Taxonomies: Categories, Tags & Archives
Control which category, tag, and custom taxonomy archive pages appear in your sitemap — and avoid thin archive URLs that dilute crawl budget.
Before you start
The Taxonomies tab controls whether category, tag, and custom taxonomy archive URLs are included in your XML sitemap. Getting this right prevents search engines from indexing hundreds of thin archive pages.
You’ll need:
- WordPress Administrator access
- Pretty permalinks enabled (Settings → Permalinks)
- A clear content strategy for categories vs tags (categories = broad topics, tags = specific labels)
Open Taxonomies
Navigate to:
SEO Rank Genius → Indexing & Sitemaps → Taxonomies
The tab URL parameter is …&tab=taxonomies. The screen is a single card divided into Categories, Tags, and Custom Taxonomies sections.
Taxonomies
Categories, tags & custom taxonomy settings
Categories (12)
Tags (47)
Taxonomies tab — Categories and Tags toggles with term counts.
Categories & tags
Categories
Category archives are your site's topical hubs — they group related posts under broad themes like "SEO Tips" or "Product Updates". Including them in the sitemap helps search engines understand your site structure.
Tags
Tag archives list every post with a specific label. On most blogs, tag pages are thin duplicates with no unique content — just a reverse-chronological post list. The UI shows an amber warning recommending you keep tags disabled.
Custom taxonomies
If your site registers custom taxonomies — WooCommerce product categories, portfolio types, recipe cuisines — they appear in a table below the built-in settings. Each row shows the taxonomy name, include toggle, term count, and status.
| Taxonomy | Include | Terms | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Categories product_cat | 24 | ● Good | |
| Product Tags product_tag | 156 | ● Good | |
| Portfolio Type portfolio_type | 6 | ● Good | |
| Brand product_brand | 0 | Empty |
Custom Taxonomies table — Taxonomy, Include, Terms, and Status columns.
Reading the table
- Taxonomy — human-readable label with the internal slug below
- Include — per-taxonomy sitemap toggle (stored as include_tax_{slug})
- Terms — total number of terms registered, including empty ones
- Status — green "Good" when terms exist; grey "Empty" when the taxonomy has no terms yet
WooCommerce stores
Include product_cat (product categories) — these are valuable landing pages. Keep product_tag off unless you maintain curated tag descriptions.
Custom CPT taxonomies
Enable inclusion only for taxonomies with meaningful archive pages. A taxonomy with 200 auto-generated terms and no unique content should stay out of the sitemap.
Archive pages
Taxonomy settings control sitemap inclusion — not whether archive pages exist. Archive URLs like /category/seo-tips/ remain accessible to visitors regardless of sitemap settings.
Category archive
/category/seo-tips/
In sitemap 12 postsTag archive
/tag/wordpress/
Not in sitemap 3 postsArchive page outcomes — sitemap inclusion vs live URL accessibility.
Managing archive SEO beyond sitemaps
For archive pages you want indexed, add unique category descriptions in Posts → Categories. For archives you want hidden from search, set noindex on individual terms via the SEO metabox or use Search Appearance settings.
Pair taxonomy settings with Content Rules — thin tag pages with only a post list may still be excluded by word-count filtering even if the taxonomy toggle is on.
Troubleshooting
Category sitemap missing after enabling
Click Save, then regenerate the sitemap from the Overview tab. Category URLs appear in category-sitemap.xml when the sitemap index is enabled.
Custom taxonomy not in the table
Only public, non-builtin taxonomies appear. Verify the taxonomy is registered with 'public' => true in your theme or plugin code.
Empty categories still in sitemap
Enable Exclude Empty Categories and save. Regenerate the sitemap. Categories with scheduled (future) posts but no published posts count as empty.
Too many tag URLs indexed
Turn off Include Tags in Sitemap, save, and regenerate. Add noindex to existing tag archives via Search Appearance or per-term SEO settings if they are already indexed in Google.
WooCommerce product categories duplicated
If another SEO plugin also outputs product category sitemaps, disable taxonomy sitemaps in one plugin only to avoid duplicate URL submissions.