How To Create Automatic Sitemap in WordPress

18th Feb 2010 | Posted by Eko S. | 65 Comments

A site map (or sitemap) is a list of pages of a web site accessible to crawlers or users. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine find pages on the site.
This is not “Google sitemap”!

sitemap550

Why Use Sitemap ?

To improve the navigation of your site so :
- the user can quckly find a specific post he wants.
- the user can quickly see and get an idea how big the blog is and get an overview what the blog is writing about.
All your post are linked to form a sitemap page, used by search engines to index your site.

How to?

Credit : Thanks to Jim Westergren for this tutorial, we improve a little bit and try on wordpress 2.9.1, it’s working good :).

You can see demo : our sitemap

Steps :

Download and activate these plugins :
- Exex-PHP plugins that makes it possible for you to parse PHP in your blog posts.
- WP Category Post Plugin, that makes it possible for you to list posts per category.

plugin

Create a new page (not post) with this code :

<h2>
<a name="contents">Jump to a category section :</a>
</h2>
<ul>
    <li style="padding: 5px 0 5px 0;">
    <a href="#link_anchor_category_name1">Category_name1</a>
    </li>
    <li style="padding: 5px 0 5px 0;">
    <a href="#link_anchor_category_name2">Category_name2</a>
    </li>
    <li style="padding: 5px 0 5px 0;">
    <a href="#link_anchor_category_name3">Category_name3</a>
    </li>
</ul>
<h1 style="margin-top:10px;">
<a name="link_anchor_category_name1">Category_name1</a>
</h1>
<div style="margin-left:40px;">
    <ul>
        <?php
            wp_cat_posts(6);
        ?>
   </ul>
   <a href="#contents">Back to Contents^</a>
</div>
<h1 style="margin-top:10px;">
<a name="link_anchor_category_name2">Category_name2</a>
</h1>
<div style="margin-left:40px;">
   <ul>
       <?php
           wp_cat_posts(2);
       ?>
   </ul>
   <a href="#contents">Back to Contents ^</a>
</div>
<h1 style="margin-top:10px;">
<a name="link_anchor_category_name3">Category_name3</a>
</h1>
<div style="margin-left:40px;">
   <ul>
       <?php
            wp_cat_posts(4);
       ?>
   </ul>
   <a href="#contents">Back to Contents ^</a>
</div>

Copy and paste on your a new page editor (HTML section)

page-edited

The numbers
```
<?php
     wp_cat_posts(43);
?>
```
are the IDs of the categories. You can find your ID of the categories on Dasboard > Post > Categories and hover a category name, you can see the link address, along with the category ID.
Repeat this code until you cover all your categories.
Publish your page on your about page, footer or at some other visible place, make a link pointing to your site map for full visitor and search engine link benefit.

It’s done, of course you can change the code of this sitemap appropriate design you like.

Feedback

How about you? How do you create a sitemap? Or do you have a problem with this tutorial? Please share with us, in comment section below. Thanks.

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56 Comments to “How To Create Automatic Sitemap in WordPress”

Add Comments (+)

WP Super Ninja says:

February 19, 2010 at 07:33

Or you could just use this:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/sitemap-generator/

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  February 19, 2010 at 08:31
  
  Hi, thanks for the resource…
  
  Reply
- Elisabeth says:
  
  August 6, 2011 at 14:49
  
  cool, many thanks!!
  
  Reply
looking for a history of italian cooking says:

February 23, 2010 at 08:30

I will be coming back here again and again, and I will tell my friends as well. This is a great site. See yer! Jodie May

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  February 24, 2010 at 02:01
  
  Hi Jodie, that’s nice…thanks
  
  Reply
Alison Vanlue says:

February 26, 2010 at 18:01

Definitely most of the free templates look nice but you may be unhappy with the experience that these templates offer. For instance, you will find that the designs are generally too simple, and the font sizes and colors are not in right place. You can always install a premium template and can correct all these issues. Simply by giving a more positive user experience, you are encouraging visitors to stay longer on your blog that is always a good idea. Nobody wants to chase their visitors by having bad designs!

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  March 1, 2010 at 17:15
  
  Hi, Alison that’s great advice for us…We will always learning to improve and develop our themes. Tomorrow we will upload a new theme, we hope you give advice and input to us again.
  Thanks, your feedback makes us better.
  
  Reply
forex robot says:

February 28, 2010 at 17:41

Keep posting stuff like this i really like it

Reply
Carmen Thome says:

March 8, 2010 at 20:48

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Reply
Kandra Watne says:

March 11, 2010 at 16:13

That is some valuable information and I am always interested in the newest technology so I will bookmark this site.

Reply
Val Lauver says:

March 19, 2010 at 18:21

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Reply
Joey says:

March 28, 2010 at 17:00

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Reply
May Obhof says:

May 7, 2010 at 07:09

Hello admin, top-notch article. I’d like to quote some of the info on my website – I hope you don’t mind if I post a url back?

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  May 7, 2010 at 22:35
  
  Hi, Thanks… you love this article, it’s not a problem of course you can
  
  Reply
backlinking says:

May 15, 2010 at 09:16

I truly enjoyed reading through this post.Thanks.

Reply
Backlinking Guy says:

June 12, 2010 at 20:18

It’s fine to create sites, but unless you do extensive backlinking your hard work building sites will be for naught.

Reply
Copiatoare Second Hand says:

June 14, 2010 at 12:31

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Reply
Ziar Neamt says:

June 20, 2010 at 16:29

I’ve been thinking the exact exact same issue myself recently. Glad to determine an individual on the similar wavelength! Nice report.

Reply
Peter says:

June 22, 2010 at 08:51

Nice website. Very informative posts.

I’ll keep visiting this site…

Please keep adding new posts..

Regards,
Peter
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Reply
Community Spirit says:

August 8, 2010 at 15:30

Interesting and useful ideas arouns sitemaps. I have been having trouble with my community services wordpress blog and will impliment this to see if it solves the problem.

Reply
matkavakuutus says:

August 10, 2010 at 22:32

was very encouraged to find this site. I wanted to thank you for this special read. I definitely savored every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you post.

Reply
Article Marketing says:

August 13, 2010 at 20:47

Nice information. I will try the sitemap on my site.

Reply
Indian Wooden Furniture says:

August 28, 2010 at 02:47

But why not better use a plugin other than doing so much hassle of works? What do you say can’t any plugin do this?

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  February 28, 2011 at 22:24
  
  Yes there are many plugin that can do this job, but for optimization reasons we must try to minimize the plugin :). Also if you can make your own sitemap, it can be fun too…
  
  Regards,
  
  Reply
chambres d'hotes says:

August 28, 2010 at 06:45

Thanks,

This is a great article and a great website. I liked it very much. It will help me to optimise my websites in europe. I have website in travel and that meens a lot of seo work !!

Thanks a lot and greetings,

Dave and Carol
Seo and Travel Website in Europe, France

Reply
Carl says:

October 11, 2010 at 16:34

Hey, very usefull. Thanks for sharing.
But, what about to list pages, should I add it manually?

Thanks again

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  February 28, 2011 at 22:19
  
  Hi Carl, I apologize this tutorial is can only list post based category not page.
  
  Reply
beugh says:

January 2, 2011 at 19:49

nice,..
ive been started to use no plugin at my blog
thanks dude ,..it help me much

Reply
Mohammad Rosenwald says:

February 5, 2011 at 21:18

Sweet website , super design and style , really clean and use genial .

Reply
Carlo says:

February 28, 2011 at 04:00

Hi Eko,
great tutorial.

Thanks
Carlo

Reply
Roby says:

February 28, 2011 at 04:04

Could you please tell me the url I should use to run “Google sitemaps for wordpress” using cron jobs?

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  February 28, 2011 at 22:08
  
  Hi Roby, I apologize, this article is not about google sitemap.
  Regards
  
  Reply
JobsonIT.com says:

March 2, 2011 at 12:16

Liked the site , really some cool stuff has been kept

Regards
http://www.jobsonIT.com

Reply
Asics Gel Kinsei says:

March 9, 2011 at 20:15

great article, i certainly enjoy this web site, continue on it.

Reply
doni says:

April 3, 2011 at 13:50

here the source.. the original one
http://www.jimwestergren.com/tutorial-automatic-sitemap-in-wordpress/

Reply
ทัวร์ราคาถูก says:

April 25, 2011 at 03:12

Excuse, that I can not participate now in discussion – there is no free time. But I will be released – I will necessarily write that I think on this question.

Reply
allina says:

May 1, 2011 at 13:16

thank you ….. its work

Reply
legtimate online sites says:

May 3, 2011 at 08:25

what about site map for free wordpress site ( not self hosted)

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  May 20, 2011 at 21:15
  
  For free wordpress site. You can try the sitemap plugin. There are some great plugins and free, please search it on WordPress Plugin Directory.
  
  Regards,
  
  Reply
  - Ashley says:
    
    September 26, 2011 at 10:47
    
    When I tried this, it forces you to install it the same as you would if it were self-hosted. I don’t understand how to generate a website without a self-hosted blog because there is no panel for plugins and it seems that there is no way to upload them.
live soccer tv says:

May 11, 2011 at 09:50

very good information for me………..now i will apply it in my site.
thanks

Reply
ibproshop says:

May 19, 2011 at 07:55

Thanks … this post help us to create sitemap in our website … keep the info

Reply
- Eko S. says:
  
  May 20, 2011 at 21:19
  
  Hi,
  I just see your site, and you use a sitemap plugin
  We’re glad you found this post useful
  
  Regards,
  
  Reply
Gwyneth Llewelyn says:

May 26, 2011 at 16:17

Here is another complete solution to create an automatic sitemap using a plugin:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-realtime-sitemap/

Note that running “yet another plugin” doesn’t weigh that much on the overall WordPress installation; this is actually a myth. Plugins are far more efficient than it seems. A website with a lot of traffic will use a caching system anyway, like W3 Total Cache, and serve everything statically anyway.

Reply
Manga Indo says:

July 30, 2011 at 01:53

Whoa, nice info. Thank you!

Reply
Claretta Papitto says:

August 11, 2011 at 10:59

Daily best phone sale guide!

Reply
Julie@howtoplanforababygirl.com says:

August 13, 2011 at 23:40

Useful information…thanks for sharing!

Reply
Bill Swanson says:

August 25, 2011 at 14:30

Thanks for the helpful tutorial. I had briefly tried several HTML sitemap plugins, but I wasn’t getting good results. Your solution worked out nicely. It wasn’t quite as easy as a ‘flip-a-switch’ plugin, but it serves the purpose I needed.

Reply
Nurhak says:

October 24, 2011 at 13:23

which one do you think better site map generator plugin or the code you give?

Reply
how to get abs for girls says:

January 5, 2012 at 05:55

Good tips…I was looking for such info on sitemaps.
Thanks!

Reply
DeDee says:

February 18, 2012 at 11:18

Thank you I am going to give this a try. Seems easy to follow.

Reply
adi says:

April 2, 2012 at 00:26

hi, good tutorial there! I love it

only a question, can I preview post from different category under one category?
ex : post from media library and media coverage will be shown under media category?

Reply
adi says:

April 2, 2012 at 00:46

hi, I’m just curious, how can I limit the view of each category?
ex : I just wanna display only 5 for each category?

Reply
WordPress Tricks says:

May 31, 2012 at 13:03

I am using <a href=”http://www.wordpressians.com/how-to-generate-sitemaps-in-wordpress/”>SEO by yoast plugin to generate our sitemap></a> that is fantastic. Your trick is good, but take some times to generate the full sitemap.

Reply
WordPressians says:

May 31, 2012 at 13:10

I am using SEO by yoast plugin to generate our sitemap ( http://www.wordpressians.com/how-to-generate-sitemaps-in-wordpress/ ) that is fantastic. Your trick is good, but take some times to generate the full sitemap.

Reply
Iyan Apian says:

August 15, 2013 at 14:37

Nice..

great work

Reply