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Yoast SEO XML Sitemaps: API documentation

Whilst Yoast SEO provides sensible default behaviors for XML sitemaps (and UI controls for inclusion/exclusion), custom themes or plugins sometimes need to alter our markup or logic. In those cases, you can use the examples below to modify how our sitemaps are generated and output.

Excluding content types​

Exclude specific posts​

/**
 * Excludes posts from XML sitemaps.
 *
 * @return array The IDs of posts to exclude.
 */
function exclude_posts_from_xml_sitemaps() {
    return [ 1, 2, 3 ];
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_exclude_from_sitemap_by_post_ids', 'exclude_posts_from_xml_sitemaps' );

Exclude a post type​

/**
 * Exclude a post type from XML sitemaps.
 *
 * @param boolean $excluded  Whether the post type is excluded by default.
 * @param string  $post_type The post type to exclude.
 *
 * @return bool Whether or not a given post type should be excluded.
 */
function sitemap_exclude_post_type( $excluded, $post_type ) {
    return $post_type === 'recipes';
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_sitemap_exclude_post_type', 'sitemap_exclude_post_type', 10, 2 );

Exclude a taxonomy​

/**
 * Exclude a taxonomy from XML sitemaps.
 *
 * @param boolean $excluded Whether the taxonomy is excluded by default.
 * @param string  $taxonomy The taxonomy to exclude.
 *
 * @return bool Whether or not a given taxonomy should be excluded.
 */
function sitemap_exclude_taxonomy( $excluded, $taxonomy ) {
    return $taxonomy === 'ingredients';
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_sitemap_exclude_taxonomy', 'sitemap_exclude_taxonomy', 10, 2 );

Exclude an author​

/**
 * Excludes author with ID of 5 from author sitemaps.
 *
 * @param array $users Array of User objects to filter through.
 *
 * @return array The remaining authors.
 */
function sitemap_exclude_authors( $users ) {
   return array_filter( $users, function( $user ) {
        if ( $user->ID === 5 ) {
            return false;
        }

        return true;
    } );
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_sitemap_exclude_author', 'sitemap_exclude_authors', 10, 1 );

Exclude a taxonomy term​

/**
 * Excludes terms with ID of 3 and 11 from terms sitemaps.
 *
 * @param array $terms Array of term IDs already excluded.
 *
 * @return array The terms to exclude.
 */
function sitemap_exclude_terms( $terms ) {
    return [ 3, 11 ];
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_exclude_from_sitemap_by_term_ids', 'sitemap_exclude_terms', 10, 1 );

Adding content​

Add a custom post type​

/**
 * Adds an XML sitemap for a custom post type.
 */
function enable_custom_sitemap() {
    global $wpseo_sitemaps;
    if ( isset( $wpseo_sitemaps ) && ! empty ( $wpseo_sitemaps ) ) {
        $wpseo_sitemaps->register_sitemap( 'recipe', 'create_recipe_sitemap' );
    }
}

add_action( 'init', 'enable_custom_sitemap' );

Add additional/external XML sitemaps to the XML sitemap index​

/**
 * Writes additional/custom XML sitemap strings to the XML sitemap index.
 *
 * @param string $sitemap_custom_items XML describing one or more custom sitemaps.
 *
 * @return string The XML sitemap index with the additional XML.
 */
function add_sitemap_custom_items( $sitemap_custom_items ) {
    $sitemap_custom_items .= '
<sitemap>
<loc>http://www.example.com/external-sitemap-1.xml</loc>
<lastmod>2017-05-22T23:12:27+00:00</lastmod>
</sitemap>';
    return $sitemap_custom_items;
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_sitemap_index', 'add_sitemap_custom_items' );

Misc​

Alter the URL of an entry​

/**
 * Alters the URL structure for an example custom post type.
 *
 * @param string  $url  The URL to modify.
 * @param WP_Post $post The post object.
 *
 * @return string The modified URL.
 */
function sitemap_post_url( $url, $post ) {
    if ( $post->post_type === 'guest_authors' ) {
        return \str_replace( 'guest-authors', 'guests', $url );
    }

    return $url;
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_xml_sitemap_post_url', 'sitemap_post_url', 10, 2 );

Alter the number of sitemap entries​

/**
 * Alters the number of entries in each XML sitemap.
 *
 * @return integer The maximum entries per sitemap.
 */
 function max_entries_per_sitemap() {
    return 100;
}

add_filter( 'wpseo_sitemap_entries_per_page', 'max_entries_per_sitemap' );