An XML Sitemap is essential for getting your site listed on Google and one of the first things Google Search Console will ask you for. Creating a sitemap on WordPress is not that hard but you may be struggling to find where your sitemap is.
This is because WordPress does not create XML sitemaps by default and needs the help of a plugin. In this short guide I show you how to install my preferred sitemap plugin and how to setup your sitemap ready for submission to Google Search Console.
How to create a sitemap on WordPress
Firstly we need to install a plugin. Head over to Plugins > Add New in WordPress admin and search for Rank Math. Click install and have a few moments you will see an activate button, click this.
Rank Math will now walk you through a setup wizard to get some basic information about your website. This information will also help boost your site in Google rankings as Rank Math will set up things like Schema out of the box.
Once you have completed the setup wizard you will be back in the WordPress dashboard. From here navigate to Rank Math > Dashboard and find the box for sitemaps, this should be enabled by default. If not enable it before clicking on settings.
Rank Math provides a lot of control over your sitemaps, the default settings are probably the best options unless you know what you are doing with sitemaps. At the top of the general sitemap settings tab you will see your sitemap URL. It is this URL you will need to submit to Google Search Console.
Troubleshooting
While the above will work 99% of the time sometimes you will run into issues with your sitemap. I have covered some common problems and solutions below.
My Sitemap URL gives a 404
This can be a common issue if you have recently installed Rank Math on your website. The quickest solution and the one that works the most often is to simply save your WordPress permalink settings again. To do this navigate to Settings > Permalinks in WordPress admin. You don’t need to change anything just press save. Pressing saving here will flush the WordPress permalink cache and rebuild your htaccess file with the latest settings.
My Sitemap doesn’t include all pages
If your website uses custom post types these may not be included in your sitemap with the default settings on Rank Math. Navigate to Rank Math > Sitemap Settings in your WP admin. From here you will see a list of all post types you have on your website. Click the tab for the post type that is missing from your sitemap and you can toggle this on and off. A little further down on the sitemap settings page you can also toggle custom taxonomy on and off. Each post type will create its own sitemap but all sitemaps are included in the sitemap index file that you can find under the general tab. You only need to submit the sitemap index URL to Google Search Console.
