How to set up Google XML Sitemaps via Yoast

Having a Google XML Sitemap is crucial for improving your website’s SEO and helping search engines like Google crawl and index your content more efficiently. Yoast SEO, one of the most popular SEO plugins for WordPress, automatically generates an XML sitemap for your site, making it easier for search engines to discover and rank your content. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the simple steps to set up Google XML Sitemaps via the Yoast SEO plugin.

Step-by-Step Guide to Set Up Google XML Sitemaps via Yoast

1. Install Yoast SEO Plugin:

• Go to your WordPress Dashboard > Plugins > Add New.
• Search for Yoast SEO, install, and activate it.
• If you already have Yoast SEO installed, make sure it’s up to date.

2. Enable XML Sitemaps in Yoast SEO:

• After activating Yoast SEO, go to SEO > General in the WordPress menu.
• Click on the Features tab.
• Locate the XML Sitemaps option and ensure it’s toggled ON (enabled).
• Save your changes.

3. Locate Your XML Sitemap:

• Once XML Sitemaps is enabled, Yoast will automatically generate an XML sitemap for your website.
• To view it, go to the following URL:
  https://yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
• This is your primary sitemap, and Yoast will break it down into separate sitemaps for posts, pages, categories, etc.
• Click on the button View the XML sitemap it will load the sitemap automatically

Copy the site only the sitemap_index.xml to past to Google sitemap

4. Submit Your Sitemap to Google Search Console:

• Now that your XML sitemap is ready, it’s time to submit it to Google Search Console to ensure Google indexes your content.
• Log in to your Google Search Console account and select your website.
• In the left sidebar, click on Sitemaps.
• Under Add a new sitemap, enter the URL of your sitemap, which is:
  sitemap_index.xml
• Click Submit to send your sitemap to Google.

5. Verify Sitemap Submission:

• After submitting, Google will begin crawling your website based on the sitemap you provided.
• Check back in a few days to see the status of your sitemap under Sitemaps in Google Search Console. It will show you whether Google has successfully crawled the pages listed in your sitemap.

Setting up a Google XML Sitemap via Yoast SEO is an easy and effective way to help Google crawl and index your website. By submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console, you ensure that your pages are discovered and ranked faster, improving your SEO performance. Regularly monitoring your sitemap in Google Search Console can also help you identify potential issues that may affect your website’s indexing and visibility.

By following these steps, you’re one step closer to improving your site’s SEO and ensuring search engines can easily find and index your valuable content.