NET Core (or even older ASP.NET MVC) using Visual Studio, creating an image sitemap is a powerful way to improve the visibility of your site’s images in Google Image Search.

And yes — it's easier than you think (especially if you’re using my DevStack codebase where this is already baked in).

📸 Step 1: Identify Your Website's Images

Start by deciding which images you want to expose to search engines. These can include:

  • Product images
  • Gallery or portfolio images
  • Blog post feature images
  • Downloadable artwork or resources

If your images are dynamically loaded (e.g., from a database or CMS), you’ll need to programmatically reference them.

🌐 Step 2: Generate the Full Image URLs

Make sure each image has a publicly accessible URL, such as:

https://yourdomain.com/images/my-photo.jpg

If you're using Razor Pages, you might access them like:

Path.Combine(_webHostEnvironment.WebRootPath, "images", "filename.jpg");

🧾 Step 3: Create an XML Sitemap File

Create a standard-compliant XML file that lists your images along with optional metadata:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
        xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1">

  <url>
    <loc>https://yourdomain.com/blog/post-1</loc>
    <image:image>
      <image:loc>https://yourdomain.com/images/post-1-feature.jpg</image:loc>
      <image:caption>Cover photo for Post 1</image:caption>
      <image:title>Post 1 Header Image</image:title>
    </image:image>
  </url>

</urlset>

💡 Pro tip: If your content is database-driven, you can dynamically generate this XML using Razor Pages, controllers, or a StringBuilder.

💾 Step 4: Save It in Your Project

  • Name your file something like sitemap-images.xml.
  • Save it in your wwwroot or public directory (so it's web-accessible).
  • Test it by visiting click here in a browser.

📌 Step 5: Add to robots.txt

Update your robots.txt file (also in wwwroot) to include a reference:

Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap-images.xml

This ensures bots like Googlebot know about your image sitemap even if you don't submit it manually.

🚀 Step 6: Submit via Google Search Console

Go to Google Search Console and submit the new sitemap under the "Sitemaps" section.

This boosts indexing and helps surface your visuals in Google Images.

🔧 Automate It (Or Don’t Bother — I Already Did)

If you're already deep in Visual Studio and .NET, why hand-roll this every time?

My DevStack codebase includes a dynamic sitemap generator, ready to go:

return Content(SitemapBuilder.GenerateImageSitemap(), "application/xml");

It pulls image data from your Downloads, CMS, or any collection you wire in — complete with alt text, license info, and titles.

📈 Final Thoughts

Creating an image sitemap isn’t just about SEO — it's about telling Google what matters on your site.

If you’re working in Visual Studio and want to avoid yet another manual task, I’ve already done the hard part for you.

👉 Check out my DevStack codebase

📄 View my CV and tech portfolio

📬 Or reach out and let’s automate your next SEO win together.

seositmaps