Wondering which WordPress plugin is best for sitemap creation?
Sitemap helps you ensure your web pages are indexed properly and increases online visibility. Sitemaps are like a “roadmap” of your website, allowing search engines and humans to navigate and read your content more effectively.
XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps are two formats of sitemaps created for the same purposes but with a few variations.
HTML sitemaps are created to enhance the web navigation experience of your site visitors. Whereas XML sitemaps help search engines understand your site structure, crawl your website & index your site content faster.
Simply put, HTML sitemaps are for humans, and XML sitemaps are for bots.
So in this article, we’ve compiled a list of the best Sitemap plugins for WordPress that you can use on your website to create XML and HTML sitemaps as per your requirement.
How Do I Add a Sitemap to My WordPress Site?
WordPress comes with an in-built functionality that automatically generates a sitemap of your website. This auto-generated sitemap includes post types, categories, tags, and archive pages.
You can view the sitemap at: https://www.yourdomain.com/wp-sitemap.xml.
One of the major drawbacks of the WordPress default sitemap feature is that you can’t customize it without knowing PHP.
So you can either:
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- Create a custom sitemap in WordPress without a plugin.
- Create a custom sitemap in WordPress with a plugin.
We recommend using a WordPress plugin to create a sitemap because
- WordPress sitemaps plugin helps search engines index your website in a better way.
- Generates a comprehensive XML of all the pages on your site, and you can also customize them as per your need
- Most of the WordPress plugins that offer sitemap features are completely FREE.
- Save your time by automatically creating sitemaps.
- Handle all the technical requirements.
In WordPress, you’ll find two types of plugin options to create sitemaps. The first is WordPress SEO Plugins offer sitemaps as one of the functionalities along with other SEO features; the second is Dedicated Sitemap Plugins, which only provide attributes specific to sitemaps.
In our list, we’ve included both plugin options so you can choose the one that suits your website needs.
Best WordPress Plugins for Sitemap Creation
Here are our top recommended Sitemap plugins for WordPress:
WordPress SEO Plugins With Sitemap Functionality
Since sitemap is an essential part of SEO, many popular WordPress SEO plugins like Yoast and Rank Math come with built-in sitemap functionality, including other awesome SEO features.
However, in this post, we will cover the specific sitemap features provided by popular WordPress SEO plugins.
So, let’s dig in!
1. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is one of the leading SEO plugins in the market. Whether you need content optimization, on-page SEO, or sitemaps, this plugin will handle everything.
To create an XML sitemap with Yoast, you need to install and activate the free Yoast SEO plugin. Yes, the free version of the plugin allows you to create a fully-fledged sitemap of your site.
Once you activate the plugin, Yoast SEO automatically generates an XML sitemap containing links to the content of your website.
Also, the generated sitemap will automatically refresh any time you add or remove a post or page.
Key Features of Yoast XML Sitemap
- Automatically creates advanced XML sitemaps, making it easy for Google and other search engines to understand your site structure & content.
- Gives you complete control over what goes into the sitemap. For example, if you want to exclude a specific content type from appearing in the XML sitemap, you can do that simply from Yoast’s backend settings.
- To make XML sitemaps in WordPress speedy and efficient, Yoast SEO splits up large XML into smaller sitemaps.
- Allows adding a sitemap to Search Console.
- Gives the flexibility to limit the number of sitemap entries.
Yoast’s sitemap feature is enabled by default. However, you can auto-generate and view your XML sitemap by going to the Yoast backend setting options.
Login to your WordPress site, then click Yoast SEO >> General on your WordPress dashboard.
Next, click on the Features tab.
This will open Yoast SEO’s features section. Scroll down the page, and you’ll see that the XML sitemaps option is enabled by default.
You can view the XML sitemap of your site by clicking on the question mark icon near XML sitemaps and then clicking the link labeled See the XML sitemap.
As soon as you click on the option, you’ll see your site’s XML sitemap open in a new tab.
Here’s WPLift’s XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO.
This sitemap consists of files containing useful information, such as the last time the page was updated, how often the page is updated, and whether the page is available in other languages.
If you’ve already installed and activated Yoast on your WordPress, you can find your XML sitemap at https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml.
And that’s how simple it is to auto-generate XML sitemaps using Yoast SEO.
2. All In One Seo
All In One Seo is another very popular SEO plugin for WordPress. It comes bundled with many awesome SEO-focused features and helps you optimize your WordPress site content for search engines.
Using the All In One SEO plugin, you can generate a custom sitemap automatically and submit it to Google and other popular search engines.
Additionally, All In One SEO notifies search engines when your website is updated or adds new content. Furthermore, it will ensure that all your important posts and pages are properly indexed.
All In One SEO offers several types of sitemaps, including a standard XML sitemap, a news sitemap, and a video sitemap.
All In One SEO’s free version lets you create a standard XML site that includes indexes, post types, and taxonomies based on your needs. Further, you can prioritize your top converting pages for crawling and indexing.
To generate a news or video sitemap, you need to go for the higher-paid plan of All In One Seo.
Key Features of All In One Seo Sitemap
- Automatically generate XML, RSS, and HTML sitemaps and notify search engines of changes.
- Offers easy customization options.
- It gives you the option to prioritize top-converting pages to ensure they get crawled and indexed.
- Customizable video and news sitemap generator.
- WooCommece compatible.
Let’s see how All In One Seo’s standard XML sitemap looks like:
First, you need to download, install and activate the free plugin from the WordPress repository. Once you’ve installed and activated the All In One Seo plugin, you’ll see a popup wizard.
To use the plugin on your site, first, you need to complete a simple 7 steps wizard process.
Once you complete the process and reach step 4, you’ll see the Enable Sitemap feature enabled by default.
Once you complete the whole wizard process, you need to return to your WordPress dashboard and click All in One SEO > Sitemaps.
On the next page, you see sitemap customization settings, such as how many links are included in each sitemap, which post types and taxonomies are included or excluded, and priority pages.
You can preview your website content’s sitemap by clicking the blue Open Sitemap button.
3. Rank Math SEO
Another WordPress SEO plugin that comes with a built-in sitemap functionality is Rank Math SEO. It is the most feature-rich WordPress SEO plugin available.
Rank Math has an advanced Sitemap feature that supports custom post types, taxonomies, and special sitemaps such as News Sitemap, Video Sitemap, and Local Sitemap.
Additionally, Rank Math SEO also gives you the ability to create a sitemap for your WooCommerce store.
Aside from that, you have multiple options to customize your sitemaps. The Free version includes everything you need for sitemaps, but in the premium version, you get more advanced options such as Google News SEO Sitemap, Google Video SEO Sitemap, and more.
Key Features of Rank Math SEO Sitemap
- Allows the creation of various types of advanced sitemaps.
- News Sitemap feature for submitting websites on Google News
- Video Sitemap feature for video websites.
- Offers plenty of customization options to control what gets included and what doesn’t in the sitemap.
Let’s see the feature options available in the sitemap generated by Rank Math SEO.
Once you activate the Rank Math SEO, go to your WP dashboard and click Rank Math >> Sitemap Settings.
On the next page, you’ll find plenty of setting options to customize your sitemap. You can alter each option as per your site preference.
To get a preview of your sitemap on your website, click the same link option highlighted in the below screenshot.
4. SEOPress
Next on our list of popular WordPress sitemap plugins is SEOPress. Unlike Yoast and Rank Math, SEOPress is the only WordPress SEO-oriented plugin that allows you to create custom XML and HTML sitemaps for Google, Bing, and other popular search engines.
The free version of SEOPress generates XML sitemaps, image sitemaps, and HTML sitemaps with the ability to exclude pages, posts, custom post types, and terms.
You will need to subscribe to SEOPress’ paid plan to create video XML sitemaps, Google News sitemaps, products XML sitemaps, and WooCommerce sitemaps.
Key Features of SEOPress Sitemap
- Lets you create custom XML / HTML sitemaps.
- Automatically add standard images, image galleries, and WooCommerce product images to XML Image Sitemaps.
- Offers dozens of dynamic variables to manage titles and meta descriptions for every post, page, custom post type, and archive page.
- Google Indexing API feature for faster indexing of the content.
- IndexNow API feature for faster indexing of the content in Microsoft and Yandex.
SEOPress is a completely beginner-friendly WordPress plugin. You can easily customize its sitemap settings in just a few clicks.
To alter SEOPress sitemap settings, install the plugin and go to SEO > XML – HTML Sitemap on your WordPress admin menu.
This will open a new containing plenty of options for customizing the sitemap on your site. The first option you get to enable/disable the sitemap, enable XML Image sitemaps, and enable an HTML sitemap.
Additionally, you can select which post types or taxonomies to include in the sitemap.
Ensure the top option XML – HTML Sitemap is enabled, and then click the Flush Permalinks button for the first time generating your sitemap.
Dedicated WordPress Plugins for Sitemap Creation
In this section, we’ll have listed the dedicated WordPress sitemap plugins that offer no additional features and exclusively focus on creating your website’s sitemap.
5. XML Sitemaps
XML Sitemaps is one the oldest and most popular sitemap solutions available for over 9 years. It generates XML and HTML sitemaps that ensure that your posts and pages get indexed by Google, Bing, and all other popular search engines.
XML Sitemaps supports all kinds of WordPress post types, including custom post types. Additionally, it notifies all major search engines whenever you create a post or add new content.
The plugin includes an automatic priority calculation feature that calculates the priority of posts based on their number of comments. You can set the posts to prioritize by comment average or disable the priority feature.
XML Sitemaps is free, comes with various translations, and is multisite compatible.
Key Features of XML Sitemaps
- Creates special XML sitemaps that allow search engines to see the complete structure of your site.
- Supports all kinds of WordPress-generated pages as well as custom URLs.
- Auto notifies all major search engines every time you update or add new content.
- Allows setting priority numbers to posts.
- Compatible with multisite.
6. Sitemap by BestWebSoft
Next on our list of dedicated sitemap plugins is Sitemap by BestWebSoft. This plugin automatically generates an XML sitemap for your site content.
Sitemap plugin collects URLs from custom post types, including pages, posts, categories, tags, and taxonomies, and adds them to your sitemaps.
This plugin is also compatible with Google Search Console, allowing you to fetch sitemaps to Google easily.
Sitemap by BestWebSoft offers both free and premium versions. The paid version lets you external sitemap files, exclude pages/posts from your sitemaps, and add custom URLs to your sitemaps.
Key Features of Sitemap by BestWebSoft
- Automatically generates XML sitemap for WordPress website.
- Supports default WordPress pages as well as custom URLs.
- Gives flexibility to set the maximum number of URLs in one sitemap file
- Integrates with Google Webmaster Tools.
7. Simple Sitemap
If you’re looking for a dedicated HTML sitemap plugin for WordPress, Simple Sitemap is the best solution for you.
Simple Sitemap only creates HTML sitemaps that give your site visitors a clear listing of all your web pages..
Using this plugin, you can create and add a basic HTML sitemap of your content. In addition, it allows you to visually configure your sitemap inside the WordPress editor and place a sitemap using two available sitemap blocks.
There was also an old version of the Simple Sitemap that required heavy coding skills, but with the updated version, creating an HTML sitemap using Simple Sitemap is pretty straightforward and easy.
The new version of the plugin requires no coding. Instead, it works flawlessly and includes plenty of flexible customization options.
Key Features of Simple Sitemap
- Automatically generates an HTML sitemap of your WordPress website content.
- Includes a responsive tabbed layout option.
- Added two new dedicated editor blocks, allowing you to edit your sitemap directly inside the new WordPress editor.
- 100% responsive on small-screen devices
What’s Your Favorite SiteMap Plugin for WordPress?
These are our top picks for WordPress Sitemap plugins. I hope this list gives you a complete overview of the sitemaps and helps you find the best sitemap plugin for your WordPress site.
At this point, it’s also important to understand that although sitemaps are essential, they are not guaranteed to help your website rank higher in search engine results.
Interlinking, backlinks, keywords, and content structure, are still the major attributes that affect your website’s content rankings. Simply creating a sitemap and submitting it to Google doesn’t help your website get placed on the first page of SERPs.
To broaden your SEO knowledge, you can check our popular guides on
- The SEO Checklist Review: An Actionable Way to Learn SEO for WordPress.
- 20+ WordPress SEO Tips: Your Guide To Everything From Plugins To Keyword Research.
- How To: Create Internal Linking Structures in WordPress to Improve Your On-Site SEO.
Keep reading the article at Learn WordPress with WPLift. The article was originally written by Team WPLift on 2022-11-08 08:00:00.
The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.