verbaste

VB Sitemap Generator creates XML sitemaps dynamically with caching and without unnecessary overhead.
Features: 
* Sitemap index: /sitemap.xml 
* Sharded main sitemaps: /sitemap-main-.xml 
* Image sitemap: /sitemap-images-.xml 
* Includes images in main sitemap entries 
* Publish-only URLs 
* Respects noindex 
* Uses post_modified_gmt for lastmod 
* Robots.txt integration
The plugin follows modern XML sitemap standards and avoids deprecated elements like changefreq and priority.

VB Sitemap Generator

Lightweight, standards-compliant XML sitemap generator for WordPress.

andreyberestov

Lightweight Sitemap Generator is a minimal WordPress plugin that creates a valid XML sitemap for search engines (Google, Yandex and others), fully compliant with <a href="https://www.sitemaps.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">sitemaps.org</a>.
Main features:
<ul>
<li>Generates a valid <code>sitemap.xml</code> (or wp-sitemap.xml) with proper <code><loc></code> and <code><lastmod></code> tags (ISO-8601 UTC format)</li>
<li>Unified structure for posts, pages, products, built-in taxonomies, and detected public third-party taxonomies</li>
<li>Global chronological order (newer → older)</li>
<li>Automatic duplicate prevention across all sources</li>
<li>Two modes:
<ul>
<li>File mode — creates a static sitemap in the site root (minimal server load)</li>
<li>Dynamic mode — builds sitemap on-the-fly (always up to date, cached with TTL)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Clean and minimal settings page in WP Admin:
<ul>
<li>Enable or disable posts, pages, categories, tags, authors, archives</li>
<li>Supports WooCommerce products, DW Q&A, and all detected custom post types/taxonomies</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Homepage is always included automatically</li>
<li>Flexible <code><lastmod></code> for homepage:
<ul>
<li>Smart — based on the most recently updated content</li>
<li>Conservative — static front-page date</li>
<li>Fast — current time on each generation</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Optional sitemap splitting (up to 50 000 URLs per part) with automatic sitemap index</li>
<li>Google News: Optional separate <code>news-sitemap.xml</code> for Google News with 48-hour news window and 1,000 URLs per file</li>
<li>Two independent generation engines — optimized for both regular and ultra-large sites</li>
<li>Safe caching with TTL and diagnostic comments (HIT / MISS / timing)</li>
<li>HTTP header support:
<ul>
<li>Sends correct Content-Type, Last-Modified, Cache-Control, and ETag headers</li>
<li>Optional X-Robots-Tag: noindex, follow header for sitemap requests</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Security and reliability:
<ul>
<li>Capability checks and nonce validation</li>
<li>Strict sanitization and option whitelisting</li>
<li>File operations via <code>WP_Filesystem</code> (with safe fallback)</li>
<li>No external requests</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Credits</h3>
Created by Andrey Berestov

Lightweight Sitemap Generator

XML sitemap generator for WordPress with file or dynamic mode. Supports all public post types and taxonomies. Optional Google News sitemap.

VB Sitemap Generator vs Lightweight Sitemap Generator