<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset
    xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9
          http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd">

  <!--
    LegalFirms.in Directory Sitemap
    Cleaned: 2026-06-23, again 2026-11-08 (see below)
    ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    REMOVED from this sitemap (all had noindex or were form pages):
      ✗ report-firm.php?firm_id=* (~40 URLs)  — noindex form pages
      ✗ claim-firm.php?firm_id=*  (~40 URLs)  — noindex form pages
      ✗ ask/advocate/claim?advocate_id=* (~18) — noindex claim forms
      ✗ firm-login               — noindex portal gateway
      ✗ firm-login.php           — wrong URL + noindex
      ✗ forgot-password.php      — wrong URL + noindex
      ✗ browse-firms?page=1      — duplicate of browse-firms (no page param)
      ✗ browse-firms?city=X&page=1 — duplicate of browse-firms?city=X
    ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
    NOTE (7 Nov 2026): static pages only, kept by hand in git. Firm profile
    URLs are in /sitemap-firms.php and Ask pages in /ask/sitemap.xml, both
    built from the database and both listed in robots.txt.
    generate-sitemap.php was removed: it overwrote this file with URLs that
    have no page file in this repo (/firms, /advanced-search, /pricing,
    /terms-of-service).
  -->

  <!-- ══ Homepage ═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════ -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>1.00</priority>
  </url>

  <!-- ══ Core public pages ══════════════════════════════════════════════ -->
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/browse-firms</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.90</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/practice-areas</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.85</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/ask/</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.85</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/ask/ask</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.80</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/ask/search</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.80</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/about</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.75</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/contact</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.70</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/privacy-policy</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.40</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/terms</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.40</priority>
  </url>
  <url>
    <loc>https://directory.legalfirms.in/firm-register</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-06-23</lastmod>
    <priority>0.70</priority>
  </url>

  <!-- ══ 8 Nov 2026 (Semrush: 31 wrong URLs in this sitemap; a live check found 43)
       Removed: browse-firms ?page= URLs and city lists (city and practice-area
       pages are now in /sitemap-firms.php, built from the database, only those
       with a listed firm), /ask/search?... (internal search, canonical
       /ask/search, now kept out of crawling in robots.txt), /ask/ask?cat=...
       (the form; canonical /ask/ask) and the /ask/category/ list (already in
       /ask/sitemap.xml). /terms is the terms page's own URL again. -->

  <!-- ══ Individual firm profiles: moved to /sitemap-firms.php (7 Nov 2026), built
       from the database: claimed, live firm pages only (the same test as firm.php's
       index/noindex). This file listed 89 of 218 public firm pages from June. -->
  <!-- Priority 0.64 — supplement with auto-generated sitemap for full coverage -->

</urlset>