What Is A WordPress Sitemap? (And How To Generate One)

You might have encountered the term “sitemap” but don’t know what it is (or why it’s important). Most people recognize that it has something to do with search engine optimization (SEO). But how does that work exactly?

An XML sitemap is a list of all the public URLs on your WordPress site, and a critical part of the search engine crawling and indexing process. You can generate a default XML sitemap in WordPress, or gain more control over your sitemap index using plugins and online tools.

In this post, we’ll explain what sitemaps are, and discuss why you should have one for your WordPress site. Then, we’ll show you how to create a sitemap and submit it to search engines. Let’s get to it!

What Is an XML Sitemap?

An XML sitemap lists all public URLs on your WordPress website. Essentially, it’s an outline of your content that gets stored in a neat XML file, enabling search engines to easily crawl and index your website.

Before XML sitemaps, there were HTML sitemaps. Basically, you’d have a separate page on your website, labeled “sitemap”, which contained your most important links.

Today, sitemaps are published in XML format. While the old sitemaps were primarily used to ease navigation for visitors, today’s sitemaps are more geared toward search engines.

Besides listing your website’s URLs, you can now include metadata, which is extremely useful for news sites and online magazines. This means you can note the last modified date of a page or the frequency in which you plan to update it.

Sitemaps are also great for content-rich sites (like photography sites, digital portfolios, and ecommerce catalogs). That’s because it’s possible to provide information about your video/image content (e.g. descriptions, thumbnails, video run time, etc).

Do You Need an XML Sitemap for Your WordPress Site?

An XML sitemap enables search engines to better understand the nature of your website.

They’ll gain a good idea of the structure and hierarchy of your web pages, including the relationship between different pages. Plus, they’ll get notified when you publish new blog posts or landing pages.

Although XML sitemaps don’t directly boost your search engine rankings, they make crawling and indexing more efficient. They also make your website more user-friendly for visitors.

Since it’s easier for search engines to discover your content and display it in the search results, you’ll gain more exposure. This makes it easier to drive organic search traffic to your pages.

If there’s a page on your WordPress site that hasn’t yet been indexed, a sitemap will notify search engines. The same applies when you update a page or publish a new post.

If you’re starting a blog or launching a new website, a WordPress sitemap is extremely useful. That’s because you won’t have any backlinks yet, which makes it difficult for search engines to find your content. So, a sitemap helps them locate and index your site.

An XML sitemap is also a valuable tool for established sites. You can inform search engines which pages of your site are most important, and which parts get updated more frequently.

How to Create an XML Sitemap for WordPress (3 Ways)

Now that you know why it’s important to create a sitemap, let’s take a look at three ways to generate a WordPress XML sitemap.

1. Create an XML Sitemap Manually

If you don’t want to use a WordPress plugin, you can create a basic XML sitemap in WordPress. However, this method isn’t very flexible and you don’t get much control over what to include.

All you have to do is enter your domain name in a browser and add “wp-sitemap.xml” at the end:

This should generate a sitemap that features all public URLs on your website.

2. Create an XML Sitemap Using an SEO Plugin

If you want more control over the contents of your WordPress sitemap, it’s better to use a plugin.

Popular SEO plugins are great because you’ll get access to extra features to optimize your website. For this tutorial, we’re going to use the Yoast SEO plugin:

First, you’ll have to install the plugin via the WordPress dashboard. Yoast immediately disables the default WordPress sitemap and automatically generates a more fine-tuned version.

If you want to view the XML sitemap, go to Yoast SEO > Settings. Then, under the General tab, click on Site features and scroll down to the APIs section:

Here, you can enable/disable the XML sitemap feature. Plus, you can view your WordPress sitemap in a fresh tab.

To control the content that appears in your WordPress sitemap, locate the Content types section. Click on the content type you want to exclude from your XML sitemap (e.g. posts, pages).

Then, use the Show posts in search results slider to disable it:

You can do the same for metadata, including categories, tags, author archives, date archives, and more.

You can also exclude individual posts/pages using the Yoast SEO metabox. Simply expand the Advanced settings at the bottom of the Block editor.

Then, use the dropdown menu that says Allow search engines to show this content in search results? to select your preferences:

Additionally, Yoast SEO lets you connect your WordPress website to major search engines. Just head to Site connections under the General settings:

Here, you can use Bing Webmaster Tools, Google Search Console, Pinterest, etc to verify your site. This makes it easier to submit sitemaps and notify search engines of updates.

3. Use an XML Sitemap Generator

If you don’t want to install a WordPress plugin to create an XML sitemap, you can use a dedicated XML sitemap generator instead.

We recommend XML Sitemap Generator which is a free tool:

You can use it as a desktop program or a WordPress plugin, or work with the cloud-based version.

Click on the Try it now button. On the next page, you’ll have to enter some details about your WordPress website:

For example, you’ll need to provide your site’s URL and email address. You can also define the update frequency, page priority, and last modified date. Then, click on Create sitemap.

The XML Sitemap Generator will start crawling your site. The time this takes to complete will depend on the size of your WordPress site.

Once it’s done, click on Download sitemaps to save the folder to your computer:

This folder contains multiple sitemaps, including an XML sitemap, a HTML sitemap, and an RSS sitemap file.

You can upload your XML sitemap file to the root folder of your website. To do that, you’ll use your web host’s file manager or establish an FTP connection.

How to Submit Your Sitemap to Search Engines

Once you have a WordPress sitemap, you’ll need to submit it to Google and other search engines. While search engines can still discover and crawl your website over time, submitting your sitemap helps them find and index your pages faster and more efficiently.

Plus, your XML sitemap will notify search engines about changes or new content.

To submit your sitemap to Google, you’ll need a Google Search Console account, so if you don’t have one, now’s the time to sign up.

From the account dashboard, select Sitemaps and insert your WordPress sitemap URL. If you’ve used Yoast SEO to create a sitemap, this may look like: sitemap_index.xml.

Click on Submit to complete the process. Once Google has processed this change, you can view basic sitemap statistics in this area (e.g. link number, 404 errors, image-to-web page ratio, etc).

The process of submitting sitemaps to other search engines is pretty similar. For example, if you want to submit your sitemap to Bing, you’ll need to register for a Bing Webmaster Tools account. Then, you can submit your XML sitemap directly in the dashboard.

Conclusion

Whether you run a WordPress blog or an ecommerce store, an XML sitemap is an essential piece of the SEO puzzle. It outlines all your website’s URLs, so your site gets crawled and indexed more efficiently (and more accurately).

To recap, here’s how to create an XML sitemap for your WordPress website:

1. Create a basic sitemap in WordPress.
2. Create an XML sitemap using Yoast SEO.
3. Use an XML site generator.

Site speed can also affect your ranking. At NameHero, we offer managed WordPress hosting that prioritizes fast loading times. Check out our plans today!