Where to Find This Tab
Go to SEO Rank Genius → Indexing & Sitemaps → XML Sitemap (second tab under the “Main” group).
Sitemap Structure
The XML Sitemap tab lets you choose how your sitemap is organized and set global defaults.
Auto-generate and serve at
/sitemap.xmlAdd image entries for Google Image search indexing
Creates a sitemap index when exceeded
sitemap.xml index pointing to sitemap-post-1.xml, sitemap-page-1.xml, etc.Content Type Priorities
Each content type gets its own priority and change frequency, telling search engines how important and how often-updated a URL is.
| Content Type | Priority | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| 📝 Posts | 0.8 | Weekly |
| 📄 Pages | 0.6 | Monthly |
| 🏷 Categories | 0.4 | Weekly |
Priority Values Explained
| Range | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1.0 | Highest — homepage, critical landing pages |
| 0.8 | High — blog posts, main content |
| 0.5–0.6 | Medium — static pages, about, contact |
| 0.1–0.3 | Low — archive pages, tags, utility pages |
Excluded Post Types
Exclude specific custom post types from your sitemap entirely — useful for page builder templates, popups, or internal-only content.
attachment
product
landing_page
attachment — WordPress creates a separate URL for each uploaded image, which wastes crawl budget.Advanced Settings
Sitemap Filename Format
By default, your sitemap is served at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. If another plugin claims that URL, SEO Rank Genius detects the conflict and offers an alternative path.
Stylesheet (XSL)
The plugin includes a built-in XSL stylesheet that makes your raw XML sitemap human-readable in a browser. Purely cosmetic — search engines ignore it.
Last Modified Dates
Each URL includes a <lastmod> tag based on the post’s last modified date, helping search engines prioritize recently updated content.
Troubleshooting
Sitemap Returns 404
- Go to Settings → Permalinks and click “Save Changes” to flush rewrite rules.
- Check if another plugin is also generating a sitemap at the same URL.
- Verify your
.htaccessor nginx config isn’t blocking the sitemap.
Missing Posts in Sitemap
- Check the Content Rules tab — posts below the thin content threshold are excluded.
- Ensure the post type is not in the “Excluded Post Types” list.
- Posts set to
noindexin the post editor are excluded automatically.
Sitemap Too Large / Slow to Load
- Reduce Max URLs per Sitemap from 1000 to 500.
- Disable Include Images if you don’t need image search indexing.