A sitemap is one of the most crucial elements for ensuring your website gets properly indexed by search engines like Google and Bing. It acts as a roadmap, guiding search engine crawlers to discover and index your website’s pages efficiently. Without a sitemap, some pages might remain unnoticed, affecting your website’s visibility in search results.
WordPress introduced built-in sitemap functionality in version 5.5. However, this default feature comes with limited capabilities, offering only a basic XML sitemap without advanced customization options. For most WordPress website owners, a more flexible and feature-rich sitemap solution is essential to optimize their SEO efforts.
This is where DefiniteSEO comes in. Unlike the default WordPress sitemap, DefiniteSEO WordPress SEO Plugin provides a comprehensive sitemap solution, allowing you to customize what gets included, exclude unnecessary pages, and even generate specialized sitemaps for images, videos, and news. Whether you need basic sitemap generation or advanced sitemap features, DefiniteSEO has got you covered.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the process of generating a sitemap in WordPress using DefiniteSEO and explain why having a well-structured sitemap is crucial for SEO. Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
WordPress XML vs. HTML Sitemaps
When it comes to sitemaps, WordPress websites can benefit from two main types: XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps. While both serve the purpose of improving website navigation and SEO, they function differently and are intended for different audiences. Let’s explore the key differences between them.
XML Sitemaps – For Search Engines
An XML (Extensible Markup Language) sitemap is designed specifically for search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. It provides a structured list of all the important URLs on your website, helping search engine bots crawl and index your content more efficiently. Behind the scenes, DefiniteSEO creates an XML sitemap, ensuring search engines can efficiently crawl and index your site for better SEO performance.
HTML Sitemaps – For Users
Unlike XML sitemaps, an HTML sitemap is created for website visitors rather than search engines. It provides a well-structured, human-readable page that lists all the important pages of your website, helping users navigate your content easily. With DefiniteSEO, you can create a fully customized XML sitemap, allowing you to include or exclude specific pages, prioritize content, and generate advanced sitemaps for images and videos.
How to Generate a Sitemap in WordPress Using DefiniteSEO
Generating a sitemap in WordPress using DefiniteSEO is a straightforward process that ensures search engines can efficiently crawl and index your website. This involves two simple steps: First, install and activate the DefiniteSEO plugin, which equips your website with powerful SEO tools. Next, configure the sitemap settings to include or exclude specific content types, images, videos, and more—giving you complete control over how your site appears in search engine results. Follow the steps below to set up your sitemap and enhance your website’s SEO performance.
Step 1: Install and Activate DefiniteSEO Plugin:
To begin generating a sitemap, the first step is to install and activate the DefiniteSEO plugin. To generate a sitemap using DefiniteSEO, follow these simple steps:
- Navigate to the Plugins Section – In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for DefiniteSEO – Use the search bar to find DefiniteSEO.
- Install the Plugin – Click the Install Now button next to DefiniteSEO.
- Activate the Plugin – Once installed, click Activate to enable it on your website.
Step 2: Configure and Set Up Sitemap Options
Once DefiniteSEO is installed and activated, the next step is to configure its sitemap settings. The plugin offers comprehensive control over what content appears in your sitemap, ensuring search engines can crawl and index your website efficiently. Below is a detailed breakdown of each sitemap configuration option in DefiniteSEO:
Content Types
WordPress websites consist of different content types, such as posts and pages. DefiniteSEO gives users the flexibility to include or exclude these content types from the sitemap:
- Posts – Posts are the core content of a blog, and their visibility in search engines is crucial. DefiniteSEO allows users to include or exclude posts from the sitemap. This is helpful for excluding outdated or irrelevant posts from being indexed.
- Pages – Unlike posts, pages often contain static content like “About Us” or “Contact.” Some website owners may prefer to keep certain pages out of the sitemap to focus on indexing more important ones. DefiniteSEO offers the ability to include or exclude specific pages as needed.
- WooCommerce Products – If your WordPress website runs an online store using WooCommerce, DefiniteSEO ensures that your product pages are also included in the sitemap. Just like posts and pages, you can choose to include or exclude WooCommerce products from the sitemap, allowing search engines to index only the relevant products. This feature is especially useful for stores with seasonal or out-of-stock items, giving store owners full control over their product visibility in search results.
By managing content types effectively, website owners can ensure that only relevant and valuable content is indexed.
Taxonomies
WordPress organizes content using taxonomies such as categories and tags. DefiniteSEO allows users to manage how these taxonomies appear in the sitemap:
- Categories – Categories help group related content. Including them in the sitemap can improve SEO by helping search engines understand the website’s structure. However, in some cases, excluding categories can be beneficial if they contain thin or duplicate content.
- Tags – Tags provide additional navigation and grouping for posts. While useful for internal linking, not all tags need to be indexed. DefiniteSEO enables users to exclude certain tags from the sitemap to avoid indexing low-value or repetitive pages.
- WooCommerce Product Categories & Product Tags – In addition to standard WordPress categories and tags, DefiniteSEO allows you to include or exclude WooCommerce product categories and product tags from the sitemap. This ensures that your product taxonomy is well-structured and optimized for search engines. By carefully selecting which categories and tags appear in the sitemap, you can enhance your store’s SEO by ensuring that only the most relevant product groupings are indexed, preventing duplicate content issues and improving search visibility for your eCommerce site.
Optimizing taxonomy settings helps streamline search engine crawling and prevents unnecessary pages from being indexed.
Archives
WordPress automatically generates archive pages, including author-based archives. DefiniteSEO allows users to control whether these archive pages should be included in the sitemap:
- Author Archives – Author archives list posts written by specific authors. These pages are useful for multi-author blogs but can lead to duplicate content issues in single-author blogs. DefiniteSEO lets users include or exclude author archives from the sitemap based on their website’s needs.
Controlling archive pages ensures search engines focus on indexing high-priority content.
Additional Pages
Some websites include static HTML pages or externally hosted images that are not part of the WordPress system. DefiniteSEO provides options to manually add these elements to the sitemap:
- Additional Pages – If a website includes non-WordPress pages, such as custom-built landing pages, DefiniteSEO allows users to add them to the sitemap manually. This ensures that important pages outside of WordPress are still indexed by search engines.
- Additional Images – In some cases, users may have important images that are not stored in the WordPress media library, such as externally hosted graphics or images embedded from other sources. DefiniteSEO allows users to manually add these images to the sitemap to improve image SEO and ensure search engines discover them.
These features provide greater control over sitemap customization, ensuring all critical pages and images are indexed.
Priority Settings
DefiniteSEO offers an option to assign priority values to different content types, helping search engines understand which pages are most important. However, as modern search engines often disregard the <priority> tag, DefiniteSEO disables it by default. If enabled manually, users can:
- Set a Default Priority – Assign a universal priority value to all content of a specific type (e.g., all posts have the same priority).
- Assign Custom Priorities – Users can set different priority values for specific posts, pages, or other content types based on their importance.
Although search engines no longer heavily rely on priority tags, properly structuring content priorities can still be beneficial in sitemap generation.
Image Sitemap
Images play a vital role in search engine visibility, especially for websites focused on media, photography, or eCommerce. DefiniteSEO’s image sitemap settings allow users to:
- Include or Exclude Images – By default, DefiniteSEO includes all images from posts, pages, and other content types in the sitemap. However, users can choose to exclude images if needed.
- Exclude Featured Images – In some cases, featured images may not need to be indexed separately. DefiniteSEO WordPress SEO Plugin provides an option to exclude only featured images while keeping other images in the sitemap.
By managing image indexing, users can optimize their website for Google Image Search and improve SEO performance.
Video Sitemap
For websites that publish video content, DefiniteSEO automatically includes all embedded videos in the sitemap. Users can:
- Include or Exclude Videos – By default, DefiniteSEO ensures that all videos present on the website are indexed by search engines. However, users can exclude videos if they do not want them to appear in search results.
Optimizing video sitemaps helps improve rankings for video-based content, particularly in Google Video Search and other search engines.
News Sitemap
For news websites, DefiniteSEO includes a Google News Sitemap feature, which allows search engines to recognize and index news content efficiently. The settings include:
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- Set Posts as News – Users can mark all blog posts as news articles, ensuring quick indexing by Google News. This is particularly useful for online publications. If certain posts should not be categorized as news, they can be set to normal posts under schema options.
- Google News Publication Name – Website owners can enter their official publication name as recognized by Google News. This ensures proper attribution in search results.
- Exclude Some Posts from News Sitemap – Set Schema Type to post for the posts that you do want to be in news sitemap.
This feature is essential for news portals and blogs aiming to appear in Google News listings.
General Settings
DefiniteSEO provides a general configuration option to manage the number of links per sitemap page:
- Links Per Sitemap Page – By default, DefiniteSEO limits each sitemap page to 200 links to ensure optimal performance. However, users can adjust this number based on their site size and indexing needs. The plugin automatically splits large sitemaps into smaller, manageable files linked through a sitemap index. This helps search engines crawl the site efficiently without overloading resources.
How to Submit Your WordPress XML Sitemap to Search Engines
Once you have generated a sitemap using DefiniteSEO, the next step is to submit it to search engines to ensure they can efficiently crawl and index your website. Submitting your sitemap helps search engines discover new and updated content faster, improving your website’s visibility in search results. Below are the steps to submit your sitemap to Google and Bing.
1. Submitting Your Sitemap to Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool provided by Google to monitor and optimize your website’s presence in search results. Follow these steps to submit your sitemap:
- Sign in to Google Search Console.
- Select your website (or add it if you haven’t already).
- In the left-hand menu, click on Sitemaps.
- Under Add a new sitemap, enter the URL of your sitemap (e.g.,
https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml). - Click Submit.
Google will now process your sitemap and begin indexing your site accordingly. You can check the status of your submitted sitemap in Google Search Console.
2. Submitting Your Sitemap to Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools helps you track your website’s performance in Bing search results. To submit your sitemap:
- Go to Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Sign in and add your website if you haven’t already.
- In the dashboard, navigate to Sitemaps.
- Click on Submit Sitemap.
- Enter your sitemap URL (e.g.,
https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml) and submit.
Bing will process your sitemap and start indexing your content.
View and Test Your Sitemap
After generating your sitemap, it’s essential to verify that it is accessible and correctly formatted.
1. View Your Sitemap
DefiniteSEO generates your sitemap at:
https://yourwebsite.com/sitemap_index.xml
Open this URL in a browser to check if all necessary content is included. If it doesn’t load, ensure DefiniteSEO is properly configured.
2. Test in Google Search Console
- Go to Google Search Console.
- Navigate to Sitemaps, enter your sitemap URL, and click Submit.
- If errors appear, review the details and fix them accordingly.
3. Test in Bing Webmaster Tools
- Log in to Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Under Sitemaps, check the submitted sitemap’s status and resolve any errors if needed.
Conclusion
A well-structured sitemap is crucial for improving your website’s SEO and ensuring search engines can efficiently crawl and index your content. While WordPress provides a basic sitemap by default, DefiniteSEO enhances this functionality by offering advanced customization options, including support for posts, pages, WooCommerce products, taxonomies, images, videos, and news sitemaps.
By following the steps outlined in this guide—installing and activating DefiniteSEO, configuring its sitemap settings, submitting your sitemap to search engines, and testing it—you can ensure your website remains fully optimized for search engine visibility.
Start using DefiniteSEO today to take complete control over your WordPress sitemap and improve your site’s search engine rankings effortlessly.