Description

As originally proposed in June 2019, this feature plugin seeks to integrate basic XML Sitemaps functionality in WordPress Core.

A short explanation of how this plugin works can be found on this make/core blog post.

Interested in contributing to this plugin? Feel free to join us on GitHub and the #core-sitemaps Slack channel.

Installation

Installation from within WordPress

Visit Plugins > Add New.
Search for Core Sitemaps.
Install and activate the Core Sitemaps plugin.

Manual installation

Upload the entire core-sitemaps folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory.
Visit Plugins.
Activate the Core Sitemaps plugin.

FAQ

How can I fully disable sitemap generation?

You can use remove_action( 'init', 'core_sitemaps_get_server' ); to disable initialization of any sitemap functionality.

How can I disable sitemaps for a certain object type?

You can use the core_sitemaps_register_providers filter to disable sitemap generation for posts, users, or taxonomies.

How can I disable sitemaps for a certain post type or taxonomy?

You can use the core_sitemaps_post_types filter to disable sitemap generation for posts of a certain type.

By default, only public posts will be represented in the sitemap.

Similarly, the core_sitemaps_taxonomies filter can be used to disable sitemap generation for certain taxonomies.

How can I exclude certain posts / pages / users from the sitemap or add custom ones?

The core_sitemaps_taxonomies_url_list, core_sitemaps_users_url_list, and core_sitemaps_posts_url_list filters allow you to add or remove URLs as needed.

No UI option is exposed for this.

How can I change the number of URLs per sitemap?

Use the core_sitemaps_max_urls filter to adjust the maximum number of URLs included in a sitemap. The default value is 2000 URLs.

How can I change the appearance of the XML sitemaps in the browser using XSL?

A variety of filters exists to allow you adjust the styling:

core_sitemaps_stylesheet_url – Filter the URL for the sitemap stylesheet.
core_sitemaps_stylesheet_index_url – Filter the URL for the sitemap index stylesheet.
core_sitemaps_stylesheet_content – Filter the content of the sitemap stylesheet.
core_sitemaps_index_stylesheet_content – Filter the content of the sitemap index stylesheet.
core_sitemaps_stylesheet_css – Filter the CSS only for the sitemap stylesheet.

Does this plugin support `changefreq` and `priority` attributes for sitemaps?

No. Those are optional fields in the sitemaps protocol and not typically consumed by search engines. Developers can still add those fields if they really want too.