Frequently Asked Questions

Short answers to the questions asked most often about Super Speedy Sitemaps. For step-by-step fixes, see Troubleshooting.

Where is my sitemap?

At /sitemapindex.xml on your site, for example https://example.com/sitemapindex.xml. /sitemap.xml serves the same index. Every child sitemap is listed inside it.

Do I submit every sitemap to Google?

No. Submit only sitemapindex.xml. Google reads the index and fetches every child sitemap listed in it, including the split parts and any Super Speedy Filters sitemap parts.

How high should I set the item limit?

Leave Global limit at the default of 5,000 URLs per sitemap, or lower it. The sitemap protocol allows 50,000, but building a 50,000-URL file in one request is exactly what causes white pages, 504 timeouts and memory errors on large sites. Search engines handle many 5,000-URL files as easily as a few large ones, and with Split post-based sitemaps on, every URL is still included.

If a sitemap fails to load, lower the Global limit to 2,000 first, then lower Advanced Options > Sitemap modules > Database query limit to 500. Large Sites and Performance explains both settings.

Does it work with WooCommerce?

Yes. Products are a public post type, so they get post_product.xml (split into parts on a large store). Product categories, product tags and product attributes are public taxonomies and each gets its own taxonomy sitemap. Product tags are on by default; untick them under Enable following taxonomies if you do not want them indexed.

Does it work with Yoast SEO or Rank Math?

Yes, nothing conflicts. Switch off their sitemap feature, though, so search engines are given one sitemap. Running Alongside Other Sitemap Generators has the steps. Their noindex settings are not read, so exclude noindexed content on the XML Sitemaps tab.

Why does my sitemap not change when I edit settings?

Caching is on. Click Flush Cache (or Save Changes and Flush Cache) and reload the sitemap. If it is still old, a page cache or CDN is serving its own copy; purge the sitemap URL there. See Troubleshooting.

Should I turn on caching?

Yes, once your sitemap contents are settled. It is off by default so changes show up instantly while you configure the plugin. On a large site, caching is what stops every crawler visit from rebuilding every sitemap. See Large Sites and Performance.

Should I keep “Ping search engines” on?

No. Google and Bing have retired their sitemap ping endpoints: Google’s answers 404 and Bing’s answers 410 Gone. Untick Enable pinging on the XML Sitemaps tab, and Enable pinging for the Google News extension. Search engines pick up new content by re-reading the sitemap you submitted in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

How is the sitemap added to robots.txt?

With Advanced Options > Robots.txt > Enable robots.txt support on (the default), a Sitemap: line for your index is added to the robots.txt that WordPress generates.

• If a physical robots.txt file exists in your web root, WordPress does not generate one and nothing can be added to it. Add the Sitemap: line to the file by hand.
• On a sub-domain multisite network, each site has its own robots.txt with its own index.
• On a sub-directory multisite network, only the main site has a robots.txt. The network super admin can tick Enable multisite robots.txt support to list every site’s sitemap index in the main site’s robots.txt.

Some non-news content appears in Google News. Why?

The Google News sitemap includes articles from the terms you choose under News terms and genres. Two settings cause the usual surprises:

• With Exclude selected, every article in any term you have not excluded is treated as news, including articles in any new category you create later. Use Include and tick only your news categories instead.
• With Exclude selected and Enable multi-term support on, the term filter is not applied at all, so every recent article of the news post type is included. Use Include with multi-term support.

Google News can also find articles through your other sitemaps and normal crawling. Google decides what appears in Google News; the news sitemap only helps it find your news articles faster. See Google News and Image Sitemaps.

Can I add pages that are not part of WordPress?

Yes, with the external pages sitemap. See External Pages.

Does it support multisite?

Yes. Each site in the network configures its own sitemap contents. Settings that affect server resources (caching, compression, the database query limit, logging, debugging and the custom module directory) are available to the network super admin only.

Does it create database tables?

No. Settings are stored as WordPress options, and generated sitemaps are files in wp-content/uploads/super-speedy-sitemaps/ when caching is on.

Is there a WP-CLI command?

No. Sitemaps are generated when they are requested.

Can an AI assistant manage the sitemap settings?

Yes. Over the Super Speedy MCP connection, an assistant such as Claude Code or Codex can read and change the main generator settings and flush the cache. See Controlling Super Speedy Sitemaps with MCP.

What are the requirements?

WordPress 6.0 or later. The MCP features need WordPress 6.9 or later. The uploads folder must be writable if you use caching.

Further reading

Related products

Super Speedy SitemapsAll other sitemaps were so slow, we built our own

Written for Super Speedy Sitemaps 1.11.17.