XML Sitemaps

Automatic sitemap generation for posts, pages, categories, authors, and images to help search engines discover your content.

On this page

Overview

Prime SEO generates XML sitemaps automatically for all your public content. The sitemap module creates a sitemap index at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml that links to individual sitemaps for each content type.

Sitemaps work instantly after activation — no need to flush permalinks. Prime SEO uses Dynamic Rewrites technology for immediate availability.

Note
Prime SEO's sitemap automatically replaces WordPress core sitemaps (wp-sitemap.xml) to provide more features like image sitemaps and XSL styling.

Sitemap Structure

The sitemap index links to individual sitemaps for each content type on your site:

URL Content
/sitemap.xml Sitemap Index (links to all sub-sitemaps)
/post-sitemap.xml Published posts
/page-sitemap.xml Published pages
/category-sitemap.xml Categories
/post_tag-sitemap.xml Tags
/author-sitemap.xml Authors

Each sitemap supports up to 1,000 URLs. If you have more, Prime SEO creates additional pages automatically (e.g., /post-sitemap2.xml, /post-sitemap3.xml).

The sitemap is styled with XSL for easy viewing in browsers — it looks like a clean, readable table instead of raw XML.

Post Type Sitemaps

By default, all public post types are included in the sitemap. You can toggle each post type from the Sitemap settings page. Supported post types include:

  • Posts — your blog posts and articles
  • Pages — static pages like About, Contact, etc.
  • Custom post types — WooCommerce Products, portfolio items, and any other registered public post type

Each entry in the sitemap includes the URL, last modified date, and change frequency to help search engines prioritize crawling.

Taxonomy Sitemaps

Categories, tags, and custom taxonomies are included in the sitemap by default. You can toggle each taxonomy individually from the Sitemap settings page.

Taxonomy sitemaps help search engines discover your archive pages, which can drive significant traffic for sites with well-organized content structures.

Image Sitemaps

When enabled (default), Prime SEO includes image data in post and page sitemaps. This helps Google discover images attached to your content, potentially improving visibility in Google Images.

Image sitemap entries include the image URL, title, and caption when available. This is especially useful for photography sites, portfolios, and e-commerce stores where image search traffic matters.

Author Sitemaps

Author sitemaps include author archive pages in your sitemap. This is useful for multi-author blogs where each author's archive page contains unique, valuable content.

If your site has a single author or you don't use author archives, you can disable author sitemaps from the Sitemap settings page to keep your sitemap focused.

Excluding Content

Individual posts and pages can be excluded from the sitemap:

Edit the post or page Open the post or page you want to exclude in the WordPress editor.
Open the Prime SEO metabox Scroll down to the Prime SEO metabox and click the Advanced tab.
Enable "Noindex this page" Check the noindex option. Noindexed content is automatically excluded from the sitemap.

This is useful for pages like Thank You pages, landing page variants, or any content you don't want search engines to index.

Submitting to Search Engines

Prime SEO adds your sitemap URL to robots.txt automatically, so search engines can discover it on their own. However, you can also submit it manually for faster discovery:

  • Google Search Console — go to the Sitemaps section and add yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
  • Bing Webmaster Tools — submit your sitemap URL via the Sitemaps section in your dashboard
Tip
For faster indexing of new content, combine sitemaps with the Instant Indexing module, which notifies search engines immediately when you publish.
Previous ← LLMs.txt Next Schema Markup →

Ready to optimize your site?

Install Prime SEO in under 2 minutes. Free forever.

Install Free Plugin