So you’ve added both HTML and XML sitemap to your website and now you’re thinking – that’s all, right? Wrong. While these types of sitemaps are extremely important to your website’s SEO, the set can actually be completed by adding an RSS sitemap or feed, as it allows both users and Google to know all of your pages and posts. In this article, we discuss why and show you how to add a WordPress RSS sitemap.
Why Does Your Website Need an RSS Sitemap?
A sitemap usually means two things. A user-visible HTML sitemap is a hierarchical list of all pages under a domain. It acts as a roadmap to help visitors navigate the website and easily find what they need. Therefore, a sitemap is an important UX component.
The other type of sitemap is the “hidden” one and is not visible and not intended for visitors. Instead, it was created for Google (and other search engines). provide information about all the pages and content you have there so you can crawl and index them. We call it an XML sitemap and it should be an integral part of your SEO strategy.
It is usually quite large because it contains an XML sitemap. information about all your pages. The RSS sitemap, on the other hand, is smaller and lighter than it contains. the latest information about changes and updates to your pages. In simple terms, it lets Google know about your newest content so it can index it more quickly.
Therefore, it is clear that you should use it for the best results. a combination of both XML and RSS sitemaps.
Now, let’s see how to set up a WordPress RSS sitemap for your website.
Creating a WordPress RSS Sitemap
To easily add an RSS sitemap to WordPress, your best bet is to use a plugin. For this purpose, we recommend AIOSEO (All in One SEO)is an all-purpose SEO plugin that packs a great set of SEO features and has an astonishing 3 million active installs. Its features are too many to list, so we will say it helps you with on-page optimization, it has a native business module, Rich Snippet Schema, robots.txt editor, easy integration with Google Search Console, various analytics tools, and more. Of course, it also has tools to help you add a WordPress RSS sitemap, which is a free feature (the plugin also has a premium version).
After installing and activating the plugin, you will need to go through a guided installation wizard. Don’t worry, it’s not long and very easy to complete.
After you complete the setup, you will find a brand new menu item in your dashboard title menu. SEO. When you need to work on something using AIOSEO, you click on this item and it takes you to a designated page with various tools and analytics.
Scroll down the page until you reach a section that says. sitemaps. click on the link overcome.
Click RSS Sitemap on the horizontal menu. This will take you to the RSS setup section.
First, click the toggle button to enable the RSS sitemap. You must also specify the number of posts to include in the sitemap. The recommended setting is 50 or less because the RSS sitemap needs to be small and light.
if you click on Open RSS Sitemap button, the current map will open in a new tab so you can see which pages are included. It will be something like this, but with your URLs of course:
The last option lets you choose which post types you want to include in your WordPress RSS sitemap. This Include All Post Types is the default option, but you can uncheck it if you only want to include certain post types (posts only, products only, pages only, landing pages, portfolio, or a combination).
Finally click Save Changes and that’s it – the plugin will automatically generate an RSS sitemap and add it to your website.
Note that you will of course need to submit your map to Google Search Console. We have a detailed tutorial on adding your website to Google Search Console, including adding sitemaps, so if you’re not sure how to do that, we recommend checking it out.
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As we can see, adding a WordPress RSS sitemap is actually child’s play. AIOSEO is an excellent plugin that can help you with most of your SEO tasks, so by installing even the free version, you will get other benefits as well, not just the RSS sitemap feature.
Combining XML and RSS sitemaps is an excellent way to let Google know what’s going on with your website and keep your website up to date with your latest content. You basically have no excuse not to have it!
