You create tons of great content on your WordPress website, but that content is only valuable if humans and search engines can actually find it.
Sitemaps help you achieve this by essentially providing both humans and search engines with a “map” of all the content on your website ( hence the name ). This makes them an important tool for SEO and usability.
In this post, I’ll discuss two types of sitemaps – XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps. I’ll tell you what each type of sitemap is and their benefits. Then, I’ll show you how to create both XML and HTML sitemaps in WordPress.
What is a WordPress XML Sitemap?
A WordPress XML sitemap lets you tell search engines about all the content on your website. Although the XML sitemap file is publicly accessible, your human visitors will never actually see it.
Essentially, it’s just a list of URLs for all the content on your site, along with some additional information, like when the content was last modified, and how highly you want Google to place each page.
Here's an example of SidelinePlay's XML sitemap - you can also view the file here :
As you can see, this page is not designed for humans - it's designed entirely for search engines!
In addition to creating an XML sitemap for your WordPress posts and pages, you can also create separate sitemaps for your images and videos.
Benefits of XML Sitemaps
XML sitemaps are good for your website's SEO.
Basically, it lets you tell Google and other search engines about all the content on your site. While an XML sitemap doesn't force Google to include all of your content in its search results, it does ensure that Google is at least aware of all of your content, which helps improve the chances of Google indexing your content.
XML sitemaps are also useful because they allow you to communicate other information to Google, such as:
- How often you change your pages – This helps Google crawl frequently updated content more often.
- When the page was last updated – Same idea!
- Alternative language versions of the page – This is helpful for multilingual sites.
XML sitemaps can also help you communicate information about your multimedia content. For example, a video sitemap lets you provide Google with information about each video, including its:
- Run time
- category
- Age appropriateness
- category
Long story short, the benefits of XML sitemaps are:
- Let search engines know about all your content
- Allows you to share additional information about your content to optimize how search engines process your content
Finally, according to Google , “In most cases, your site will benefit from having a sitemap, and you will never be penalized for having a sitemap.”
What is an HTML sitemap?
Compared to an XML sitemap, an HTML sitemap is more focused on helping human visitors find content on your site ( although it has some benefits for SEO as well ).
While an XML sitemap is just a set of code, an HTML sitemap is the actual pages on your website that are designed for people to navigate. An HTML sitemap contains links to all of your content ( or, if your blog has thousands of posts, maybe just the most important content ).
Here's an example HTML sitemap for ATB Financial:
Human visitors can see all the content ATB Financial has to offer and navigate directly to where they want to go.
Benefits of HTML Sitemaps
For humans, the biggest benefit of an HTML sitemap is that it makes it easier for them to navigate your website.
But HTML sitemaps have some SEO benefits, too. Basically, because an HTML sitemap is just a bunch of internal links, it can help you:
- Spread link equity across your website
- Give Google's crawlers another way to find all your content
On that last point, Google recommends in its Webmaster Guidelines that you create an HTML sitemap. Specifically, they tell you to "provide a page that contains a readable list of links to [your] pages."
HTML Sitemap vs XML Sitemap in WordPress?
So, when it comes to HTML sitemaps vs XML sitemaps, which one should you use?
That's a tough one! You don't have to choose just one.
Instead, it's best practice to use both an HTML Sitemap and an XML Sitemap. As you learned above, each sitemap serves a slightly different purpose, and Google actually recommends that you provide both an HTML Sitemap and an XML Sitemap in its Webmaster Guidelines:
How to Create a Sitemap in WordPress
Now that you know what sitemaps are and what benefits they provide, let’s cover how to create a sitemap in WordPress and make sure it’s accessible to search engines.
I will cover how to create both XML and HTML sitemaps.
Creating an XML Sitemap in WordPress
Almost all major WordPress SEO plugins include XML sitemap functionality by default, so it’s unlikely that you’ll need to manually create an XML sitemap for your WordPress website.
For example, all of the following SEO plugins include built-in XML sitemap functionality:
How to tell search engines about your sitemap
Once you create your XML sitemap using one of these plugins, you’ll need to tell search engines where to find it.
You can do this using each search engine's Webmaster Tools feature. For example:
We have a full guide on how to submit a sitemap to Google . It goes into detail about the entire process.
Creating an HTML Sitemap in WordPress
Depending on the size of your WordPress website, you can create an HTML sitemap in WordPress manually or using a plugin.
If you have a small site (for example, a brochure site), you can create a regular page and manually add links to all the content.
However, as your website grows, manually managing your HTML sitemap may no longer be feasible.
In this case, you can use a free plugin called Simple Sitemap . Here’s an example of the type of sitemap this tool will create:
Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, create a new WordPress page and [simple-sitemap]add the shortcode where you want your HTML sitemap to appear:
By default, the shortcode will display on all your pages ( not your blog posts ). However, you can modify its functionality using the following parameters:
- Type – The post types you want to include in your sitemap. For example, “Posts”, “Pages”, or any custom post types you are using.
- show_label – Whether to show the title label.
- Link – Display the sitemap as a link or as text only.
- page_depth – The hierarchy of subpages.
- order and orderby – by what to sort the pages.
- Exclude – Exclude specific content ( by post ID ).
For example, if you wanted to create separate sitemaps for your posts and pages, you could use two separate shortcodes like this:
[simple-sitemap types="page"]– List of all WordPress pages[simple-sitemap types="post"]– List of all WordPress blog posts
Frequently Asked Questions About Creating a Sitemap in WordPress:
To finish off this post, let me answer some common questions about creating a sitemap in WordPress.
Do you need to update your sitemap manually?
No! Your SEO plugin will automatically add new content to your XML sitemap, and the Simple Sitemap plugin will automatically add new content to your HTML sitemap.
Why isn't Google indexing all the content in my Sitemap?
Your sitemap helps Google find all of your content, but it doesn't guarantee that Google will index your content. The final decision always lies with Google.
Is there a limit to the number of pages I can include in an XML sitemap?
Yes and no. A single XML sitemap file can contain up to 50,000 URLs. However, if you need to include more than 50,000 URLs, you can simply create multiple XML sitemap files and collect them into a single XML index file.
This is actually what the Yoast SEO plugin does by default.
Final Thoughts on WordPress Sitemaps
To summarize, sitemaps are an essential part of WordPress SEO .
Regardless of your website’s content, you should create a sitemap to help humans and search engines find your content.
At the very least, create an XML sitemap using a plugin like Yoast SEO and submit it to search engines. It will only benefit you and never hurt you. Again, this is directly from Google – “In most cases, having a sitemap will benefit your site, and you will never be penalized for having a sitemap.”
Beyond that, consider creating an HTML sitemap to help people navigate your site and spread some link equity.
Do you have any questions about using sitemaps in WordPress? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article contain affiliate links, which means we may earn a commission if you click through to visit us, at no extra cost to you. See how SidelinePlay is funded, why it’s important, and how you can support us.
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