Looking for the best sitemap generator for your WordPress site?
A sitemap is a file that lists all the important pages on your website and provides additional information about each page, like when it was last updated and its relative importance on your site. This helps improve crawling and indexing.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the best sitemap generators you can consider for your site.
In This Article
What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file, typically in XML or HTML format, that provides a structured list of all the pages, posts, and other content on your WordPress site. This file helps search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, better understand your site's organization and hierarchy, making it easier for them to crawl and index your content.
Importance of a Sitemap
Having a sitemap offers several SEO benefits, making it an essential element on your site. The top reasons to generate and optimize a sitemap include:
- Enhanced crawlability: Search engines can easily navigate your website and identify important pages through a sitemap.
- Improved search engine indexing: A well-structured sitemap can help search engines discover and index your website's content more effectively, potentially leading to better search ranking.
- URL prioritization: You can use a sitemap to indicate the relative importance of different pages on your website. For example, AIOSEO’s sitemap helps you put recent articles at the top of the sitemap, leading to faster indexing of fresh content.
In a nutshell, a sitemap makes your content more discoverable by search engines, thereby increasing your chances of ranking higher on SERPs.
XML Sitemaps vs. HTML Sitemaps: What’s the Difference?
There are two main types of sitemaps: XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps. Both are essential and serve different purposes. Here are the main differences between XML sitemaps and HTML sitemaps
XML Sitemaps
XML sitemaps (Extensible Markup Language) are machine-readable files that provide a structured list of your website's URLs. These files also contain additional metadata such as the last modified date, change frequency, and priority.
Search engines primarily use XML sitemaps to crawl and index your website's content more effectively.
Check out our tutorial on creating an XML sitemap in WordPress for more.
HTML Sitemaps
HTML sitemaps are human-readable pages visually representing your website's structure and hierarchy.
These sitemaps are designed to help visitors navigate your website more efficiently, especially for larger or more complex sites.
While both types of sitemaps serve important purposes, it's generally recommended that you have both an XML and an HTML sitemap for your WordPress website. The XML sitemap helps search engines, while the HTML sitemap assists your human visitors.
The Best Sitemap Generator: 8 Expert Picks
Now that you know what sitemaps are, let's quickly dive into the best sitemap generators to help you do that.
1. All In One SEO (AIOSEO)
AIOSEO is the best sitemap generator for WordPress users. It’s a powerful, easy-to-use SEO plugin with over 3 million active users. Because it’s regularly updated, you can rest assured the plugin stays abreast of changes in SEO best practices and keeps up with WordPress versions.
Millions of smart bloggers and marketers use AIOSEO to boost their search engine rankings and drive qualified blog traffic because the plugin has many powerful features designed to help you properly configure your SEO settings.
Regarding sitemaps, AIOSEO has a powerful XML Sitemap Generator.
The sitemap generator can handle all types of sitemaps, including XML, HTML, Video, News, and RSS sitemaps. No matter which sitemap you generate, AIOSEO makes it easier to customize and optimize them for higher rankings and maximum traffic.
AIOSEO’s sitemap generator also allows you to include or exclude certain posts or pages. Examples include:
- Images and galleries
- Password-protected posts
- Custom post types
- Media attachment pages
- Archive pages for tags, categories, authors
- And more
Plus, AIOSEO’s sitemap generator gives you advanced options like uploading URLs from a CSV file.
AIOSEO will also automatically notify search engines whenever you publish, update, or delete content on your site.
Plus, AIOSEOm integrates with many multilingual plugins to help you create multilingual sitemaps.
For more information, check out our WordPress XML sitemaps vs. AIOSEO comparison.
Pricing: $49.60
2. Jetpack
Jetpack is a feature-rich, popular WordPress plugin made by the same team behind WordPress—Automattic. It offers a bundle of plugins that include backup, security, and growth modules. It also comes bundled with a built-in sitemap generator.
Jetpack’s sitemap generator automatically creates XML sitemaps for your website and submits them to search engines. It’s a fan favorite for being straightforward and easy to use, making it a great option for beginners.
Besides XML sitemaps, Jetpack also generates news, image, and video sitemaps. However, it does not generate HTML sitemaps.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $4.95.
3. XML Sitemaps
XML Sitemaps is a website dedicated solely to generating high-quality XML sitemaps. It offers advanced features such as exclusion rules, custom post type support, and automatic updates. The tool also allows you to generate image, video, news and RSS sitemaps. The Pro version also offers HTML sitemap support.
One of the best aspects of this sitemap generator is that you can submit your sitemaps directly from the tool’s servers and update them without re-uploading them to your website.
Pricing: $4.19/month.
4. RankMath
RankMath is a comprehensive WordPress SEO plugin that includes a robust sitemap generator. It automatically creates XML sitemaps and supports multiple sitemaps (e.g., image, video, news). Besides customizable XML sitemaps, Rank Math also has HTML sitemap support.
RankMath also integrates with popular search engines, making it easy to submit your sitemaps. Its advanced features give you granular control over sitemap settings.
Pricing: Paid plans start at $59/year.
5. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is another popular WordPress SEO plugin designed to help users optimize their sites to rank high in search results. The plugin also features a basic sitemap generator. It automatically creates XML sitemaps and integrates with search engines for easy submission.
Yoast SEO also provides options to customize your sitemap settings, such as priority and change frequency. It also automatically removes content you mark as noindex from the sitemap.
Here’s a detailed comparison of Yoast vs. Rank Math vs. AIOSEO to help you see which is the clear winner.
Pricing: $99/year for the core plugin. Addons are purchased separately.
6. Simple Sitemap
Simple Sitemap is the most popular HTML sitemap generator for WordPress sites. One reason for that is it’s easy to use. It’s a simple tool that makes building and previewing your sitemap visually in the post editor easy!
With Simple Sitemap, there’s no need to use confusing and complicated code to create your HTML sitemap. You also don’t have to swap back and forth between the editor and front end to ensure your HTML sitemap displays correctly. The plugin works seamlessly within the Gutenberg editor.
For advanced users, Simple Sitemap supports shortcodes, giving you more control over how your HTML sitemap will look.
Pricing: Free.
7. Companion Sitemap Generator
Companion Sitemap Generator is a free WordPress plugin that helps you create both XML and HTML sitemaps. This makes it a versatile option for users looking to improve their site's discoverability and navigation.
The XML sitemap functionality provides some basic customization options. For example, you can adjust the update frequency for pages and selectively include or exclude certain pages from the sitemap.
However, the standout feature of Companion Sitemap Generator is its built-in HTML sitemap functionality. This allows you to easily generate a user-friendly, hierarchical listing of your site's pages and posts, making it simpler for visitors to navigate your content.
Overall, Companion Sitemap Generator is a well-rounded sitemap solution that caters to the needs of WordPress users who want to improve their search engine optimization and user experience by implementing both XML and HTML sitemaps.
Pricing: Free.
8. Google XML Sitemaps
Google XML Sitemaps is one of the best sitemap generators for WordPress regarding dedicated plugins. It has been around for years, has amassed a large user base, and has fantastic reviews from users in the WordPress community.
A notable feature of this plugin is its support for multiple languages, making it a viable option for multilingual SEO. It also offers compatibility with WordPress multisite installations, allowing site owners with multiple sites under a single WordPress network to manage their sitemaps efficiently.
Another powerful aspect of this plugin is its extensive filtering system, which allows other WordPress plugins to contribute their pages to the sitemap. This ensures that the generated XML sitemap includes a comprehensive list of all the content on your website, including post types, taxonomies, and custom post types.
Overall, the Google XML Sitemaps plugin is a long-standing and feature-rich option for WordPress users who want to create and manage high-quality XML sitemaps for their sites.
Pricing: Free.
The Best Sitemap Generator: Our Top Picks
Our top pick for the best sitemap generator is All In One SEO (AIOSEO). The plugin offers unparalleled flexibility and customization options for optimizing sitemaps. Other top picks are Jetpack and XML Sitemaps.
Best Sitemap Generator: Your FAQs Answered
What is a Sitemap?
A sitemap is a file, typically in XML or HTML format, that provides a structured list of all the pages, posts, and other content on your WordPress site.
Do I really need a sitemap for my WordPress site?
Yes, a sitemap is highly recommended for all WordPress websites, regardless of size or complexity. Sitemaps help search engines better understand and index your website's content, improving visibility and higher rankings.
What's the difference between an XML sitemap and an HTML sitemap?
XML sitemaps are machine-readable files that provide a structured list of your website's URLs and metadata like change frequency and priority. Search engines primarily use them to crawl and index your content.
HTML sitemaps, on the other hand, are human-readable pages that offer a visual representation of your website's structure, making it easier for visitors to navigate your content.
How do I generate a sitemap?
The easiest way to generate a sitemap is by using a plugin like All In One SEO (AIOSEO). It’s a powerful WordPress plugin that also offers a flexible and feature-rich sitemap generator.
We hope this post helped you find the best sitemap generator for your site. You may also want to check out other articles on our blog, like how to submit your sitemap to Google or, alternatively, how to submit your sitemap to Bing.
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