Although sitemaps are vital in increasing your chances of ranking higher on search engines, new WordPress users often dismiss them because they think it’s a complex process to generate them.

This article will show you how to create XML sitemaps using the most popular WordPress SEO plugins: Yoast, All in One, and RankMath.

What Are XML Sitemaps?

XML sitemaps are essential for web admins to help search engines crawl and index their websites efficiently.

They are files to help understand the structure and content of your website, making it easier for search engines to discover and index your web pages.

Here are some of the many benefits of generating a sitemap:

1. Improved Search Engine Visibility: provide a list of all the essential pages on your website. When you submit this file to search engines, it helps them find and index your content. As a result, your pages are more likely to appear in search results for relevant keywords.
2. Indexing Efficiency: Some pages may be invisible without a sitemap, especially with limited internal links. XML sitemaps ensure that no valuable content goes unnoticed.
3. Priority and Frequency: In an XML sitemap, you can specify each page’s priority and update frequency. This helps search engines understand which pages are more important and how often they should revisit them for updates.
4. Handling Large Websites: If your website is large with many pages, a sitemap makes it easier for search engines to navigate through your content. This is especially useful for e-commerce sites, blogs, news websites, and any site with a lot of content.
5. Mobile and Alternate Versions: XML sitemaps can also include information about mobile versions of your pages or alternate language versions to correctly index and display the appropriate version of your content to users.
6. Error Detection: Sitemaps can include information about any errors encountered while crawling your site. This helps you quickly identify and fix issues like broken links, missing pages, or server errors.
7. Historical Data: Some sitemaps can include information about when each page was last updated. This can be useful for both search engines and users to understand the freshness of your content.
8. Better User Experience: While XML sitemaps are primarily for search engines, they indirectly benefit users too. When your content is more easily discovered and indexed, it becomes more accessible to people searching for information, products, or services you offer.

Now that you understand the use and importance of sitemaps, let’s learn how to create them in different ways.

How to Generate XML Sitemap with the Yoast Plugin

Yoast is one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins used by millions.

It’s easy to use, has many features, and is well-coded.

By default, Yoast will create an XML file after activating it for the first time, and you can view it using this link:

https://sample.com/sitemap_index.xml

Make sure to replace sample.com with your actual domain name.

If you can’t access the sitemap, it’s easy to make it yourself.

Once the sitemap page loaded successfully, click the different links to ensure it works properly.

Yoast is one of many great SEO plugins. Keep reading if you use a different one, such as AIOSEO or RankMath.

How to Generate XML Sitemap with the All-In-One SEO Plugin

Like the other SEO plugins, the All-In-One plugin will generate an XML sitemap page by default after activating it, and you can find it here:

https://sample.com/sitemap.xml

Again, please replace sample.com with your actual domain name.

If you can’t see the page or it doesn’t exist, create the XML sitemaps yourself.

Follow the steps below to generate an XML sitemap with the All-In-One SEO plugin:

1. Activate the AIOSEO plugin.
2. Navigate to All-In-One -> Sitemaps screen.
3. Enable the sitemap feature and click on the Save Changes button.
4. Click on the Open Sitemap button to visit the sitemap page.

The sitemap page will be populated with links to your pages, posts, custom post types, and taxonomies.

If RankMath is the SEO plugin of your choice rather than AIO, read the following section.

How to Generate XML Sitemap with the Rank Math Plugin

Rank Math is another powerful SEO plugin for WordPress. Like the other two above, this also enables the sitemap feature by default.

To view the XML sitemap page made by Rank Math, follow this link:

https://sample.com/sitemap_index.xml

Remember to replace the sample.com with your actual domain name.

You can also use Rank Math to create the sitemap page yourself by following these steps:

1. Activate the RankMath SEO.
2. Navigate to Rank Math SEO -> Dashboard tab, and scroll to the bottom of the screen.
3. Enable the Sitemap feature to be on.
4. Optional: if you want to change the default sitemap configuration, click the Setting button to access its options (out of the scope of the article).

In addition, I highly recommend you enable the breadcrumbs option as well.

Like the Yoast and AIO plugins, this XML sitemap page will also be filled with structural links to your website.

The three SEO plugins we covered above have the sitemap as an option out of many others. Use an SEO plugin to improve all aspects of your website, like content, images, link building, and more.

However, check the few options below if you only want to add a sitemap to your website without using a full-blown SEO plugin.

Dedicated XML Sitemaps Plugins

There are many tactics and strategies to improve the SEO of a website, and the plugins above will tackle it from every possible angle.

However, those plugins may be overwhelming if you only want to add a simple XML sitemap to your WordPress website.

Instead, you can install simpler plugins that will do this task only. In this section, we will explore a couple of the options.

XML Sitemap Generator for Google

This plugin will generate a sitemap page for your website with various links to the different pages.

By default, activating the plugin will create the sitemap page, and you’re not required to take any further actions.

However, you can access its Settings page to modify and control which pages will be linked.

For example, if you want to add custom post-type pages to your sitemap, navigate to Settings -> XML-Sitemap and enable the box under the content section.

After updating the options, visit your sitemap page by adding sitemap.xml to your domain name.

WP Sitemap Page

The WP Sitemap Page is another excellent option to choose from.

The significant advantage of this plugin is the option to name your sitemap page however you prefer.

Once you activate the plugin, please create a new page for your website and name it Sitemap (or any other name).

Then, add the [wp_sitemap_page] shortcode into the page builder or Gutenberg shortcode block, and click publish.

Then, visit the new sitemap page to ensure the shortcode generated the content.

You can also modify the default output to add or exclude links from your XML sitemap from the Settings -> WP Sitemap Page screen.

Remember to save the changes and revisit the page to verify that the changes are in effect.

Submit the Sitemap to Google

Sitemaps are vital for every website, but generating them is only the first step out of two.

To maximize the benefit of the XML sitemaps, you’ll need to submit and notify Google about it.

First, navigate to Google Search Console to access your search console’s dashboard.

If you still need to, follow the video below and add your website as a new property.

Once you added and verified your domain name, click on the Sitemaps option in your dashboard.

Then, enter your sitemap URL address into the XML Sitemap field and click Submit.

Google will crawl the sitemap URL and will indicate if there are any issues accessing any of the links.

In addition, I recommend you add a link to the sitemap page by editing your site’s footer to be accessible for humans as well.

Conclusion

Ranking high on search engines is an evolving process involving many variables and tactics.

XML sitemaps are one of the most critical components that every website owner should prioritize. It guarantees every page on your website will be noticed and crawled.

This article showed you how to add an XML sitemap to your website and submit it to Google afterward.

The post How to Create XML Sitemaps with SEO Plugins Like Yoast, All-In-One, and Rank Math appeared first on PluginsForWP.

The breadcrumbs structure will list all the parent pages in a hierarchical order and position the current page at its end.

Each of the pages in the breadcrumb is a hypertext link for easier access to the top-level pages.

This article will teach you how to enable and display breadcrumbs with the Rank Math SEO plugin in WordPress.

Steps Summaries to Use Breadcrumbs with Rank Math

The sections below will explain each of the steps in-depth.

How to Enable Breadcrumbs in Rank Math

Out of the box, the breadcrumbs function of Rank Math is disabled.

To start displaying the breadcrumbs on any page or a post, we must first enable that option.

Therefore, navigate to Rank Math -> General Settings -> Breadcrumbs and toggle the enable breadcrumbs option.

Once activated, you’ll be able to display the breadcrumbs by using a PHP function or a shortcode.

Display Breadcrumbs with Rank Math

Displaying breadcrumbs with Rank Math is easy, and you can do it in multiple ways:

• Using a PHP function.
• With a shortcode.
• With an Elementor widget.

We will explore all options, and let’s start with the function.

Use the PHP function

You can insert the following breadcrumbs function inside your WordPress template files or within the loop.

<?php if (function_exists('rank_math_the_breadcrumbs')) rank_math_the_breadcrumbs(); ?>

Use an FTP account to access your core files or from inside the native file editor at Appearance -> Theme file editor.

Tip: make sure to backup your website before modifying the core files.

Once saved, visit one of your posts or pages and verify that you can see the breadcrumbs.

Use a shortcode

My preferred method is to display the breadcrumbs with a shortcode because it does not require us to edit any file.

You can use the [rank_math_breadcrumb] shortcode to display the breadcrumbs in a template widget on a single page.

For example, to show the breadcrumbs on a single page or post, add the shortcode Gutenberg block and insert the shortcode.

Once saved, visit the page and verify that the shortcode was executed correctly.

If you’re using a custom post type instead, you won’t be able to use the Gutenberg editor. In that case, switch to the editor view and paste the shortcode there.

We can also use the shortcode option with the Elementor page builder plugin.

The Rank Math Elementor widget

Elementor is probably one of the most popular page builder plugins for WordPress.

As we showed in the last section, you can use the Elementor shortcode widget to display breadcrumbs.

First, drag the shortcode widget to your desired position on the right and paste the shortcode.

Once applied and saved, you’ll see the breadcrumbs where you positioned them.

The pro version of Rank Math includes a dedicated widget that they developed specifically for Elementor users. You can get the pro version from the official website for the total price or from us for only $4.99.

Once you activate Rank Math Pro, open the Elementor editor screen and search for the breadcrumbs widget.

Once you dragged it to the desired position on the right, style and customized it like any other widget using the Style and Advanced tabs.

Once finished, make sure to save the changes and revisit the page.

Additional Breadcrumbs Settings

Keep it if you’re satisfied with your breadcrumbs’ structure behavior and look. However, you do have the option to change it to fit your website’s needs better.

For example, you can change the default separator character from a dash (—) to an arrow. By navigating to the breadcrumbs tab and selecting your favorite character, you can do that.

Another exciting option is to show all ancestor categories for the child category. By default, this option is disabled, but you can change it by enabling that option.

Once enabled, the breadcrumbs will show all categories of a blog post. For example, if one of your website’s posts teaches how to make pasta, the child category Italian will be displayed in addition to the parent category Food.

Feel free to read more about displaying category descriptions and different ways to remove categories from URLs in WordPress.

After making any changes, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the save settings button.

Conclusion

This article taught you to enable and display breadcrumbs with the Rank Math SEO WordPress plugin.

Please leave us a comment and tell us which one of the ways above you used to achieve this task.

The post How to Enable and Add Breadcrumbs in Rank Math Plugin appeared first on PluginsForWP.

Including the category name in the URL will help your users and search engines better understand and index your website.

The URL structure indicates what the post and the category are about to the readers.

Moreover, because every WordPress category has its archive page, the category name in the URL simplifies the navigation into that specific archive page.

However, some will say, and for a good reason, that a cleaner URL is more user-friendly and will benefit the overall SEO of your website.

Therefore, this article will teach you how to remove the category from the URL in every possible way.

Why Remove Category from URL

There are many good reasons why to remove the category name from the URL, and here are only some of them:

• Clean URL – stripped URL will look better and more visually appealing.
• SEO-friendly – helping Google to understand the article’s subject based on the keyword in the link.
• Uncategorized – by default, WordPress posts will have no category until you assign one to them. Posts without a category will have the Uncategorized text in the URL. We should eliminate that.
• Easier to remember – short links are easier to remember and will be shared more often.

Now that you know in which cases you should remove the category base from the URL, let’s move on and learn how to do it.

Remove Category from WordPress Permalinks

You can remove the category name from WordPress URL in three different methods:

• Permalinks settings
• Using a plugin
• SEO plugins

All the methods that I’ll show you are simple and easy to follow and will initially do the same thing.

Please remember to create a 301 redirect rule for your blog posts after changing the link structure of your website.

Remove Category from URL from the Permalinks Settings

It doesn’t require installing any plugin or using any codes because we will do it from the native WordPress dashboard.

Remove Category from WordPress URL Using a Plugin

No configuration is required when using the Remove Category URL plugin, making it another excellent option.

From your WordPress dashboard, navigate to plugins -> add new and search for Remove Category URL.

Activating the plugin is the only thing you’ll need to do to make it work.

Once activated, the plugin will remove ‘/category‘ from your category permalinks. (e.g. `/category/my-category/` to `/my-category/`).

Please note: deactivating the plugin will revert this process and the URL structure to what it used to be before the changes.

Removing Category from URL with an SEO Plugin

Here is another excellent method to remove the category from the URL structure because most of us already use an SEO plugin.

In this part, we will strip the category base from the URL with Yoast or RankMath plugins.

Yoast

If you have Yoast activated on your WordPress website, you’re in luck.

Navigate to SEO -> search Appearance and enter into the taxonomies tab.

There, scroll to the bottom of the page and enable the ‘remove the categories prefix‘ option.

Enabling this feature will remove that /category/ prefix for categories only.

RankMath

RankMath is another popular SEO plugin that quickly strips the category from the URL.

Once activated the plugin on your WordPress website, navigate to the Rank Math -> general settings screen.

There, toggle the Strip Category Base option to save the changes.

Just like we did earlier, enter one of your categories archive pages and verify that the category was removed from the URL successfully.

Conclusion

In this article, you learned how to remove the category from WordPress URL in every possible way.

Removing the category base from the URL is an excellent way to optimize your taxonomies pages. To take it a step further, learn how to display the category description in WordPress.

Leave us a comment and tell us which method you used to achieve this task.

The post How to Remove the Category from WordPress URL (3 Methods) appeared first on PluginsForWP.