XML sitemaps in the ElevaRank plugin

Having an XML sitemap is beneficial for SEO: it allows search engines to find and crawl your most important pages. The sitemap is generated automatically and stays up to date as you add or remove content. In this article we'll explain how you can generate your sitemap with one click, what it includes, how to limit what goes in, and how to submit it to Google and Bing.

Why a sitemap?

A sitemap is a simple file that lists every URL on your site that search engines should know about. It tells Google and Bing what pages exist, when each one was last changed, and how important it is — so your content gets found faster and re-crawled when it changes. Most sites have a sitemap, and a good one is part of any solid SEO setup.

What the sitemap includes

• Your homepage (priority 1.0).
• All published posts and pages, plus the custom content types you enabled under ElevaRank → Settings → Content types.
• A last-modified date for every URL, so search engines re-crawl only what changed.
• Noindexed pages are skipped — it respects the noindex flag of Yoast, Rank Math, or ElevaRank itself, so your sitemap never fights your indexing choices.
• Password-protected content is excluded automatically.
• Only published, public URLs are listed — drafts, pending and private posts never appear.

Generate it in one click

1. Log in to your WordPress admin and open ElevaRank → Advanced → Sitemap.
2. Press the big button: Generate sitemap now.
3. Done — the status line shows "Sitemap ready — N URLs" with the time it was built, and the Open sitemap.xml button loads your sitemap in a new tab.

Where it's served

Your sitemap lives at the site root: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml (also reachable at /sitemap-index.xml). No permalinks setup is needed — ElevaRank registers the URL itself and flushes WordPress rewrites automatically, so it works right after you press the button.

Staying fresh

Refresh automatically is on by default: every time you publish or update content, the cached sitemap is cleared and rebuilt on the next visit, so it always matches your site. Prefer it exact? Switch Refresh automatically off in the Sitemap settings — then it only changes when you press Generate sitemap now.

Submit it to search engines

1. Google: open Google Search Console → your property → Sitemaps → enter sitemap.xml → Submit. Google usually checks it within minutes to a few hours.
2. Bing: in Bing Webmaster Tools, add the same sitemap URL under Sitemaps. (IndexNow, also in ElevaRank's Advanced menu, pings Bing, Yandex and others instantly on publish.)

Check that it works

Open /sitemap.xml in your browser — you should see an XML file beginning with <urlset> and one <url> entry per page. You can also open your sitemap in the Rich Results Test or any XML validator to confirm it parses cleanly.

I'm having issues with my sitemap

If your sitemap shows a 404, open ElevaRank → Advanced → Sitemap and press Generate sitemap now again — that re-registers the URL. If it still 404s, visit Settings → Permalinks and press Save Changes once. Need more help? Ask the WordPress.org support forum or email hello@elevarank.com.

Quick questions

Download ElevaRank free Back to Help center