{"id":196712,"date":"2021-04-22T03:44:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-22T03:44:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/?p=196712"},"modified":"2021-04-22T03:44:23","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T03:44:23","slug":"google-xml-sitemaps-vs-smartcrawl-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/google-xml-sitemaps-vs-smartcrawl-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Google XML Sitemaps vs SmartCrawl Sitemaps &#8211; Which is Best for SEO?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Google XML Sitemaps plugin is extremely popular, well-rated, and free to use. However, are its features better than our own popular, well-rated, and free-to-use plugin, SmartCrawl?<\/p>\n<p>This article will put these two SEO plugins to the test to see which one delivers the best results and if one outranks the other.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, we\u2019re more partial to <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/smartcrawl-seo\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SmartCrawl<\/a>, considering she\u2019s, well, our very own SEO plugin. However, with Google <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/google-sitemap-generator\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">XML Sitemaps <\/a>having over <strong>2+ million active installs<\/strong> compared to SmartCrawl\u2019s <strong>20+ thousand<\/strong> installs, we realize there\u2019s a lot of active users with XML Sitemaps &#8212; and there\u2019s a good reason for that.<\/p>\n<p>We will see if they\u2019re comparable, if one has advantages over the other, and what they both include&#8230;or don\u2019t!<\/p>\n<p>This post covers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"#what\">What is an XML Sitemap?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#why\">Why Add An XML Sitemap to WordPress?<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#smartcrawl\">SmartCrawl XML Sitemap Features<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#google\">Google XML Sitemaps Plugin Features<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#xml\">XML Sitemaps vs SmartCrawl XML Sitemap &#8211; Comparison Chart<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By the end of this article, you should clearly understand what plugin is best for you when having an XML sitemaps plugin for your WordPress site.<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"what\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>What is an XML Sitemap?<\/h2>\n<p>In a nutshell, an <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/sitemaps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">XML sitemap<\/a> is a file that lists all of your website\u2019s content in an XML format. This makes it easy for search engines like Google to discover and index your WordPress content.<\/p>\n<p>XML sitemaps tell search engines all about the pages on your website. Additionally, it will tell search engines what links on your site are more crucial than others. Plus, it will point out how often you update your WordPress site.<\/p>\n<p>XML sitemaps don\u2019t necessarily boost your rankings, but they allow search engines to crawl your site better. That leads to them being able to discover more content, which results in higher search traffic and enhanced rankings when it comes to SEO.<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"why\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>Why Add An XML Sitemap to WordPress?<\/h2>\n<p>From an SEO perspective, sitemaps are very beneficial in several ways.<\/p>\n<p>When you add one, your rankings won\u2019t be affected. However, if you have a page on your site that isn\u2019t indexed, a sitemap provides you a systematic way to inform search engines about the page.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/advanced\/sitemaps\/overview#:~:text=A%20sitemap%20tells%20Google%20which,language%20versions%20of%20a%20page.\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">According to Google<\/a>, XML sitemaps are beneficial for large websites, websites with extensive archives, new websites, and sites that use rich media content.<\/p>\n<p>Though, an XML sitemap is beneficial for any WordPress site. Why? It\u2019s because every site needs Google to easily find important pages and realize when they were last updated.<\/p>\n<p>So, whether your WordPress site is established or brand new, a sitemap will highlight which part of your WordPress site is most important, how often it\u2019s updated, and more &#8212; so your site can be indexed according to search engines.<\/p>\n<p>With all of this being said, let\u2019s check out these two plugins in action.<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"smartcrawl\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>SmartCrawl XML Sitemap Features<\/h2>\n<p>As I mentioned earlier (and you may be aware of already), <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/smartcrawl-seo\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SmartCrawl<\/a> is our very own free, 5-star SEO plugin.<\/p>\n<p>Along with offering titles &amp; meta descriptions, SEO checkups, leveraging your social media, and much more &#8212; she\u2019s got you covered with an <strong>XML sitemap generator<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196723\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196723\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/smartcrawl-image.png\" alt=\"SmartCrawl image.\" width=\"600\" height=\"219\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">SmartCrawl is here to help with your XML generator.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I won\u2019t get too in-depth with all of her features (there\u2019s a ton of them), but unlike the XML Sitemaps plugin, she can do a lot more. For example, check out her schema skills <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/smartcrawl-schema-markup-wordpress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in this article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But, let\u2019s focus on specific features for XML sitemaps and SmartCrawl. These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Support for all WordPress content<\/li>\n<li>Automatically notifies search engines<\/li>\n<li>Inclusions and Exclusions to crawl<\/li>\n<li>Having no PHP skills and no file changes necessary<\/li>\n<li>A user interface to customize the parameters<\/li>\n<li>Multisite compatibility<\/li>\n<li>Scheduling regular URL Crawl Reports delivered to your inbox<\/li>\n<li>Being cached for performance<\/li>\n<li>Includes images from post content<\/li>\n<li>Can merge sitemaps into a single sitemap<\/li>\n<li>The capability to add styling to the sitemap<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, let\u2019s take a detailed look at SmartCrawls XML sitemap capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Right away, once activated, you can start the sitemap with one click.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196724\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196724\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/activate-sitemaps.png\" alt=\"Where you activate sitemap.\" width=\"600\" height=\"315\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">One tap of a button is all it takes to start SmartCrawl\u2019s sitemap.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once activated, she does a scan of your site, and you\u2019re taken to Smartcrawl\u2019s sitemap dashboard.<\/p>\n<p>In the <strong>Sitemap<\/strong> area, you can view your sitemap (via a link), switch to WP core sitemap, choose which post types, archives, and taxonomies you want to include in your sitemap, and add any inclusions and exclusions.<\/p>\n<p>To take a better look at the features here, we\u2019ll break it down into detail.<\/p>\n<p>The link to your sitemap is at the top of the Sitemap area.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196725\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196725\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/sitemap-link-copy.png\" alt=\"Sitemap link \" width=\"600\" height=\"194\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The link takes you right to your sitemap.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can also choose to switch to the WP core sitemap (which we don\u2019t recommend considering all that Smartcrawl sitemap can do).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196726\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196726\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/switch-to-wp-core-sitemap.png\" alt=\"Where you switch to wp core sitemap.\" width=\"600\" height=\"217\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">If you switch, you can enable it back to Smartcrawl at any time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>From here, you can choose what post types, archives, and taxonomies you want to include in your sitemap.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196727\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196727\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/what-to-include-in-sitemap.png\" alt=\"Where you pick what to include in sitemap.\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can enable and disable it with one click.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Have any URLs that aren\u2019t part of your pages, posts, or custom posts? You can add those next. Also, you can exclude any post IDs and URLs from your sitemap in this section.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196728\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196728\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/inclusions-and-exclusions.png\" alt=\"Where you add inclusions and exclusions.\" width=\"600\" height=\"567\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Add as many URLs and post IDs that you want.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In Smartcrawl\u2019s <strong>Crawler<\/strong> area, start a crawl instantly. This will check for broken URLs, 404s, multiple redirections, and any harmful issues that can reduce your rank.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196729\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196729\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/begin-crawl.png\" alt=\"What you click to begin crawl.\" width=\"600\" height=\"345\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Start a crawl in an instant by tapping the button.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Just like the Google XML Sitemap plugin, you can schedule automatic crawls. The difference is, Smartcrawl will email you a report straight to your inbox!<\/p>\n<p>Simply click on<strong> Run regular URL crawls<\/strong> to get started.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196730\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196730\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/run-regular-URL-crawls.png\" alt=\"Run reports.\" width=\"600\" height=\"282\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Get regular URL crawls &#8212; and reports delivered.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once clicking, you can customize the recipients and schedule. When scheduling, you can choose between daily, weekly, and monthly. Plus, you can select the day of the week and time of day.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196731\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196731\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/set-up-reports-schedule.png\" alt=\"Where you add recipients.\" width=\"600\" height=\"416\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Add as many recipients as you want.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Click on <strong>Save Settings<\/strong> will get you all set up!<\/p>\n<p>When we head over to Smartcrawls sitemap <strong>Settings<\/strong>, there are some additional tweaks you can make.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s start with the <strong>sitemap structure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Single sitemaps are typically okay for small sites; however, more significant sites will need to be split.<\/p>\n<p>This is where you configure the maximum number of URLs to be included in a single sitemap file. Additional sitemap files will be created if the total number of URLs exceeds the value you specify here.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_217010\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-ratio-full wp-image-217010\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/sitemap-structure-1050x282.png\" alt=\"Sitemap Structure\" width=\"1050\" height=\"282\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Smartcrawl&#8217;s sitemap structure settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Want to<strong> include images<\/strong> in your site map? It\u2019s one click to do so. This will help Google Images index them correctly.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196733\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196733\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/include-images.png\" alt=\"What you click to include images in sitemap.\" width=\"600\" height=\"245\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">If your site has a lot of images, this is an important feature.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>With the <strong>Auto-notify search engines<\/strong> option, you can set it up to automatically notify Google and Bing whenever your sitemap changes by selecting <strong>Automatic<\/strong>, or you can opt for manual if you\u2019d like to let them know on your own.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_217012\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-ratio-full wp-image-217012\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/auto-notify-searchengine-1050x383.png\" alt=\"Auto notify search engine smartcrawl settings\" width=\"1050\" height=\"383\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Auto notify search engine smartcrawl sitemap settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If you\u2019d like your sitemap to be read easier by human eyes, the <strong>Style Sitemap<\/strong> button will do that.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196735\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196735\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/style-sitemap.png\" alt=\"Where you style your sitemap.\" width=\"600\" height=\"176\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Make your sitemap stylish!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>You can see some examples of what a stylized sitemap looks like <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/docs\/wpmu-dev-plugins\/smartcrawl\/#settings-sitemap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in our documentation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Also, stay updated with Automatic sitemap updates. Set this to <strong>Automatic<\/strong> (update sitemap automatically), <strong>Manual <\/strong>(update sitemap manually), or <strong>Schedule<\/strong> (schedule the sitemap updates). You can schedule the sitemap updates on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_217011\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-217011\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/automatic-sitemap-updates.png\" alt=\"Automatic sitemap updates\" width=\"921\" height=\"417\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Automatic sitemap updates smartcrawl sitemap settings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In this area, you can also <strong>Deactivate<\/strong> the sitemap generator with a click. If you change your mind and want to start using it again, that\u2019s done in a click as well.<\/p>\n<p>Something else to keep in mind is, if you\u2019re a WPMU DEV member, SmartCrawl integrates with <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/get-the-most-from-hub\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This gives you quick and easy access to some key benefits, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Ability to run Crawler &amp; view issues in Hub SEO tab<\/li>\n<li>Ability to automate scans and check last scan\/submission<\/li>\n<li>Managing multiple sites\u2019 sitemaps from one central location<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196772\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196772\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/hub-seo-sc-site-crawler-lg-1.png\" alt=\"The hub seo smartcrawl area.\" width=\"600\" height=\"562\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Hub has you set up for site crawler success!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>For more on Hub integration, be sure to check out our article, <a href=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/easily-configure-your-wordpress-seo-with-smartcrawl-and-the-hub\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Easily Configure Your WordPress SEO with SmartCrawl and The Hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t need or want something as advanced as SmartCrawl\u2019s jam-packed feature-rich XML sitemaps or are just looking for a stand-alone XML sitemaps generator (and a separate SEO plugin), then you can always go with the popular Google XML Sitemaps plugin.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a lot more basic, as you\u2019ll see. But it will do the job.<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"google\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>Google XML Sitemaps Plugin Features<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196713\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196713\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/xml-sitemap-plugin.png\" alt=\"Post image\" aria-hidden=\"true\" width=\"600\" height=\"221\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Google XML Sitemaps plugin can get your sitemap up &#8212; simply and easily.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/google-sitemap-generator\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google XML Sitemaps<\/a> plugin is no stranger to over a million users. When activated, it will create XML sitemaps that help search engines better index your site. It\u2019s been supported for over nine years and is still going strong.<\/p>\n<p>It supports numerous WordPress-created pages and also custom URLs. Plus, when you create a new post, it notifies all the major search engines you have new content.<\/p>\n<p>This plugin has a good reputation for doing what it\u2019s supposed to do &#8212; creating XML sitemaps. And it has a guarantee to \u201cnot break your site, slow it down, or annoy you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now that we have the nuts and bolts of what the XML Sitemaps plugin is about let\u2019s dig into its features.<\/p>\n<p>First off, here\u2019s a rundown of some specific features offered with XML Sitemaps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Support for all WordPress content<\/li>\n<li>No PHP skills or file changes necessary<\/li>\n<li>A user interface to customize the parameters<\/li>\n<li>Used in many languages<\/li>\n<li>Calculates a priority for each post that\u2019s based on the number of comments<\/li>\n<li>Will notify Google and Bing about changes via ping<\/li>\n<li>It comes with a WordPress filter for other plugins which can add their WordPress pages to the sitemap<\/li>\n<li>Multisite compatible<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The XML Sitemaps plugin, as you can see, can tackle a lot. So now, let\u2019s hop into WordPress and see it in detail.<\/p>\n<p>A nice attribute of this plugin is its simplicity. Everything is in one area in its dashboard.<\/p>\n<video loop muted autoplay playsinline class='dev-html5-video'><source src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Recording-2021-04-15-at-6.16.32-AM.webm\" type=\"video\/webm\"><source src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/Screen-Recording-2021-04-15-at-6.16.32-AM.mp4\" type=\"video\/mp4\"><\/video>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><small>It\u2019s convenient to have everything in one place.<\/small><\/p>\n<p>At the top of the dashboard, it shows you the results of the last ping. This includes the date and whether it successfully notified Google &amp; Bing.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196714\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196714\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/result-of-last-ping.png\" alt=\"Showing the results of the last ping.\" width=\"600\" height=\"292\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The results are precise and to the point.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>If you click on <strong>Notify Search Engines About Your Sitemap<\/strong>, it will notify the search engines immediately (although it may take a minute or two to process).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196715\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196715\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/notify-search-engines.png\" alt=\"Notify search engines about sitemaps.\" width=\"600\" height=\"292\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">It shows you if it notified the search engine with an \u201cOK.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This pings your sitemap to Google and Bing, and your content will be indexed momentarily.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ll now take a look at the <strong>Basic Options<\/strong> section. This area controls the basic configurations of the plugin.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196716\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196716\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/basic-options.png\" alt=\"Where you tweak the basic settings.\" width=\"600\" height=\"583\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">This is where you can tweak the basic settings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The section starts with <strong>Update Notification<\/strong>. In this section, you can check the boxes to notify <strong>Google<\/strong>,<strong> Bing<\/strong>, and <strong>Add sitemap URL to the virtual robots.txt.file<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The robot.txt is a file that\u2019s created to communicate with search engine crawlers. It will tell them what to index when guided through your site. It\u2019s beneficial for search engines that don\u2019t support ping notifications.<\/p>\n<p>All this being said, it\u2019s recommended checking all three boxes so it doesn\u2019t rule out any search engine.<\/p>\n<p>As we move along, there\u2019s an <strong>Advanced Options<\/strong> area.<\/p>\n<p>Here, you can <strong>increase the memory limit and execution time<\/strong>. These two options are pretty redundant; however, you can increase it here if you ever get an out-of-memory error.<\/p>\n<p>You can also configure the XSLT stylesheet. This is where you can upload a new XSLT stylesheet or disable XSLT altogether if you decide you want it to be less readable.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, you can override the URL of the sitemap. It\u2019s mostly for modifying you have sub-directories.<\/p>\n<p>And finally, you can <strong>include sitemap in HTML format<\/strong> (which is suggested to left checked) and <strong>allow anonymous statistics<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Scrolling further down the XML Sitemap admin, we get to the <strong>Additional Pages<\/strong> area.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196717\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-196717 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/additional-pages.png\" alt=\"Additional settings.\" width=\"600\" height=\"437\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Want to add more pages to your sitemap? Here is where it\u2019s done.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Additional Pages area is primarily for sub-directories and sub-domains. You can add external pages to your sitemap from here.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s simple to do. You just click <strong>Add New Page<\/strong>, specify the URL, priority, frequency, and date when the URL was last changed.<\/p>\n<p>After this section, you can adjust the <strong>Post Priority<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196718\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196718\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/post-priority.png\" alt=\"Post priority options.\" width=\"600\" height=\"245\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As you can see, you have three options to choose from here.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This area is pretty important. It communicates the critical content to search engines, so you want to have this set up well.<\/p>\n<p>Each web page has a priority level that\u2019s scored between 0 and 1, then increments of 0.1.<\/p>\n<p>The best option for this is typically the <strong>Comment Count <\/strong>option. Why? It will make your popular posts automatically receive higher priority levels. You don\u2019t want to have a meaningless blog post be the same rank as your homepage, hence the Comment Count option.<\/p>\n<p>Moving on, there\u2019s a <strong>Sitemap Content<\/strong> area.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196719\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196719\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/sitemap-content.png\" alt=\"Sitemap content options.\" width=\"600\" height=\"497\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">There are a lot of boxes you can check for this section.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This whole section is devoted to allowing you to decide which items, post types, and taxonomies you\u2019d like to include on your sitemap.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, I have the essentials checked (homepage, posts, and static pages). You can include more (e.g. author pages). Just make sure these pages have value and are worth appearing.<\/p>\n<p>You also have the option to include <strong>Excluded Items<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196720\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196720\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/excluded-items.png\" alt=\"Excluded items.\" width=\"600\" height=\"323\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can add as many excluded items as you want.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Let\u2019s say you have specific blog posts you don\u2019t want to include. Here\u2019s the area to do that. You can also exclude specific categories in this area.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s also the option to <strong>Change Frequencies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196721\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196721\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/change-frequencies.png\" alt=\"Where you change frequencies.\" width=\"600\" height=\"443\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">You can specify this by always, hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and never.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This is good to tweak, depending on how your site operates. For example, if you have several blogs posted daily, you may want to change the \u201cPosts\u201d to hourly. Or, if you rarely update at all and have just a static website, possibly yearly might do.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, you can set up <strong>Priorities<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196722\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-196722\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/priorities.png\" alt=\"The priorities section.\" width=\"600\" height=\"345\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">There\u2019s a whole range of areas on your site you can change priorities on.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I touched on this early about the specific range of priority levels, so this area lets you set up how important your content is with minimum and maximum values.<\/p>\n<p>For example, your Homepage is probably the most important page on your WordPress site, so having this set at 1.0 will be best.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, there\u2019s a lot of tweaking and adjusting you can do with the XML Sitemaps plugin. It also is an easy option &#8212; where you activate, and you\u2019re all set!<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, there are some similarities between the Google XML Sitempa and SmartCrawl &#8212; and also some significant differences!<\/p>\n<p>With all that we just went over, let\u2019s look at them, side-by-side.<\/p>\n<h2><a name=\"xml\" target=\"_blank\"><\/a>XML Sitemaps vs SmartCrawl XML Sitemap &#8211; Comparison Chart<\/h2>\n<p>This gives you a good view of what Google XML Sitemap generator and SmartCrawl include.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the comparison&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"image-grid cgrid-row\">\n<div class=\"cgrid-col cgrid-col-span-full\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_217020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" data-caption=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-217020 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/xml-sitemaps-vs-smartcrawl-sitemaps-table.png\" alt=\"Google XML Sitemap vs SmartCrawl.\" width=\"601\" height=\"931\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">As you can see, there are a few advantages of using SmartCrawl.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2>SEO&#8230;Which Plugin is Better?<\/h2>\n<p>After looking at both plugins, which one is best?<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re both beneficial for you and as a sitemap. But &#8212; <a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/smartcrawl-seo\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SmartCrawl <\/a>does offer additional options in terms of <strong>settings, reporting, <\/strong>and <strong>caching<\/strong>. It goes beyond the Google XML Sitemap limited capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Plus, as mentioned earlier, SmartCrawl includes other SEO goodies, such as schema markup, title and meta descriptions, one-click setup wizard, Hub integration, and much more!<\/p>\n<p>So, considering SmartCrawl offers other XML sitemap features AND other SEO tweaks, we\u2019d go with SmartCrawl. However, if you want simplicity, the Google XML Sitemap generator might be right for you.<\/p>\n<p>They both provide value for your WordPress SEO. And now that you\u2019ve seen the rundown of what both offer, the decision is yours!<\/p>\n<p>SEO, what\u2019s it going to be?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Google XML Sitemaps plugin is extremely popular, well-rated, and free to use. However, are its features better than our own popular, well-rated, and free-to-use plugin, SmartCrawl? This article will put these two SEO plugins to the test to see which one delivers the best results and if one outranks the other. Sure, we\u2019re more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":811449,"featured_media":196740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"blog_reading_time":"13","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_tutorials_categories":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,11260],"tags":[],"tutorials_categories":[11238],"class_list":["post-196712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutorials","category-wpmu-dev-products","tutorials_categories-smartcrawl-pro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/811449"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196712"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217018,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196712\/revisions\/217018"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/196740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196712"},{"taxonomy":"tutorials_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpmudev.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tutorials_categories?post=196712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}