Sitemapster

Sitemapster generates XML sitemaps for your public WordPress content and images. Sitemaps are created dynamically and cached, so the plugin never needs to write XML files to disk.

Use Sitemapster on a standard WordPress installation or a read-only hosting platform such as WordPress VIP. Each sitemap type can be enabled independently, which helps prevent conflicts when another SEO plugin or service already provides part of your sitemap setup.

Generated sitemaps

• Sitemap index: /sitemap_index.xml with /sitemap.xml as an alias.
• Content sitemap: /sitemap-general.xml, /sitemap-general-2.xml, and subsequent pages.
• Image sitemap: /sitemap-images.xml, /sitemap-images-2.xml, and subsequent pages.

Features

• Includes published posts, pages, and public custom post types.
• Includes featured images and images attached to published content.
• Lets administrators enable the index, content, and image sitemaps independently.
• Paginates large sitemaps automatically with up to 1,000 content entries per file.
• Uses an external object cache when available and WordPress transients otherwise.
• Invalidates cached XML when relevant content or settings change.
• Presents XML in a readable, responsive table for visitors using an XSL stylesheet.
• Adds the sitemap index to WordPress’s virtual robots.txt when at least one sitemap is enabled.
• Excludes password-protected content.
• Respects noindex metadata from Yoast SEO and Rank Math.
• Supports read-only filesystems; no generated sitemap is written to disk.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.4 or newer.
• PHP 8.1 or newer.
• The PHP XMLWriter extension.

Developer filters

• sitemapster_post_types filters the public post types included in sitemap queries.
• sitemapster_is_post_indexable allows individual content entries to be excluded.
• sitemapster_post_images filters the image URLs associated with a content entry.

Privacy

Sitemapster does not collect personal data or contact external services. It publishes URLs and image URLs belonging to public, indexable WordPress content in XML sitemap responses. Password-protected and supported noindex content is excluded.

The plugin stores settings, a cache-version value, short-lived generation locks, and generated XML transients in the WordPress database or configured object cache. Primary plugin settings and version options are removed when Sitemapster is uninstalled. Cached values expire according to the configured cache lifecycle.