Sitemap

What is a sitemap?

A sitemap is an XML file (typically /sitemap.xml) that lists all the pages on your site and helps search engines discover and index your content more efficiently. While not required, sitemaps are especially useful for:

• Large sites with many pages
• Sites with complex structures (e.g. e-commerce with products, categories, content pages)
• New sites that need faster initial indexing
• Sites with frequently changing content

Laioutr can use Nuxt Sitemap (part of Nuxt SEO) to automatically generate sitemaps based on your site's pages. Unlike robots.txt (which is included by default), sitemap is optional and needs to be added to your project.

How it works

Nuxt Sitemap automatically generates a sitemap.xml file based on your site's routes. For a Laioutr frontend, this means:

• Pages from runtime config – Pages defined in your project (RC) are automatically included in the sitemap
• Automatic lastmod dates – The module tracks when pages were last modified
• Image discovery – Images from your pages can be included in the sitemap
• i18n support – If you use multi-language, the sitemap includes all language variants
• Integration with robots.txt – Pages marked as noindex in Studio are automatically excluded from the sitemap

So once configured, the sitemap stays up-to-date with your pages without manual maintenance.

Installation

To enable sitemap generation, add @nuxtjs/sitemap to your Nuxt modules:

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  modules: [
    '@laioutr-core/frontend-core',
    '@nuxtjs/sitemap', // Add this
    // ... other modules
  ],
});

Then install the package:

pnpm add @nuxtjs/sitemap
# or
npm install @nuxtjs/sitemap

After installation, the module will automatically generate /sitemap.xml based on your site's routes.

Basic configuration

The module works with zero configuration out of the box, but you can customize it in nuxt.config.ts:

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  sitemap: {
    // Your site URL (required for absolute URLs in sitemap)
    hostname: 'https://yourstore.com',
    // Exclude specific routes from sitemap
    exclude: ['/checkout/**', '/cart', '/account/**'],
    // Or include only specific routes
    // include: ['/products/**', '/categories/**'],
  },
});

Integration with robots.txt

If you're using @nuxtjs/robots (which is included by default with frontend-core), Nuxt Sitemap automatically excludes pages marked as noindex from the sitemap. This means:

• Pages with robots: 'noindex' set in Studio won't appear in the sitemap
• Pages disallowed in robots.txt won't appear in the sitemap
• You don't need to manually maintain both lists

So your sitemap and robots.txt stay in sync automatically.

Advanced configuration

Multiple sitemaps

For large sites, you can split the sitemap into multiple files:

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  sitemap: {
    hostname: 'https://yourstore.com',
    sitemaps: {
      pages: {
        include: ['/**'],
        exclude: ['/products/**', '/categories/**'],
      },
      products: {
        include: ['/products/**'],
      },
      categories: {
        include: ['/categories/**'],
      },
    },
  },
});

This generates /pages-sitemap.xml, /products-sitemap.xml, and /categories-sitemap.xml, plus a sitemap index at /sitemap.xml.

Dynamic URLs from external sources

If you need to include URLs that aren't part of your Nuxt routes (e.g. from an API or database), you can use sitemap sources:

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  sitemap: {
    hostname: 'https://yourstore.com',
    sources: [
      // Fetch URLs from an API endpoint
      '/api/sitemap-urls',
      // Or use a function
      async () => {
        const urls = await fetchUrlsFromYourBackend();
        return urls.map(url => ({ loc: url, lastmod: new Date() }));
      },
    ],
  },
});

Customizing sitemap entries

You can customize how each URL appears in the sitemap using route rules:

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  routeRules: {
    '/products/**': {
      sitemap: {
        changefreq: 'daily',
        priority: 0.8,
        lastmod: new Date().toISOString(),
      },
    },
    '/categories/**': {
      sitemap: {
        changefreq: 'weekly',
        priority: 0.7,
      },
    },
  },
});

Image sitemaps

To include images in your sitemap (for Google Image Search), enable image discovery:

// nuxt.config.ts
export default defineNuxtConfig({
  sitemap: {
    hostname: 'https://yourstore.com',
    // Automatically discover images from pages
    discoverImages: true,
  },
});

How it integrates with Laioutr

Pages from runtime config

Since Laioutr pages are defined in the runtime config (RC) and registered as routes, Nuxt Sitemap automatically discovers them. Each page from your RC becomes an entry in the sitemap with:

• URL – The page's path (localized if using i18n)
• lastmod – Based on the page's updatedAt timestamp from RC
• Exclusion – If the page variant has robots: 'noindex' in Studio, it's excluded

Studio integration

When editors set robots directives in Studio (page variant SEO → robots), those settings affect the sitemap:

• Pages with noindex are excluded from the sitemap
• Pages with index (or no robots setting) are included in the sitemap

So editors can control both indexing and sitemap inclusion from the same place.

Multi-language support

If your frontend uses @nuxtjs/i18n (which frontend-core includes), Nuxt Sitemap automatically includes all language variants of each page in the sitemap, with proper hreflang tags.

Summary

• Sitemap is an optional feature that can be added by installing @nuxtjs/sitemap.
• It automatically generates /sitemap.xml based on your Laioutr pages (from runtime config).
• Integrates with robots.txt – Pages marked as noindex in Studio are automatically excluded.
• Zero config works, but you can customize: exclude/include routes, multiple sitemaps, dynamic URLs, image discovery, and per-route sitemap metadata.
• Studio integration – Editors control sitemap inclusion via the same robots settings that control indexing.

For detailed configuration options and advanced usage, see the Nuxt Sitemap documentation.