Zinn® SEO how-to: XML sitemap in WordPress: where yours is and how to check it

XML sitemap in WordPress: where yours is and how to check it

Where the sitemap is, what it includes and how to read its health panel.

1. Open the Sitemaps tab — Go to SEO, Sitemaps and AI. The Sitemaps tab shows the number of addresses and files, the last full build, the build time and the memory used.
2. Open the sitemap — The sitemap is at /sitemap.xml on your site. In a browser it opens as a readable page in your language. In no-trace mode the tab shows its neutral address. If a browser no longer shows the styled view, the sitemap still opens readable, one address per line. Cache plugins are told never to keep a copy, so a stored copy can never be empty or out of date.
3. Choose what is listed — Leave out content types, taxonomies or single pages. Pages set to noindex, password-protected pages and pages that name another page as canonical are left out automatically.
4. Submit it once — In Google Search Console open Sitemaps, enter sitemap.xml and press Submit; in Bing Webmaster Tools open Sitemaps and submit the full address. robots.txt already names it for every search engine.
5. Let it keep itself up to date — An edit rebuilds only the file that lists the changed page. Waiting changes on the tab shows what the background job still has to write.

With a screenshot of every step: https://zinnseo.com/kb/check-your-xml-sitemap