diff --git a/packages/nuxt/src/pages/module.ts b/packages/nuxt/src/pages/module.ts
index f7e85439ab..46fa4cc62d 100644
--- a/packages/nuxt/src/pages/module.ts
+++ b/packages/nuxt/src/pages/module.ts
@@ -146,9 +146,11 @@ export default defineNuxtModule({
     // Add router plugin
     addPlugin(resolve(runtimeDir, 'plugins/router'))
 
-    const getSources = (pages: NuxtPage[]): string[] => pages.flatMap(p =>
-      [relative(nuxt.options.srcDir, p.file), ...getSources(p.children || [])]
-    )
+    const getSources = (pages: NuxtPage[]): string[] => pages
+      .filter(p => Boolean(p.file))
+      .flatMap(p =>
+        [relative(nuxt.options.srcDir, p.file as string), ...getSources(p.children || [])]
+      )
 
     // Do not prefetch page chunks
     nuxt.hook('build:manifest', async (manifest) => {
diff --git a/packages/nuxt/src/pages/utils.ts b/packages/nuxt/src/pages/utils.ts
index 946b67b5b0..66070c53e3 100644
--- a/packages/nuxt/src/pages/utils.ts
+++ b/packages/nuxt/src/pages/utils.ts
@@ -249,28 +249,40 @@ export function normalizeRoutes (routes: NuxtPage[], metaImports: Set<string> =
   return {
     imports: metaImports,
     routes: genArrayFromRaw(routes.map((page) => {
+      const route = Object.fromEntries(
+        Object.entries(page)
+          .filter(([key, value]) => key !== 'file' && (Array.isArray(value) ? value.length : value))
+          .map(([key, value]) => [key, JSON.stringify(value)])
+      ) as Record<Exclude<keyof NuxtPage, 'file'>, string> & { component?: string }
+
+      if (page.children?.length) {
+        route.children = normalizeRoutes(page.children, metaImports).routes
+      }
+
+      // Without a file, we can't use `definePageMeta` to extract route-level meta from the file
+      if (!page.file) {
+        for (const key of ['name', 'path', 'meta', 'alias', 'redirect'] as const) {
+          if (page[key]) { route[key] = JSON.stringify(page[key]) }
+        }
+        return route
+      }
+
       const file = normalize(page.file)
       const metaImportName = genSafeVariableName(filename(file) + hash(file)) + 'Meta'
       metaImports.add(genImport(`${file}?macro=true`, [{ name: 'default', as: metaImportName }]))
 
       let aliasCode = `${metaImportName}?.alias || []`
-      if (Array.isArray(page.alias) && page.alias.length) {
-        aliasCode = `${JSON.stringify(page.alias)}.concat(${aliasCode})`
+      const alias = Array.isArray(page.alias) ? page.alias : [page.alias].filter(Boolean)
+      if (alias.length) {
+        aliasCode = `${JSON.stringify(alias)}.concat(${aliasCode})`
       }
 
-      const route = {
-        ...Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(page).map(([key, value]) => [key, JSON.stringify(value)])),
-        file: undefined,
-        name: `${metaImportName}?.name ?? ${page.name ? JSON.stringify(page.name) : 'undefined'}`,
-        path: `${metaImportName}?.path ?? ${JSON.stringify(page.path)}`,
-        children: page.children ? normalizeRoutes(page.children, metaImports).routes : [],
-        meta: page.meta ? `{...(${metaImportName} || {}), ...${JSON.stringify(page.meta)}}` : `${metaImportName} || {}`,
-        alias: aliasCode,
-        redirect: page.redirect ? JSON.stringify(page.redirect) : `${metaImportName}?.redirect || undefined`,
-        component: genDynamicImport(file, { interopDefault: true })
-      }
-
-      delete route.file
+      route.name = `${metaImportName}?.name ?? ${page.name ? JSON.stringify(page.name) : 'undefined'}`
+      route.path = `${metaImportName}?.path ?? ${JSON.stringify(page.path)}`
+      route.meta = page.meta && Object.values(page.meta).filter(value => value !== undefined).length ? `{...(${metaImportName} || {}), ...${JSON.stringify(page.meta)}}` : `${metaImportName} || {}`
+      route.alias = aliasCode
+      route.redirect = page.redirect ? JSON.stringify(page.redirect) : `${metaImportName}?.redirect || undefined`
+      route.component = genDynamicImport(file, { interopDefault: true })
 
       return route
     }))
diff --git a/packages/nuxt/test/__snapshots__/treeshake-client.test.ts.snap b/packages/nuxt/test/__snapshots__/treeshake-client.test.ts.snap
index 76ed86bfa4..8ca4bc8af7 100644
Binary files a/packages/nuxt/test/__snapshots__/treeshake-client.test.ts.snap and b/packages/nuxt/test/__snapshots__/treeshake-client.test.ts.snap differ
diff --git a/packages/schema/src/types/hooks.ts b/packages/schema/src/types/hooks.ts
index ea19a809b7..4148bf6acc 100644
--- a/packages/schema/src/types/hooks.ts
+++ b/packages/schema/src/types/hooks.ts
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ export type WatchEvent = 'add' | 'addDir' | 'change' | 'unlink' | 'unlinkDir'
 export type NuxtPage = {
   name?: string
   path: string
-  file: string
+  file?: string
   meta?: Record<string, any>
   alias?: string[] | string
   redirect?: string