WordPress XML Sitemap Plugin — Rank Forge (Index + Image + Video)

Rank Forge generates a complete XML sitemap architecture for your WordPress site — an index sitemap at /sitemap_index.xml, per-post-type sub-sitemaps, an image sitemap with full <image:image> annotations, and a taxonomy sitemap. Everything is cached, updated automatically on publish, and pinged to Google when changed.

The sitemap architecture

Index sitemap

The main entry point at /sitemap_index.xml. Lists all sub-sitemaps:

<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/post-sitemap.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-11</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/page-sitemap.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-10</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/product-sitemap.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-11</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/image-sitemap.xml</loc>
    <lastmod>2026-04-11</lastmod>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

Submit this one URL to Google Search Console and Google discovers everything else automatically.

Post-type sub-sitemaps

Rank Forge generates a dedicated sub-sitemap for each registered post type — posts, pages, products, custom post types. If a single post type has more than 1,000 entries, Rank Forge splits it into paginated sub-sitemaps (/post-sitemap-1.xml, /post-sitemap-2.xml, etc.).

Image sitemap

Every image used in published content gets included in the image sitemap with full annotations:

<url>
  <loc>https://example.com/blog/wordpress-seo-guide/</loc>
  <image:image>
    <image:loc>https://example.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/seo-analysis.jpg</image:loc>
    <image:title>WordPress SEO Analysis Dashboard</image:title>
    <image:caption>The Rank Forge analysis dashboard showing content scoring</image:caption>
  </image:image>
</url>

Image sitemaps help Google discover images for Image Search, contributing to a measurable chunk of organic traffic.

Taxonomy sitemap

Category, tag, and custom taxonomy pages get their own sub-sitemap, with lastmod reflecting the latest post update in each term.

`lastmod` precision

Rank Forge uses real post modification dates — not sitemap generation dates — for the <lastmod> element. This matters because Google uses lastmod to decide which pages to re-crawl first.

Post published: lastmod = publish date
Post edited: lastmod = last edit date
Featured image replaced: lastmod updates
Post category changed: lastmod updates
Comment added: does NOT update lastmod (by default; configurable)

Accurate lastmod means Google’s crawl budget focuses on pages that actually changed.

Noindex page exclusion

Pages marked as noindex in Rank Forge (via the per-post checkbox or the global archive settings) are automatically excluded from the sitemap. Google doesn’t waste crawl budget on pages you don’t want indexed.

Transient cache

Generating an XML sitemap on every request would be expensive on large sites. Rank Forge caches each sub-sitemap as a transient with a 24-hour TTL. Cache is auto-invalidated when:

A new post is published in the relevant post type
An existing post is updated
A post is deleted
A post’s noindex setting changes

Sitemaps are always fresh when Google requests them, but never generated unnecessarily.

Google ping on update

When a new sub-sitemap is generated (because of a new post or a major update), Rank Forge pings Google at google.com/ping?sitemap=... to notify Google to re-crawl. This happens in the background via WP Cron — no UI impact.

Google’s documentation no longer emphasizes sitemap pings (they now prefer GSC’s sitemap submission), but pings still work and cost nothing.

Customization

Per-post-type inclusion/exclusion

In Rank Forge settings, toggle which post types appear in the sitemap:

Posts — on by default
Pages — on by default
Custom post types — on by default (configurable per type)
Attachments — off by default
Specific CPTs — toggle individually

Per-category exclusion

Exclude entire categories from the sitemap. Useful for staging categories, internal categories, or low-value tag pages.

Max URLs per sub-sitemap

Default is 1,000 URLs per sub-sitemap (well under Google’s 50,000 limit). Adjustable in settings.

Video sitemap

For sites with video content, Rank Forge’s Video SEO feature generates a separate video sitemap at /video-sitemap.xml with <video:video> annotations including duration, thumbnail, upload date, and category.

Verification in Google Search Console

After activating Rank Forge, submit /sitemap_index.xml to Google Search Console → Sitemaps. Google will discover all sub-sitemaps and start crawling them. The Search Console “Indexing” report shows how many URLs were submitted and how many are indexed.

Ready to set up a proper XML sitemap?

Get Rank Forge — from $44/year →

The XML Sitemap feature is included in every version of Rank Forge, including the free one — and so are the image sitemap and video sitemap.

WordPress XML Sitemap Plugin — Index + Image Sitemaps