Super Speedy Sitemaps

All other sitemaps were so slow, we built our own

2.5 · 2 reviews

Big catalogues break sitemap plugins. Super Speedy Sitemaps splits every large sitemap into small files, reads them with queries built for huge tables, caches them on disk, and never serves a half-built sitemap. Free.

Get it Free Read the 2019 benchmark
Super Speedy Sitemaps icon, slate grey gradient
Example of a paginated product sitemap containing 5,000 URLs generated in 0.8 seconds Sitemap index for a million-product store generated in 13 seconds

Your sitemap is the slowest page on your site

Googlebot asks for it. WordPress builds it from scratch. On a big catalogue, that is where it falls over.

A sitemap looks like a tiny file. It is not. Every time a crawler asks for one, most sitemap plugins go to the database, read every published product or post of that type, sort them, and build the XML on the spot.

On a blog, nobody notices. On a store with hundreds of thousands of products, that request reads a huge slice of wp_posts, holds a PHP worker for as long as it takes, and very often runs out of time or memory first. Googlebot gets a white page or a 504 instead of your URLs, and comes back later to try again.

The sitemap plugins bundled with SEO suites were built for blogs. Super Speedy Sitemaps was built for the sites they break on.

We tested the sitemap plugins on a huge site. Only one could scale.

So we took it over, fixed it and made it faster.

In 2019 Dave Hilditch benchmarked Yoast SEO’s sitemaps, Google XML Sitemaps and Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps on a very large client site. Google XML Sitemaps tried to list a whole month of posts in one enormous file, and Yoast ran queries that could not be fixed without rewriting the plugin. Better WordPress Google XML Sitemaps was the only one designed to split sitemaps into pages, and the only one that could be made fast at that size, once a database index was added and its deep-page query rewritten.

That plugin was no longer maintained. It became Super Speedy Sitemaps: security holes fixed, the query rewrite from the benchmark built in, and active development and testing on current WordPress. Read the original benchmark, with every query and index.

“It gives you a lot of control over your sitemaps more than other SEO plugins; it also makes it possible to cache it to make it even faster. You can fine-tune what you want to have in the site map.”

inkoop
Reviewed 27 September 2025
Small files, one index
Every large post type is split into numbered parts, 5,000 URLs each by default, all listed in one sitemap index at /sitemap.xml. Each file is quick to build and quick to fetch, and you submit one URL to Google.
Queries built for huge tables
Posts are read in small batches with a deferred join: the database finds a page of IDs from its index first, then fetches just those rows. Part 200 does not mean reading every row before it.
Built once, served from disk
Generated sitemaps are cached on disk and served from there, with Last-Modified and ETag headers, so a crawler re-reading a file it already has gets a 304 and no rebuild at all.
Never a half-built sitemap
If the server is too busy to finish a sitemap, the broken build is thrown away. Crawlers get the last good copy, or a 503 “come back later” that keeps your URLs in their index, never a blank page or a list with URLs missing.
See every build
The Sitemap Log lists each sitemap built, with its URL count, size, build time, database queries, peak memory and any error. Problems only shows the failures.
Respects noindex
Pages The SEO Framework or Super Speedy Filters mark noindex stay out, and the cache refreshes itself when those settings change.
Free
Download it, install it, submit one URL. No licence fee for the sitemaps.

Live in ten minutes

Install, choose what goes in, switch on caching, submit one URL.

Install and look at your index
Activate the plugin and open /sitemap.xml. Your public post types and taxonomies are already listed, split into parts where they need to be.
Choose what goes in
Untick post types and taxonomies you do not want indexed, and exclude individual posts or terms.
Switch on caching
Each sitemap is then built once and served from disk, and a last good copy is always on hand if the server is busy.
Submit one URL
Give Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools your sitemap index. It is in robots.txt automatically for every other crawler.

Everything a big site needs from its sitemaps

  • Every public post type and taxonomy, including WooCommerce products, categories and attributes, picked up automatically.
  • Split post sitemaps with a global and a per-part URL limit, so no file grows past what your server can build.
  • Google News sitemaps with publication name, language and per-category genres.
  • Image sitemaps that add each post’s featured image to its entry.
  • External pages: list URLs WordPress does not know about, such as a separate app or a static landing page.
  • Exclusions by post, by term, or by every post in a term.
  • robots.txt gets your sitemap index automatically, so crawlers find it without being told.
  • Multisite networks: every site has its own index, cache and log, with server settings kept for the super admin.
  • Custom modules: write a small PHP class to publish any sitemap you like, alongside the built-in ones.
  • Readable sitemaps with an optional XSLT stylesheet, so a person opening one sees a table, not raw XML.
  • AI-agent control: an assistant such as Claude Code can read and change the settings and flush the cache over MCP.
  • Works beside your SEO plugin: keep Yoast SEO, Rank Math or The SEO Framework for everything else and let Super Speedy Sitemaps publish the sitemap.

Even faster with Scalability Pro

Super Speedy Sitemaps does not need anything else. On a very large catalogue, Scalability Pro adds a wp_posts index built for exactly the query sitemaps run, by post type, status and last-modified date, so every batch is read straight from the index. It speeds up the rest of WordPress too.

Super Speedy Sitemaps Knowledge Base

View full Knowledge Base →

What's new in Super Speedy Sitemaps?

View full changelog →
1.16.0 (13th November 2026)
  • Posts, pages, products, post types, categories and terms set to noindex in Yoast SEO, Rank Math or All in One SEO are left out of the sitemaps while that plugin is active, and changing the setting updates the cached sitemaps straight away.
  • WooCommerce products with Hidden catalogue visibility are left out of the product sitemap, and the new Exclude out-of-stock products option leaves out products that are out of stock.
  • New WP-CLI commands wp sssm status, wp sssm warm (build and cache every sitemap, --regenerate to rebuild them all), wp sssm flush, wp sssm log and wp sssm clear-log.
  • The XML Sitemaps tab now warns when another plugin is also publishing a sitemap, names it and says where to switch it off, and a new Switch off the WordPress core sitemap option removes /wp-sitemap.xml.
1.15.0 (13th November 2026)
  • Fixed Advanced Options > Sitemap Cache > Cache directory and the SSSM_GXS_CACHE_DIR constant having no effect; cached sitemaps are written where they say, and the field shows the real default, wp-content/uploads/super-speedy-sitemaps.
1.14.0 (12th November 2026)
  • The Sitemap Log now lists every sitemap generated or that failed to generate, with its URL count, size and gzipped size in KB, build time, query count, peak memory and any error, and a Problems only filter.
  • The Sitemap Log is kept in its own database table, capped at the last 1,000 entries, and serving a cached sitemap no longer writes to the database.
  • robots.txt and the settings screens now point to /sitemap.xml; /sitemapindex.xml still serves the same index.

Questions before you switch

What changes, what does not, and what the server needs.

Is it really free?
Yes. Super Speedy Sitemaps costs nothing. Get it from this page and install it like any other plugin.
Can I leave another sitemap plugin active?
Yes, but submit only one sitemap. WordPress core and SEO plugins such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math and SEOPress publish their own, and the plugin does not switch them off for you. Running Alongside Other Sitemap Generators shows how.
Where is my sitemap?
At /sitemap.xml, for example https://example.com/sitemap.xml. /sitemapindex.xml serves the same index, so a sitemap you submitted under that name keeps working.
Does it remove the 50,000 URL limit?
It works within it. Large post types are split across protocol-sized files, all listed in one index, so a site of any size gets a valid sitemap and search engines never get an oversized one.
What happens if my server is overloaded?
A sitemap that fails to build part-way is never cached or served. Crawlers get the last good copy, or a 503 with Retry-After when there is none, and the failure appears in the Sitemap Log with its cause. How Super Speedy Sitemaps Scales explains it.
What does the server need?
WordPress 6.0 or later, and a writable uploads folder for the sitemap cache. The settings screen tells you if WordPress cannot write there.
Do I need Scalability Pro?
No. Super Speedy Sitemaps works on its own. Scalability Pro adds a database index for the sitemap query, which helps most on very large catalogues.
Will I need to submit every split file?
No. Submit the sitemap index. It points crawlers to every post, page, taxonomy, image and news sitemap you have enabled.
Does it work on multisite?
Yes. Every site in the network has its own sitemap index, cache and Sitemap Log. Settings that affect the server are kept for the network super admin. See Multisite Networks.

Get it Free

Free download. Install in seconds.

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2 reviews for Super Speedy Sitemaps

  1. Alek H. (verified owner) –

    It’s not working; clicking to generate the sitemap leads to a 404 error page.

    • Dave H. (verified owner) –

      Super Speedy Staff

      Flush permalinks by visiting Permalinks and hitting save, also flush your object cache. It’s working well for many people including me.

  2. Timothy L. (verified owner) –

    It gives you a lot of control over your sitemaps more than other SEO plugins; it also makes it possible to cache it to make it even faster. You can fine-tune what you want to have in the site map.

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