WordPress Sitemap Guide

WordPress has had built-in sitemap support since version 5.5, released in August 2020. Before that, you needed a plugin. Now you have three options: the core sitemap, Yoast SEO's sitemap, or Rank Math's sitemap. Each works differently, includes different content by default, and gives you different levels of control.

Here's how to find your WordPress sitemap, what each option does, and how to customize them.

Finding Your WordPress Sitemap

The first step is knowing where your sitemap lives. The URL depends on which system is generating it.

To check which one is active on your site, try visiting each URL. The one that returns valid XML is your active sitemap. If you have an SEO plugin installed, it typically disables the core WordPress sitemap automatically and takes over.

WordPress Core Sitemaps (Built-in)

Since WordPress 5.5, every WordPress installation generates a sitemap automatically with no plugins required. It lives at /wp-sitemap.xml.

What It Includes by Default

The core sitemap generates a sitemap index that references individual sitemaps for:

• Posts (/wp-sitemap-posts-post-1.xml)
• Pages (/wp-sitemap-posts-page-1.xml)
• Custom post types (if registered with public => true)
• Categories (/wp-sitemap-taxonomies-category-1.xml)
• Tags (/wp-sitemap-taxonomies-post_tag-1.xml)
• Custom taxonomies (if registered as public)
• Authors (/wp-sitemap-users-1.xml)

Each sub-sitemap contains up to 2,000 URLs (the core sitemap uses a lower limit than the protocol's 50,000 maximum).

What It Doesn't Include

The core sitemap is intentionally minimal:

• No <lastmod> dates (a significant limitation)
• No <changefreq> or <priority> tags
• No image sitemap support
• No news sitemap support
• No way to exclude individual pages from the WordPress admin

Customizing Core Sitemaps

Customization requires code. WordPress provides filters to modify the core sitemap behavior:

// Remove a post type from the sitemap
add_filter('wp_sitemaps_post_types', function($post_types) {
    unset($post_types['attachment']);
    return $post_types;
});

// Remove a taxonomy from the sitemap
add_filter('wp_sitemaps_taxonomies', function($taxonomies) {
    unset($taxonomies['post_tag']);
    return $taxonomies;
});

// Remove the users/authors sitemap entirely
add_filter('wp_sitemaps_add_provider', function($provider, $name) {
    if ($name === 'users') {
        return false;
    }
    return $provider;
}, 10, 2);

// Disable core sitemaps entirely
add_filter('wp_sitemaps_enabled', '__return_false');

This code goes in your theme's functions.php or a custom plugin. There's no settings page for core sitemaps.

When Core Sitemaps Are Enough

The core sitemap is adequate if:

• You have a simple site (blog, small business)
• You don't need lastmod dates (though you really should want them)
• You don't need fine-grained control over which pages are included
• You're not using a dedicated SEO plugin

For most serious WordPress sites, an SEO plugin's sitemap is the better option.

Yoast SEO Sitemaps

Yoast SEO is the most popular WordPress SEO plugin, and its sitemap implementation is significantly more capable than the core sitemap.

What Yoast Provides

When Yoast is active, it automatically disables the WordPress core sitemap and takes over at /sitemap_index.xml.

Configuring Yoast Sitemaps

Rank Math Sitemaps

Rank Math is the other major SEO plugin, and it offers similar sitemap functionality to Yoast with some additional features.

Key Differences from Yoast

• Sitemap URL: Same as Yoast -- /sitemap_index.xml
• lastmod support: Yes, included on all entries
• Image sitemap: Yes, included by default
• Video sitemap: Available in the Pro version
• News sitemap: Available in the Pro version
• Max URLs per sitemap: Configurable (default 200, up to 50,000)

Configuring Rank Math Sitemaps

Go to Rank Math > Sitemap Settings. The interface is more granular than Yoast's:

• General tab: Enable/disable sitemaps, set max URLs per sitemap file, include images, exclude specific posts or terms by ID
• Post type tabs: Toggle each post type individually, with options for images and custom robots directives
• Taxonomy tabs: Same granular control for categories, tags, and custom taxonomies

Rank Math also lets you directly exclude specific post IDs from the sitemap without needing to change the post's indexing status, which Yoast doesn't offer through its UI.

Core vs Plugin: Which Should You Use?

The recommendation is straightforward: If you're running any serious WordPress site, use an SEO plugin. The core sitemap's lack of lastmod dates alone makes it inferior for SEO purposes. Yoast and Rank Math are both free and both generate better sitemaps than the core system.

If you already have Yoast or Rank Math installed for other SEO features, their sitemaps are active by default. There's nothing else to do.

Common WordPress Sitemap Issues

The Sitemap Returns a 404

Possible causes:

• Permalinks need to be flushed. Go to Settings > Permalinks and click "Save Changes" without changing anything. This regenerates the rewrite rules.
• Your SEO plugin is deactivated or misconfigured
• A caching plugin is serving a stale 404
• Your .htaccess file (or Nginx config) has conflicting rewrite rules

The Sitemap Includes Pages You Want Excluded

Fix: Use your SEO plugin's per-post settings to mark pages as noindex. In Yoast, edit the page and use the Advanced tab. In Rank Math, use the Advanced tab in the Rank Math meta box. Pages marked noindex are automatically excluded from the sitemap.

The Sitemap Includes Author Archives

Author archive sitemaps (/wp-sitemap-users-1.xml in core, or author-sitemap.xml in plugins) are included by default. If your site has a single author or you don't want author pages indexed, disable them.

In Yoast: Settings > Content Types > Authors, set "Show author archives in search results" to off.

In Rank Math: Sitemap Settings > Authors, toggle off.

In core: Use the wp_sitemaps_add_provider filter shown earlier.

Plugin Conflicts

If you have multiple SEO plugins active (e.g., Yoast and Rank Math simultaneously), they'll fight over sitemap generation. Only use one SEO plugin at a time. Deactivate the one you're not using.

Some caching plugins can also interfere with sitemap generation by caching the XML output and serving stale content. If your sitemap doesn't reflect recent changes, clear your cache.

Missing Images in Sitemap

If your sitemap doesn't include image references, check that your SEO plugin's image sitemap feature is enabled. In Yoast, this is automatic. In Rank Math, verify it's toggled on in Sitemap Settings.

Submitting Your WordPress Sitemap

Once your sitemap is configured and generating correctly:

The Bottom Line

WordPress handles sitemaps out of the box, but the built-in implementation is bare-bones. If you care about SEO -- and you should -- use Yoast or Rank Math for sitemap generation. They provide lastmod dates, image support, per-page control, and automatic robots.txt integration. Configure once, submit to Search Console, and then monitor to make sure everything stays healthy.

---

WordPress gives you a sitemap for free. An SEO plugin gives you a good one.