XML Sitemaps

Overview

CitedPro generates XML sitemaps that help search engines and AI crawlers discover all the content on your site. Sitemaps list your URLs along with metadata like last modified dates, giving crawlers an efficient way to find and index your pages.

When enabled, CitedPro's sitemaps replace the built-in WordPress core sitemaps with a more configurable implementation that gives you control over which post types and taxonomies are included.

Sitemap structure

CitedPro uses a sitemap index architecture. The main sitemap at /sitemap.xml is an index file that points to individual sitemaps for each content type.

Sitemap index

The index file at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml lists all individual sitemaps:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <sitemap>
        <loc>https://yoursite.com/sitemap-post.xml</loc>
        <lastmod>2026-02-21T12:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
    </sitemap>
    <sitemap>
        <loc>https://yoursite.com/sitemap-page.xml</loc>
        <lastmod>2026-02-20T08:30:00+00:00</lastmod>
    </sitemap>
    <sitemap>
        <loc>https://yoursite.com/sitemap-category.xml</loc>
        <lastmod>2026-02-19T15:45:00+00:00</lastmod>
    </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

Individual sitemaps

Each content type gets its own sitemap file:

Each individual sitemap lists URLs with their last modified date:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
    <url>
        <loc>https://yoursite.com/my-blog-post/</loc>
        <lastmod>2026-02-21T12:00:00+00:00</lastmod>
    </url>
</urlset>

Configuration

Configure sitemaps in CitedPro → Settings:

Post types

Choose which post types to include in your sitemaps. By default, Posts and Pages are included. If you have custom post types (like Products or Portfolio items), you can enable or disable each one individually.

Taxonomies

Choose which taxonomies to include. By default, Categories and Tags are included. You can enable or disable each taxonomy individually.

Exclude specific posts

Enter a comma-separated list of post IDs to exclude from sitemaps. This is useful for pages like thank-you pages, landing pages, or other content you do not want crawlers to find via the sitemap.

Posts marked as noindex in the per-post SEO metabox are automatically excluded from sitemaps.

XSL stylesheet

CitedPro includes an XSL stylesheet that transforms the raw XML into a human-readable HTML page when you visit a sitemap URL in your browser. This makes it easy to browse and verify your sitemap contents without reading raw XML.

The stylesheet is purely cosmetic and does not affect how search engines or AI crawlers read the sitemap. Crawlers process the raw XML directly.

Virtual serving

Like other CitedPro files, sitemaps are served virtually through WordPress rewrite rules. No physical XML files are written to your server. This avoids file permission issues and ensures sitemaps always reflect your current content.

WordPress core sitemaps

When CitedPro's sitemaps are enabled, the built-in WordPress core sitemaps (introduced in WordPress 5.5) are disabled to prevent duplicate sitemaps. This is handled automatically; you do not need to do anything.

If you disable CitedPro's sitemaps, WordPress core sitemaps will resume functioning normally.

Cache invalidation

Sitemaps are cached for performance and automatically regenerated when content changes. Cache invalidation is triggered by:

• Publishing or updating a post/page (save_post hook)
• Deleting a post/page (delete_post hook)
• Creating a new term (created_term hook) — e.g., adding a new category
• Deleting a term (delete_term hook)

This ensures your sitemaps always contain the latest URLs without you needing to manually regenerate them.

SEO plugin conflict handling

When a conflicting SEO plugin is active (Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework, or Slim SEO), CitedPro automatically disables its own sitemap generation. This prevents duplicate sitemaps and ensures the active SEO plugin manages sitemaps without interference.

Verification

After enabling sitemaps, verify they are working correctly:

1. Visit yoursite.com/sitemap.xml in your browser. You should see the sitemap index with links to individual sitemaps.
2. Click through to an individual sitemap (e.g., /sitemap-post.xml) to confirm your posts are listed.
3. Check that excluded posts and noindexed pages are not present.
4. Submit your sitemap URL to Google Search Console if you have not already.

Best practices

• Include all public content types: If you have custom post types that are publicly accessible, include them in your sitemaps.
• Exclude thin content: Use the exclusion list or noindex flag for pages with little content value (thank-you pages, utility pages).
• Submit to search engines: Add your sitemap URL to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for faster discovery.
• Check after major changes: After bulk publishing, deleting, or restructuring content, verify your sitemaps reflect the changes.