Create a sitemap.xml and submit it from Google Search Console to let crawlers know about your site and its structure.
However, it is troublesome to manually upload sitemap.xml from Google Search Console each time a page or article is published or updated. Google XML Sitemaps is a convenient plugin that can automatically create and notify sitemaps for sites built with WordPress .
What is Google XML Sitemaps
Google XML Sitemaps is a plugin that automatically creates and notifies you of a sitemap for your WordPress site. Used by users worldwide for over 9 years.
Once you set it up using Google XML Sitemaps, it will automatically create and notify you of a sitemap that complies with Google’s regulations with the specified content and frequency. All you have to do is select the items provided.
Installation method
Select “ Plugins ” > “Add New” in the WordPress left sidebar and enter “ Google XML Sitemaps” in the search window. Click Install Now for the
plugin .
Click Activate.
Using Google XML Sitemaps
basic setting
Click on WordPress left sidebar Settings > XML-Sitemap.
In “Basic settings”, check the three items above. The top item is for Google, and the second item is for determining update notification to Bing. If you check the third ” Add sitemap URL to virtual robots.txt file”, you can tell search engines exactly where your sitemap is.
If you select “Do not automatically calculate priority” for “Priority of posts”, the definition of “Priority” explained below will be reflected.
Registered content settings
In “Sitemap contents “, register the contents to be included in the sitemap. As a general rule, include only important pages that you want to notify search engines about. In general, select homepages, posts (individual articles), fixed pages, and category pages .
In “Excluded Items”, register contents to be excluded from the sitemap. No settings are required if there is no specific content to exclude.
Post frequency setting
“Change Frequencies” sets the sitemap posting frequency to notify search engines. Set for each content, and from the pull-down menu, select from Always, Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly, or No update.
It’s not that the more frequent, the better, but it’s recommended to match the frequency of content posting. However, the crawler does not necessarily visit this frequency, it is only considered a hint.
Priority setting
“Priority” sets the relative importance of site content in notifying search engines.
You can select from the pull-down in increments of 0.1 from 1.0 (important) to 0.0 (not important). Like posting frequency, this is also considered a hint to crawlers.
summary
Google XML Sitemaps is a plugin that automatically creates and submits a sitemap for your WordPress site. Notifies search engines such as Google , Bing, and Yahoo! of sitemap updates via ping. You don’t need to write code, you can easily set it with a selection formula.
While automating sitemap creation and notification work with Google XML Sitemaps, check index results and error results with Google Search Console , and use them in combination.
