Sitemapster – Fast XML & Image Sitemaps

FAQ

Is Sitemapster another all-in-one SEO suite?

No. Sitemapster does one job: create dependable XML sitemaps that help search engines discover your public content and media. It does not add keyword scores, advertising, analytics, or unrelated menus to your WordPress dashboard.

WordPress already includes a sitemap. Why use Sitemapster?

WordPress Core provides a basic sitemap at /wp-sitemap.xml. Sitemapster gives you separate content and image sitemaps, independent enable controls, cached output, a readable browser view, and explicit compatibility with read-only hosting. Pro adds precise exclusions, specialized sitemaps, diagnostics, cache warming, and WooCommerce support.

Avoid publishing duplicate sitemap sets. Enable only the sitemap solution you intend search engines to use.

Does Sitemapster create XML files on the server?

No. Sitemapster generates XML on demand and stores cached responses in an external object cache or WordPress transients. This supports read-only hosting environments.

Will an XML sitemap improve my search rankings?

A sitemap helps search engines discover eligible URLs and media, but it does not guarantee indexing or higher rankings. Search engines still evaluate content quality, accessibility, relevance, internal linking, and other signals.

Can I disable only one sitemap type?

Yes. The sitemap index, content sitemap, and image sitemap have separate controls in the Sitemapster admin screen. The index lists only enabled child sitemap types.

Can I use Sitemapster alongside an SEO plugin?

Yes. Sitemapster uses its own /sitemapster_index.xml endpoint to avoid conflicts with sitemap routes owned by SEO plugins. However, avoid publishing duplicate content sitemaps: disable the corresponding Sitemapster sitemap if your SEO plugin already provides it. Sitemapster also respects common noindex, redirect, and canonical metadata from Yoast SEO, Rank Math, SEOPress, and The SEO Framework.

Does Sitemapster work for large sites?

Yes. Sitemapster paginates generated sitemaps automatically, caches their XML, and can use a persistent WordPress object cache when one is available. Sitemapster Pro can also pre-warm every enabled sitemap cache manually, on a daily schedule, or through WP-CLI.

What does the WooCommerce sitemap include?

When enabled in Sitemapster Pro, the dedicated WooCommerce sitemap lists published product URLs and removes those products from the regular sitemap to avoid duplication. You can exclude products hidden from the catalog or out of stock. Product galleries and variation images are also added to the image sitemap.

A sitemap URL shows the wrong content or no content at all. Why?

Sitemap filenames are a shared namespace, so another plugin or the web server may already answer a URL such as /sitemap-news.xml. Sitemapster then generates correct XML that nobody ever receives, which looks exactly like an empty sitemap. Sitemapster Pro reports this in the “Delivery” column of Sitemap Health. Sitemapster-served responses always carry an X-Generator: Sitemapster header and a Generated by Sitemapster comment, so you can also check with your browser’s network panel. To resolve it, disable the duplicate sitemap in one of the two plugins, then save Settings > Permalinks.

Why is the sitemap shown as raw XML instead of a readable table?

The readable view relies on an XSL stylesheet served from /sitemapster.xsl. If that URL returns a 404, save Settings > Permalinks to refresh the rewrite rules. Browsers also apply a stylesheet only when it is delivered from the same domain as the sitemap, so avoid rewriting Sitemapster URLs to a different host.

How do I regenerate a sitemap?

Sitemapster automatically invalidates its cache when relevant content is published, updated, deleted, or when settings change. You can also select “Clear sitemap cache” from the Sitemapster admin screen.

Which images are included?

The image sitemap includes each content entry’s featured image and images attached to that entry in the Media Library. Images found only inside post content are not detected automatically. Developers can add other image sources with the sitemapster_post_images filter.

What does Sitemapster Pro add?

Pro gives you tighter control over what search engines discover and better tools for verifying delivery. It adds post type and taxonomy controls, per-content exclusions, custom URL, video, news, and WooCommerce sitemaps, richer WooCommerce image support, sitemap diagnostics, cache warming, and WP-CLI maintenance commands. Optional Pro sitemaps remain disabled until you enable them.

Why does a sitemap URL return 404?

First visit Settings > Permalinks and save the page to refresh WordPress rewrite rules. If the web server handles .xml requests as static files, route sitemap requests to WordPress with the appropriate configuration below.

For nginx, add this location inside the site’s server block:

location ~* ^/(?:sitemapster_index\.xml|wp-sitemap.*\.xml|sitemap(?:_index|-[a-z0-9_-]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?|[a-z0-9_-]+-sitemap(?:[0-9]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?)$ {
    add_header Cache-Control "no-cache, must-revalidate, max-age=0" always;
    add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff" always;
    try_files $uri /index.php?$args;
}

For Apache, add this rule to the site-root .htaccess file before the standard # BEGIN WordPress block:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^(?:sitemapster_index\.xml|wp-sitemap.*\.xml|sitemap(?:_index|-[a-z0-9_-]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?|[a-z0-9_-]+-sitemap(?:[0-9]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?)$ index.php [L,QSA,NC]
</IfModule>

LiteSpeed and OpenLiteSpeed support the same .htaccess rewrite syntax. Add these rules before the standard WordPress rules; the first rule also prevents LSCache from serving stale sitemap XML:

<IfModule LiteSpeed>
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^(?:sitemapster_index\.xml|wp-sitemap.*\.xml|sitemap(?:_index|-[a-z0-9_-]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?|[a-z0-9_-]+-sitemap(?:[0-9]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?)$ - [E=Cache-Control:no-cache,NC]
    RewriteRule ^(?:sitemapster_index\.xml|wp-sitemap.*\.xml|sitemap(?:_index|-[a-z0-9_-]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?|[a-z0-9_-]+-sitemap(?:[0-9]+)?\.xml(?:\.gz)?)$ index.php [L,QSA,NC]
</IfModule>

After changing nginx or LiteSpeed virtual-host configuration, reload the server. Changes made only in .htaccess do not normally require a reload.

Does the plugin send data to external services?

Sitemap generation remains entirely local. Sitemapster uses the Freemius SDK for optional usage opt-in, licensing, purchases, updates, and account management. Free users can skip data sharing, and the plugin’s sitemap functionality continues to work. Premium license activation necessarily communicates with Freemius.