Title: [Plugin: WordPress SEO] Why the sitemap function ? Last modified: August 19, 2016 --- # [Plugin: WordPress SEO] Why the sitemap function ? * Resolved [Beee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/beee/) * (@beee) * [15 years, 7 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/) * Nice there is a XML option, but what benefits does this XML population have over a plugin like [http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/](http://www.arnebrachhold.de/redir/sitemap-home/)? * Isn’t that a more extended one than WordPress SEO has ? Not dissing, just trying to find out which is better. Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [jp2112](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jp2112/) * (@jp2112) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759086) * From [http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/#xml-sitemap](http://yoast.com/wordpress/seo/#xml-sitemap): * > XML Sitemaps are an essential part current day SEO, and can thus not be excluded > from a complete WordPress SEO plugin. While there are other WordPress XML Sitemap > Generators out there, they don’t talk to your SEO plugin. Meaning that if you > noindex a page, preventing it from showing up in Google, it might still be > in your sitemap. They also don’t allow you to keep certain taxonomies out of > your sitemap. This plugin does. And, to boot, it makes your XML Sitemaps look > good by using an XSLT stylesheet on them, so humans can read them too. * Plugin Contributor [Joost de Valk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/joostdevalk/) * (@joostdevalk) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759092) * Agree with jp2112 🙂 * Thread Starter [Beee](https://wordpress.org/support/users/beee/) * (@beee) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759119) * ok 🙂 that’s a good explanantion…. will give it a go…. * [Paul de Wouters](https://wordpress.org/support/users/pauldewouters/) * (@pauldewouters) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759120) * Joost, * where is the sitemap generated? I want to link it in my Webmaster tools * thanks Paul * Plugin Contributor [Joost de Valk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/joostdevalk/) * (@joostdevalk) * [15 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759121) * Paul, * You should just use yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml as a URL in Webmaster Tools. * Cheers Joost * [Dylan](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thebonereader/) * (@thebonereader) * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759145) * I have the following option checked in Yoast WordPress SEO: “Check this box to enable XML sitemap functionality.” * However, I cannot locate any file named sitemap.xml anywhere on my hosted server. Where does this file actually exist? Now that I’m linked with Google Webmaster Tools, anything more I need do to actually create/link it properly? * Plugin Contributor [Joost de Valk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/joostdevalk/) * (@joostdevalk) * [15 years, 4 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759146) * [@thebonereader](https://wordpress.org/support/users/thebonereader/): did you check if when you open yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml whether it exists? * [jani-u](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jani-u/) * (@jani-u) * [15 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759153) * It’s great that XML sitemap is included but it’s missing some important features like the possibility to include pages outside of wordpress: [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-by-yoast-how-to-add-non-wordpress-pages-to-sitemap](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-by-yoast-how-to-add-non-wordpress-pages-to-sitemap) * Also it would be useful to be able to set the priorities for each page type. If my site uses mainly pages instead of posts, I want pages to have high priority instead of low that they are now given automatically. * Plugin Contributor [Joost de Valk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/joostdevalk/) * (@joostdevalk) * [15 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759155) * > It’s great that XML sitemap is included but it’s missing some important features > like the possibility to include pages outside of wordpress * As explained in that thread too, it’s not an important feature. You can actually add multiple sitemaps in Google Webmaster Tools and other search engine’s webmaster tools, and you should. * The other feedback is somewhat more relevant, although you can change priority on a per post / page basis and in all my testing I’ve never seen Google do anything with it. Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘[Plugin: WordPress SEO] Why the sitemap function ?’ is closed to new replies. * ![](https://ps.w.org/wordpress-seo/assets/icon-256x256.gif?rev=3419908) * [Yoast SEO - Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/) * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/#faq) * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo/) * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo/active/) * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo/unresolved/) * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/wordpress-seo/reviews/) * 9 replies * 6 participants * Last reply from: [Joost de Valk](https://wordpress.org/support/users/joostdevalk/) * Last activity: [15 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-wordpress-seo-why-the-sitemap-function/#post-1759155) * Status: resolved