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If you want to improve the SEO of your WordPress website then having a sitemap is crucial. A sitemap is essentially a hierarchical list of links to all the pages on your site in an organized chart or an XML document. It helps the search engine crawlers to properly search through your website so that all the pages and posts are appropriately indexed.
How to create a WordPress sitemap?
Setting up a sitemap for your website is extremely important. However, doing so might seem a little intimidating, and updating them manually could become a hassle. But alas, WordPress offers sitemap plugins which you can install to generate your sitemap with a few clicks quickly. And in this article, we will look into some of the best plugins in this department.
The list contains mostly free plugins with few freemium ones. However, regardless of the price, we have made sure that all these plugins will get the essential job done for you.
Once installed, these plugins automatically pick up new pages that you create and add them to its list. All you have to do on your part is submit the sitemap to Google Webmaster console, Bing Webmaster tool, and so on. Furthermore, they also set up sitemaps for even your images and videos.
Do You Need Separate WordPress Sitemap Plugins?
Don’t get me wrong, but you may actually don’t need any additional plugin to generate the sitemaps.
Yes, almost 80% of the WordPress sites use the below four plugins to revamp their site SEO. And all these five plugins comes with inbuilt sitemap functionality.
You don’t require any additional sitemap plugin if you are already using any of the five plugins from the list below. All you have to do is go to plugin options and enable the sitemap.
#1. Jetpack
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Jetpack is one of the most downloaded plugins offered by WordPress, and it even comes bundled with a fresh WordPress setup.
How to Create Sitemap with Jetpack Plugin?
If you are already using Jetpack, you can enable your sitemap from Jetpack -> Settings -> Traffic -> Sitemaps.
If you are not using Jetpack, then it is the right time to install it. It is a great plugin to try as it offers so many bundled features like downtime monitoring, preventing brute force attacks, image lazy load, CDN, social share buttons, related posts, WordPress sitemap & more. The best part is that you can enable/ disable each feature individually.
#2. Rank Math
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Rank Math is relatively new plugin in the market compared to its rivals but the download rate of this plugin is truly remarkable. Within one year of its launch, it has gained over 300,000+ active installs. This only speaks of how impressive its features are.
How to Generate Sitemap with Rankmath Plugin?
To generate the sitemap in Rank Math, Go to Rank Math -> Sitemap Settings.
If you aren’t using Rank Math already, this could be one of the best SEO plugin to try out. You could even use the plugin alongside Jetpack.
#3. Yoast SEO
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Just like the above two plugins, Yoast SEO offers in-built WordPress Sitemap functionality. The plugin is used to improve the SEO of your site, so you can start getting more organic traffic. Since having a navigable sitemap is a crucial part of the process, the plugin handles that nicely. Within a couple of clicks, the plugin will set up an XML sitemap for your website.
How to Use Sitemap with Yoast Plugin?
To enable or disable the sitemap with Yoast SEO, simply go to SEO -> General -> Features. Under Features, you can find the option to enable or disable the sitemap easily.
The free version of Yoast SEO packs in a lot of advanced functionalities, and if you upgrade to its premium version, you get even more advanced options to play with.
#4. All in One SEO Pack
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All in One SEO Pack is amongst the popular and powerful SEO plugins for WordPress. This WordPress sitemap plugin is available for free in the WordPress repository, but there is also a premium version of the plugin available as well. It is loaded with a lot of features and functionalities along with XML sitemap support.
Once installed, the plugin will create an XML sitemap for your website and submit it to Google and Bing to improve your SEO score. The plugin can also submit image XML sitemaps to search engines which can help improve your image SEO score – this is something that photo-bloggers will love.
#5. Premium SEO Pack
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Premium SEO Pack is a premium SEO plugin for WordPress filled with a lot of advanced features and functionalities to boost your site’s SEO performance. However, we are interested in its sitemap related options.
Once installed, the XML sitemap plugin will automatically generate a sitemap for your website without you having to lift a finger. One special functionality of the plugin is that it can also help you create a sitemap for all the video content on your site. This makes it extremely useful for websites that deal with a lot of video-based content.
What if you are not using any of the plugin above?
My best suggestion would be to go and try one of the plugins from above.
But if you don’t want to use those, or still need a dedicated sitemap plugin, then check these three plugins below:-
#6. Sitemap by Click5
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In addition to XML based sitemap, if you also want to include HTML based sitemaps, then Sitemap by click5 plugin should be your number 1 choice.
While XML sitemaps are helpful for search engines, HTML sitemaps are equally beneficial for visitors to navigate pages easily. This can not only help in increased user interactivity with the site but also increase in site’s SEO performance indirectly.
You can add an HTML sitemap on any page by using a shortcode. The plugin even allows to exclude any particular post or page from the sitemap.
#7. Google XML Sitemaps
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The Google XML Sitemaps is one of the most popular free WordPress plugins in this category. The plugin has been around for over nine years now, and it has grown to have a large user base. It can quickly help you create sitemaps for search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com.
This WordPress sitemap plugin is designed to work with all kinds of WordPress generated pages including custom URLs. It can also automatically notify search engines every time you add a new page or publish a new post. Furthermore, its lightweight and efficient coding will not slow down your website nor will it cause any problem.
#8. WP Sitemap Page
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WP Sitemap Page WordPress plugin is also very popular among WordPress users which allows you to add a sitemap on one of your pages with just a couple of clicks. The plugin uses shortcodes which you can use on a page to showcase a regularly updated sitemap.
However, it is worth noting that this plugin is not geared towards crawler bots but for humans. You will not end up with an XML sitemap, but a simple page on your site which will showcase all the links in an organized fashion to your users. Nevertheless, this too can be an excellent way to improve site navigation and user engagement which can also improve your SEO.
#9. Google Sitemap by BestWebSoft
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Google Sitemap by BestWebSoft is a freemium plugin. This means that although the plugin is free to download, to access some of the more advanced features, you will have to buy the pro version. Essentially, this WordPress sitemap plugin works like all the other ones we discussed above. It creates a sitemap for search engine crawlers to index and also helps keep your sitemap up-to-date.
For free, this sitemap plugin for WordPress will add a host of different WordPress post types and pages into the sitemap as well as help you connect with your Google Webmaster Tools account. But with the pro version, you get powerful features like the option to add external sitemap files, the ability to exclude specific pages from the sitemap, and also the option to add custom URLs to the sitemap.
How to Submit Sitemap Plugin to Google?
Now, you have successfully generated your XML sitemap; it’s time to submit it to Google.
All you have to do is go to this link: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/.
Click “Sitemaps” on left menu bar. Enter your sitemap URL & click “Submit“.
Any other WordPress XML Sitemap Plugin?
I hope you found this article helpful. Which of these plugins have you found to suit your needs and have planned to use? Do leave us a comment about this. Also, if you happen to use already any one of the plugins we have mentioned, then also share your experience with us. We would love to hear your feedback.
Again, if you have extensive experience with sitemap plugins and think we have missed out on some powerful plugin, then please suggest your plugins in the comments section.
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