Native Sitemap Customizer gives you complete control over the native WordPress XML sitemap (wp-sitemap.xml) introduced in WordPress 5.5, without requiring a full SEO plugin.
Features
- Lastmod Dates: Adds last modification dates to every URL in the sitemap (Google’s most used optional field)
- Exclude Post Types: Remove any custom post type from the sitemap
- Exclude Taxonomies: Control which taxonomies appear in the sitemap
- User Control: Exclude specific user roles, individual users, or disable the entire users sitemap for single-author sites
- Flexible Exclusions: Exclude posts/pages by ID or by slug patterns
- SEO Plugin Integration: Auto-exclude noindex content from Yoast, Rank Math, AIOSEO, SEOPress, The SEO Framework, NoIndexer
- Smart Redirects: Automatically redirect old sitemap URLs from SEO plugins to native WordPress sitemap (301)
- Performance: Customize the maximum number of URLs per sitemap (1-50,000)
- Conflict Detection: Warns you if SEO plugins are active or indexing is disabled
- Clean Interface: Two-column layout for easy navigation and configuration
- Clean Uninstall: All plugin data is removed from the database when the plugin is deleted
Perfect For
- Sites that don’t need a full SEO plugin
- Developers who want full control over every sitemap detail
- Anyone looking to optimize their WordPress native sitemap
- Sites using headless WordPress or custom SEO solutions
Requirements
- WordPress 5.5 or higher (when native sitemaps were introduced)
- PHP 7.4 or higher
How It Works
Native Sitemap Customizer works by applying filters to WordPress’s built-in sitemap functionality. It doesn’t generate its own sitemap – it simply controls what appears in the native wp-sitemap.xml that WordPress creates.
Do you really need a full SEO plugin?
Most WordPress sites don’t need a 100-feature SEO plugin just to manage a sitemap or set noindex rules. WordPress already generates a native sitemap and a robots.txt file — the two core pieces search engines need to crawl your site properly.
Native Sitemap Customizer handles the sitemap side: decide what content appears in your XML sitemap. For noindex control, NoIndexer lets you mark entire post types or individual posts as noindex without any bloat. Together with the robots.txt that WordPress generates automatically, you have everything essential for technical SEO — no bloat, no unused features, no performance overhead.
Important Notes
- If you have an SEO plugin active (Yoast, Rank Math, etc.), you should disable their sitemap functionality to avoid conflicts
- The plugin will warn you if search engine indexing is disabled in WordPress Reading Settings
- Changes take effect immediately – your sitemap is dynamically generated
Support
Need help or have suggestions?
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About AyudaWP
We are specialists in WordPress security, SEO, AI and performance optimization plugins. We create tools that solve real problems for WordPress site owners while maintaining the highest coding standards and accessibility requirements.
Privacy
This plugin does not collect or store any personal data. It only modifies which URLs appear in your public sitemap.