Are you looking to add sitemap XML for your website?
Now when it comes to getting ranking your website, you need to take advantage of as many SEO hacks as possible. So in such a situation, making sitmap is such a technique that will definitely help you to improve your SEO strategy.
In this article, we will teach you what is sitemap, why sitemap is important for your site, and how to create a sitemap in WordPress.
What is Sitemap XML
An sitemap is a file that lists all the content of your website in an XML format. By which search engines like Google can easily discovered and index your content.
There are two main types of sitemap: HTML and XML. Hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensible markup language (XML) are two coding languages that used to make webpages.
The main difference between these that Html Sitemap focus on making the website more user-friendly for humans, Whereas XML sitemaps are created for search engines crawlers.
However today sitemaps are published in XML format instead of HTML. Because their target audience are search engines and not people.
In general, an XML sitemap is a way for website owners to tell search engines about all the pages that exist on their website.
An XML sitemap will not boost your website in search engine rankings. They allows search engines to better crawl your website.
As a result, your website may start showing up in search results, meaning you will now get more search traffic and improve SEO rankings.
Why Sitemap is Important for SEO
Sitemap is important aspect from the point of view of Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
If you don’t have any pages indexed on your site, sitemap provide a way to tell search engines about that page.
The sitemap is even more important when you create a new website or are start a blog. Because most new website don’t have any backlinks. This makes it difficult for search engines to find all of your content.
That’s why search engines like Google and Bing allow new website owners to submit sitemap to their webmaster tools. This allows their search engine bots to easily discover and index your content.
So, let’s take a look at Sitemap effectiveness.
You may need Sitemap XML on the following criteria:
- This is extremely useful if you have a large site with lots of pages, images and content.
- Websites with lots of archived content that are not well-linked or well structured.
- Sites that have fewer external links, sitemap is important for.
- Websites with rich media content also come under the requirements of the XML sitemaps.
Creating a XML sitemap is very easy, almost every search engine allows submitting a sitemap in their webmaster tools. You can use sitemap as an auxiliary tool which can assist Googlebot to find content more easily.
Let’s take a look at how to create XML sitemap in WordPress:
How to Create Sitemap in WordPress
Although there are many ways to make sitemap, but we will tell you some of the main ones which are the most popular. You can choose any one of these to make a sitemap for your website.
- How to create an XML sitemap in WordPress using Yoast
- How to create an XML sitemap in WordPress using All in One SEO
Method 1. How to Create an XML Sitemap in WordPress using Yoast
If you are already using Yoast WordPress SEO then it will automatically turns on XML sitemap for you.
It is very easy to build sitemap using Yoast SEO. Firstly, you need to install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin. For more details, see our step-step guide on how to install WordPress plugin.
Once you’ve activated the plugin, navigate to SEO » General in your WordPress dashboard, and click on the Features tab.
From here, you’ll need to scroll down to the sitemap option and make sure it’s turned on.
Next, click on the Save Changes button and store your changes.
Now, to you to verify that the Yoast SEO has created a sitemap, you can click on the question mark icon next the XML sitemap option on the page.
After that, click on the link “see the XML sitemap” to view the your sitemap generated by Yoast SEO.
In addition, you can also find sitemap by simply adding sitemap_index.xml to the end of your website address.
For example, you can type www.yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml in address bar.
Yoast SEO create many sitemaps for different types of website content. By default, it will generate sitemap for post, page, author and category.
Method 2. How to Create an XML Sitemap Using All in One SEO
Using all in One SEO plugin is one of the easiest way to make sitemap for WordPress website.
It is one of the best SEO tools available in the market that offers a comprehensive set of tools for optimize your blog post.
Firstly, you’ll need to install and activate All in One SEO plugin. For more details, see our step-step guide about on how to install WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, we’ll need go to All in One SEO » Sitemaps page to review sitemap settings.
Usually, All In One SEO will enable the sitemap feature by default and replace basic WordPress sitemap.
Also, you can click on the Open Sitemap button to review it to see what it looks like. You can also view your sitemap by adding sitemap.xml end of the website address.
Example: www.yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
As a beginner, you don’t need to do anything, because AIOSEO default settings will be automatically set for all types of websites, blogs and stores.
However, you can customize the setting to control what you want to include in the xml Sitemap.
Simply sroll down to the sitemap settings section.
This section allows you to manage sitemap indexing to include or exclude post type and taxonomies (category and tags). You can also enable xml sitemap for date-based archive and author archives.
In addition, All in One SEO provides state-of-the-art features for Sitemap, whereas you can add external pages to WordPress.
Method 3. Create Sitemap in WordPress without a Plugin
If you are looking for sitemap without plugin in wordpress then this is a basic and limited terms of features.
However, until August 2020, WordPress didn’t have a built-in sitemap.
By default, WordPress 5.5 includes an extensible core system that helps your important pages find in search engines.
It allows you to automatically create a sitemap in WordPress without using any plugins.
you need to simply add /wp-sitemap.xml to the end of your domain.
This sitemap can be created sitemap for all queryable post types, taxonomies, author archives, and homepage.
WordPress exposes a sitemap index in which they can hold up to 50000 sitemaps. Whereas you can hold up to 2000 entries in a single wp-sitemap.xml.
However it’s not very flexible and you can’t easily control for sitemap issues like what to add or remove.
Whereas top WordPress SEO plugins come with their own sitemap functionality. You can control add or remove WordPress xml sitemap as per your needs with the plugin.
A native WordPress sitemap will also be useful for publishers who want to keep the number of plugins to a minimum.
Conclusion
Sitemaps are beneficial for any website because their main purpose is to create a user-friendly website. They play an important role in ranking your website in search engine result pages. Furthermore, it also enables your site to be crawled and indexed quickly.
In this tutorial, we’ve learned how to create a xml sitemap and also know the important a sitemap is for website SEO. If you are using another plugin for sitemaps, share your experience with us.
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If you have any questions regarding this article, don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below.
