Auto XML Sitemap Generation (SEO)

[discobot]

I would like to see the ability to automatically create an XML sitemap “on-the-fly” built into the CP core.

As with the ability to edit the page title and meta description (see Issues · ClassicPress/ClassicPress · GitHub) , a well-structured and up to date XML sitemap is an essential part of SEO, helping Google (and others) to crawl your site.

This feature is only made possible at present through the installation of 3rd party plugins but in my view should be a core feature of any business-focused CMS.

If this feature were to be implemented, there could be global enable/disable setting and/or filter to be used as and when required (e.g. when installing a SEO plugin).

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Read-only archive: Issues · ClassicPress/ClassicPress · GitHub

Author: 1stepforward

Vote count: 29

Status: open

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Comments

I agree that a sitemap should be part of the CP core. One of the security risks of WordPress is the use/overuse of third-party plugins.

~ posted by Ed Sutherland

The problem I see with this though is that the majority of people will still install an SEO plugin, so all you are doing is adding extra code into the core that will be redundant for the majority of users, unless you are going to add a full SEO package into the core, which would make installing a plugin un-necessary

~ posted by Jason

At present, SEO plugins are a real problem for CP. We can no longer consider Yoast as the go-to SEO plugin and there are very few others that have what it takes. Having this key feature built into the core does away with any dependency on third parties. As I said in my description, any core facility should have the option to be disabled should the user install a plugin.

~ posted by 1stepforward

What are the proposed options for a core sitemap generator and where would they fit in the current UI?

I expect this would need a custom options page + metabox on all post types. Do we want to add extra metadata to every post with priority values?

Also is to idea a single sitemap or split sitemaps + an index?

~ posted by William Patton

Sounds familiar to XML Sitemaps Feature Project Proposal – Make WordPress Core

~ posted by Laurence Bahiirwa

It looks like WordPress are thinking along the exact same lines then.

Incidentally, I added my petition for XML sitemaps to be included in CP on May 24 (see Rank Math Discussion - #28 by 1stepforward), nearly 3 weeks before that proposal appeared on WP. However, I don’t see why we can’t use the WP proposal as the basis for CP.

The only thing I would stress is that there needs to be the ability to disable the core feature completely for those that don’t want it or for those that have installed a plugin. And, I also think that only core posts, pages and categories should be enabled by default (no authors, tags or custom post types).

~ posted by 1stepforward

This is a difficult one I think. On the one hand, a CMS should probably include basic features that 90% of more of sites benefit from. But on the other hand, sitemaps are part of the greater world of SEO optimization, which means plugins will always and forever be more appropriate.

If sitemaps did exist in Core, they should be extremely lightweight and limited to avoid potential performance and security issues.

Not sure who @1stepforward is (the rules say real names only?), but I think the idea for limiting a potential Core sitemap to posts, pages, and categories is on the right track. No settings to add/remove content from Core sitemaps should also probably be part of such a feature, to allow plugins to thrive here, but a relevant hook/filter would be required for plugins to disable Core sitemaps (but again, advanced filters like this should not be UI/options based). This would present consistent logic, that brand new sites (or newbies) who have not optimized and customized their posts/SEO yet can have fallback sitemaps.

~ posted by Jesse

I think that now the Classic SEO plugin is being developed, sitemaps can and should remain in plugin territory.

~ posted by zigpress

I would suggest all the SEO goes into the core. SEO is so core to a CMS. Also how hard can this be. The main things yoast does you need are simple meta, titles and XML. All were just plugins the guy parsed and combined. 100% doable. I have seen teams build Yoast in their own CMSes too. Not a huge job at all. Taxonomies then link to XML, but ironically should only be pages and posts. All the www.schema.org etc his plugin adds the testing and fuzzy logic is total garbage.

~ posted by Niall Flynn

There is a heap of mis and dis info out there now due to Yoast and freemium sales ideas too. The idea you pay to add www.schema.org, if CP can come out of the box with what Yoast has or should have thats a huge up sell.

~ posted by Niall Flynn

@Niall Flynn - This petition is purely about adding XML sitemaps to the core. There is a separate petition for adding basic meta fields to the core.

If you think both of these should be in the core, all you can do is to upvote each one. If you think the core should provide more comprehensive SEO features, your best bet is to create a petition of your own and detail the features you’d like to see.

And just in case you’re not aware, there is now a SEO plugin called Classic SEO which has been built specifically for CP. It’s a fork of Rank Math. https://github.com/ClassicPress-research/classicpress-seo .

~ posted by 1stepforward

WordPress 5.5 added this. Have we backported it to ClassicPress? If yes, can we close this petition?

~ posted by stefanos82

[Riccardo]

The SEO framewok plugin free is simple, stable and the best for seo.

[anon95694377]

No SEO plugin is “the best” for SEO. They all provide meta tags and titles, which is what the search engines need. After that, it’s down to which extra (non-essential) features you want, because they all have a slightly different selection to tempt the buyer.

[viktor]

Just adding perspective on this petition. Not all CMS are used for marketing, so SEO in the core would be considered bloat. Plenty of people using CMS platforms to build intranets, private forums or social networking sites, or membership websites, etc.

Since we want to keep ClassicPress lean and mean while giving users the ability to add functionaltity they need, this probably won’t ever be added to the core. Remember, we are moving core features into core plugins. So this belongs in a plugin. Plus, now we have Classic SEO plugin which is the official ClassicPress plugin. So the functionaltity is available. Core or plugin the functionality is the same.