Core Sitemaps

Description

Note: This feature has been integrated into WordPress 5.5. If you run WordPress 5.5, you can freely disable this plugin.

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.

Available Hooks and Filters

General:

  • wp_sitemaps_enabled – Filters whether XML Sitemaps are enabled or not.
  • wp_sitemaps_max_urls – Filters the maximum number of URLs displayed on a sitemap.
  • wp_sitemaps_register_providers – Filters the list of registered sitemap providers.
  • wp_sitemaps_init – Fires when initialising sitemaps.
  • wp_sitemaps_index_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for the sitemap index.

Providers:

  • wp_sitemaps_post_types – Filters the list of post types to include in the sitemaps.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for an individual post.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_show_on_front_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for the home page when the ‘show_on_front’ option equals ‘posts’.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_query_args – Filters the query arguments for post type sitemap queries.
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_pre_url_list – Filters the posts URL list before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_posts_pre_max_num_pages – Filters the max number of pages before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies – Filters the list of taxonomies to include in the sitemaps.
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for an individual term.
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_query_args – Filters the query arguments for taxonomy terms sitemap queries.
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_pre_url_list – Filters the taxonomies URL list before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_pre_max_num_pages – Filters the max number of pages before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_users_entry – Filters the sitemap entry for an individual user.
  • wp_sitemaps_users_query_args – Filters the query arguments for user sitemap queries.
  • wp_sitemaps_users_pre_url_list – Filters the users URL list before it is generated (short-circuit).
  • wp_sitemaps_users_pre_max_num_pages – Filters the max number of pages before it is generated (short-circuit).

Style sheets:

  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_css – Filters the CSS for the sitemap style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_url – Filters the URL for the sitemap style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_content – Filters the content of the sitemap style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_index_url – Filters the URL for the sitemap index style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_index_content – Filters the content of the sitemap index style sheet.

Installation

Installation from within WordPress

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

Manual installation

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

FAQ

How can I fully disable sitemap generation?

If you update the WordPress settings to discourage search engines from indexing your site, sitemaps will be disabled.
Alternatively, use the wp_sitemaps_enabled filter, or use remove_action( 'init', 'wp_sitemaps_get_server' ); to disable initialization of any sitemap functionality.

How can I disable sitemaps for a certain object type?

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

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

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

Example: Disabling sitemaps for the “page” post type

add_filter(
    'wp_sitemaps_post_types',
    function( $post_types ) {
        unset( $post_types['page'] );
        return $post_types;
    }
);

Example: Disabling sitemaps for the “post_tag” taxonomy

add_filter(
    'wp_sitemaps_taxonomies',
    function( $taxonomies ) {
        unset( $taxonomies['post_tag'] );
        return $taxonomies;
    }
);

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

The wp_sitemaps_posts_query_args, wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_query_args, and wp_sitemaps_users_query_args filters can be used to modify the underlying queries. Using these queries, certain items can be excluded.

Example: Ensuring the page with ID 42 is not included

add_filter(
    'wp_sitemaps_posts_query_args',
    function( $args ) {
        $args['post__not_in'] = isset( $args['post__not_in'] ) ? $args['post__not_in'] : array();
        $args['post__not_in'][] = 42;
        return $args;
    }
);

Example: Ensuring the category with ID 7 is not included

add_filter(
    'wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_query_args',
    function( $args ) {
        $args['exclude'] = isset( $args['exclude'] ) ? $args['exclude'] : array();
        $args['exclude'][] = 7;
        return $args;
    }
);

Example: Ensuring the user with ID 1 is not included

add_filter(
    'wp_sitemaps_users_query_args',
    function( $args ) {
        $args['exclude'] = isset( $args['exclude'] ) ? $args['exclude'] : array();
        $args['exclude'][] = 1;
        return $args;
    }
);

How can I add `changefreq`, `priority`, or `lastmod` to a sitemap?

You can use the wp_sitemaps_posts_entry / wp_sitemaps_users_entry / wp_sitemaps_taxonomies_entry filters to add additional attributes like changefreq, priority, or lastmod to single item in the sitemap.

Example: Adding the last modified date for posts

add_filter(
    'wp_sitemaps_posts_entry',
    function( $entry, $post ) {
        $entry['lastmod'] = $post->post_modified_gmt;
        return $entry;
    },
    10,
    2
);

Similarly, you can use the wp_sitemaps_index_entry filter to add lastmod on the sitemap index. Note: changefreq and priority are not supported on the sitemap index.

How can I add image sitemaps?

Adding image sitemaps are not supported yet, but support will be added in the future so that plugin developers can add them if needed.

How can I change the number of URLs per sitemap?

Use the wp_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 exist to allow you to adjust the styling:

  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_url – Filter the URL for the sitemap style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_index_url – Filter the URL for the sitemap index style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_content – Filter the content of the sitemap style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_index_stylesheet_content – Filter the content of the sitemap index style sheet.
  • wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_css – Filter the CSS only for the sitemap style sheet.

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 to.

Why is there no last modified date shown in the sitemap?

XML sitemaps are first and foremost a discovery mechanism for content. Exposing the date the content was last modified is not needed for the majority of sites.

Reviews

Contributors & Developers

“Core Sitemaps” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

“Core Sitemaps” has been translated into 15 locales. Thank you to the translators for their contributions.

Translate “Core Sitemaps” into your language.

Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Change log

For the plugin’s changelog, please check out the full list of changes on GitHub.