Manually updating your sitemap every time you publish content is tedious and error-prone. The good news? For most websites, sitemap automation is a simple one-time setup.
What you'll learn: - How to auto-generate sitemaps in WordPress (easiest) - Automatic sitemaps for other platforms (Shopify, Wix, Squarespace) - How to auto-submit to Google when your sitemap updates - When you might need custom automation
Bottom line: 95% of websites can set up sitemap automation in under 10 minutes using plugins or built-in features.
WordPress: Automatic Sitemaps (Recommended)
WordPress is the most popular CMS, and sitemap automation is dead simple with plugins.
Option 1: Yoast SEO (Most Popular)
Setup time: 2 minutes
Steps:
1. Install Yoast SEO plugin
2. Go to SEO → General → Features
3. Ensure "XML sitemaps" is toggled ON (it's on by default)
4. Done! Your sitemap is at /sitemap_index.xml
What Yoast automatically does:
- ✅ Generates sitemap when you publish/update content
- ✅ Updates lastmod dates correctly
- ✅ Splits large sitemaps automatically
- ✅ Excludes categories/tags if you want
- ✅ Pings Google about updates
Customization: - SEO → Search Appearance → Toggle content types on/off - Set which post types appear in sitemap - Exclude individual posts/pages
Option 2: Rank Math
Setup time: 3 minutes
Steps:
1. Install Rank Math plugin
2. Run the setup wizard
3. Sitemaps are automatically enabled at /sitemap_index.xml
Advantages over Yoast: - More granular control over what's included - Can exclude specific posts by checkbox - Shows estimated sitemap size - Built-in IndexNow integration (faster indexing)
Best for: Power users who want more control
Option 3: All in One SEO Pack
Setup time: 2 minutes
Another solid WordPress SEO plugin with automatic sitemap generation.
Steps: 1. Install All in One SEO Pack 2. Go to All in One SEO → Sitemaps 3. Enable "XML Sitemap" 4. Configure what to include
Other Platforms: Built-in Sitemaps
Most modern website platforms have automatic sitemaps built in.
Other Platforms: Built-in Sitemaps
Most modern website platforms have automatic sitemaps built in.
Shopify
Sitemap location: yourstore.com/sitemap.xml
What's automatic: - ✅ All products, collections, pages, blog posts - ✅ Updates automatically when you add/change products - ✅ No setup required - it just works
Limitation: You can't customize what's included Solution: Use Shopify apps if you need more control
Wix
Sitemap location: yoursite.wixsite.com/sitemap.xml
Setup: 1. Go to Site menu → SEO Tools 2. Sitemap is automatically generated 3. Submit to Google Search Console
What's automatic: - ✅ All published pages - ✅ Updates when you publish/unpublish - ✅ Includes images automatically
Squarespace
Sitemap location: yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
What's automatic: - ✅ Generated automatically for all sites - ✅ No configuration needed - ✅ Updates on publish
Note: Squarespace sitemaps are less customizable than WordPress
Webflow
Sitemap location: yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
Setup: 1. Go to Project Settings → SEO 2. Sitemap is auto-generated 3. Can exclude specific pages
What's automatic: - ✅ All published pages - ✅ Auto-updates on publish - ✅ Clean, well-structured XML
Auto-Submitting to Google
Once your sitemap auto-generates, you want Google to know about updates quickly.
Method 1: Google Search Console (One-time Setup)
Steps:
1. Verify your site in Google Search Console
2. Go to Sitemaps section
3. Enter your sitemap URL (e.g., /sitemap.xml)
4. Click "Submit"
What happens: - Google checks your sitemap periodically - Discovers new URLs automatically - You get reports on indexing issues
Recommendation: Do this for every site, even with auto-ping.
Method 2: Auto-Ping (WordPress Plugins)
Most WordPress SEO plugins automatically ping Google when content changes.
How it works: 1. You publish a new post 2. Plugin updates sitemap 3. Plugin tells Google "sitemap updated" 4. Google re-crawls sitemap faster
Plugins with auto-ping: - ✅ Yoast SEO - ✅ Rank Math - ✅ All in One SEO Pack
Note: Google deprecated the sitemap ping endpoint in 2023, but plugins now use Search Console API or IndexNow instead.
Method 3: IndexNow (Fastest)
IndexNow is a protocol that instantly notifies search engines about content changes.
Supported by: - Microsoft Bing - Yandex - Seznam.cz - Naver
WordPress plugins with IndexNow: - Rank Math (built-in) - IndexNow Plugin (by Bing)
How to enable in Rank Math: 1. Go to Rank Math → General Settings → IndexNow 2. Toggle "Enable IndexNow" 3. Save
Benefit: Near-instant indexing (minutes instead of hours/days)
When You Need Custom Automation
Most sites don't need custom automation. But you might if:
You Have a Headless CMS
Examples: Contentful, Strapi, Sanity
Solution: Use the CMS's webhook feature to trigger sitemap regeneration when content changes.
Basic workflow: 1. Content published in CMS 2. Webhook triggered 3. Cloud function regenerates sitemap 4. Sitemap uploaded to hosting
Tools: Netlify Functions, Vercel Functions, AWS Lambda
You Have a Static Site Generator
Examples: Hugo, Jekyll, Gatsby, Next.js
Solution: Sitemap plugin for your generator + automatic deploys
Example (Hugo):
# hugo.toml
[sitemap]
changefreq = "weekly"
priority = 0.5
Sitemap auto-generates on build and deploys with your site.
You Have a Custom-Built Site
Options:
1. Use a sitemap library for your language (most programming languages have them)
2. Generate on-demand when users request /sitemap.xml
3. Schedule generation via cron job
When to rebuild: - After content updates - Daily (for news sites) - Weekly (for blogs) - On-demand (for rarely updated sites)
Automation Checklist
Set up complete sitemap automation:
- [ ] Sitemap auto-generates when content changes
- [ ] Sitemap submitted to Google Search Console
- [ ] Monitoring set up for sitemap errors
- [ ] Auto-ping or IndexNow enabled (if available)
- [ ] Tested by publishing new content and checking sitemap
- [ ] Excluded content types configured (tags, categories, etc.)
Troubleshooting Auto-Generation
Sitemap not updating?
WordPress: 1. Clear your cache (plugin and server cache) 2. Disable other SEO plugins (conflicts) 3. Check plugin is actually enabled 4. Try regenerating manually in plugin settings
Other platforms: 1. Check if you're viewing a cached version 2. Wait 10-15 minutes and check again 3. Clear browser cache 4. Contact platform support
Google not finding new pages?
Check: - Is the new URL in your sitemap? (view sitemap directly) - Did you submit sitemap to Search Console? - Any errors in Search Console → Sitemaps? - Is the page blocked by robots.txt?
Solution: See our indexing tactics guide for faster indexing.
Next Steps
- Set up automation using your platform's tool
- Submit to Google Search Console
- Test by publishing something new
- Check your sitemap to confirm it updated
- Set up monitoring in Search Console
- Audit quarterly with our sitemap audit guide
For most websites, sitemap automation is a "set it and forget it" process. Once configured, your sitemap will stay current automatically.