June 7th, 2019
Google XML Sitemaps is another SEO plugin for WordPress. XML refers to the markup language used to communicate additional information to the search engines, such as when a page was published, or when it was last updated. In other words, this plugin helps search engines (i.e., Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.) to better index your website. When you activate the plugin, XML Sitemaps creates an XML sitemap for your website, which makes it easier to index. Once you make any changes or additions to your website, the major search engines are notified of the changes. A sitemap will enable the search engine bots to view the complete structure of your website, and it retrieves the results in a much more efficient way. So why use Google XML Sitemaps?
The Lack Of A Sitemap
If your website does not have a sitemap, the search engines quite literally have to stumble across your website, either possibly by chance or more likely, as a result of inbound links. The search engine crawlers may still index some of your pages, most likely due to your site having lots of internal links. However, this is not a full-proof guarantee that all of your posts and pages will get indexed. Also, without a sitemap, the indexing that the search engine crawlers perform will be done at a much slower rate.
Installation And Startup
To install Google XML Sitemaps, after you find it in your WordPress, click to install it and then activate it, and you are done. As soon as you activate it, Google XML Sitemaps will begin to instantly generate your first sitemap by taking a “snapshot” of your website as it is currently designed. You can view it by going to yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml Your sitemap will list all of your URL’s with priority level and change frequency.
License
The license for Google XML Sitemaps is free since it is released under the GPL. So you do not have to worry about paying for this plugin.
Language
Google XML Sitemaps includes support for various translations. You would need to refer to the WordPress codex for more information about activating the translation. To translate the plugin to your language, you would need to take a look at the sitemap.pot file, which contains all definitions.
Features
Modifying notification settings
XSLT stylesheets
Additional custom pages
Priorities
Sitemap content types
Excluded items
Change frequencies and priorities
These options give you control over your content to get the sitemap that you need.
Conclusion
When it comes to SEO, you want to ensure that all search engines crawl your website quickly and efficiently to ensure everything helps your rankings. By choosing Google XML Sitemaps, you can relax knowing that this plugin helps search engines to better index your website. If you have not already done so, check out Google XML Sitemaps today.