XML Sitemap & Google News for WordPress Plugin Directory
XML Sitemap & Google News is a WordPress app, with a 4.4 average rating from 84 reviews, as of Jul 14, 2026.
XML Sitemap & Google News is a WordPress Plugin Directory app by Rolf Allard van Hagen. With a rating of 4.4★ from 84 reviews.
AppRanks verdict
Generated from live marketplace data — refreshed daily
XML Sitemap & Google News is a well-rated WordPress app with a limited review volume. It is listed in the Sitemap category on WordPress Plugin Directory, which AppRanks treats as the canonical taxonomy node for ranking and competitor comparison. 84 reviews put it in the early-traction tier — useful for early-stage stores willing to be on the leading edge. Early-traction review counts are sensitive to single launch periods or feature events, so a 30-day re-check before bigger commitments often resolves whether the trend is sustained. Paid-only pricing means evaluating fit on the marketplace listing or via the developer's documentation before installing. AppRanks tracks rating, review count, pricing tier, and category position daily — the figures on this page reflect the most recent scrape from the canonical WordPress Plugin Directory listing.
Pros
- +Published by Rolf Allard van Hagen — established developer track record
Cons
- −Limited review base (84) — ratings can shift significantly with new feedback
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How XML Sitemap & Google News works
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Take control of your WordPress core XML Sitemap and add a Google News Sitemap. Compatible with WordPress Multisite, Polylang and WPML and most caching plugins. There are no static files created.
NEW: Connect your site to your Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to keep an eye on sitemap performance and possible errors.
NEW: Submit your sitemaps right from the WordPress admin. Yes, you read that correctly: Sitemap Pings are back!
Features
Control the WordPress core XML Sitemaps.
Add a Google News Sitemap.
Connect your site to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to keep an eye on sitemap performance and possible errors.
Submit/ping sitemaps to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools for fast reindexation.
Add custom robots.txt rules.
XML Sitemap
Option to disable the main XML Sitemap Index.
Select sitemaps to include in the sitemap index: post types, taxonomies, authors and google news.
Select which (custom) post types, taxonomy archives and users to include in respective sitemaps.
Exclude specific posts, pages and custom post type posts from sitemaps.
Add a custom sitemap with external URLs.
Add external sitemaps.
Choose the sitemap server/generator: WordPress core or Plugin.
Plugin server: Include featured images or attached images with title.
Choose to update Last modification date only on post modification (default) or also on comments.
Sitemap stylesheet templates can be overridden by theme template files.
Google News Sitemap
Optionally activate the Google News Sitemap.
Includes the required news sitemap tags: Publication name, language, title and publication date.
Set a News Publication Name (site name by default).
Supports custom post types.
Limit inclusion of certain post categories.
Google News Sitemap stylesheet template can be overridden by theme template files.
Pro Extensions XML Sitemap Advanced
Sitemap notifier: Automatic XML Sitemap Index update notification to Google and Bing.
Sitemap notifier log
Set a custom sitemap URL (slug)
Exclude posts and pages in the Bulk Editor.
Optionally include empty taxonomy term and empty author archives
Yoast SEO and Rank Math compatibility: exclude posts set to noindex
Google News Advanced
Sitemap norifier: Automatic Google News Sitemap update notification to Google.
Sitemap notifier log
Multiple post types – Include more than one post type in the same News Sitemap.
Keywords – Add the keywords tag to your News Sitemap. Keywords can be created from Tags, Categories or a dedicated Keywords taxonomy.
Stock tickers – Add stock tickers tag to your News Sitemap. A dedicated Stock Tickers taxonomy will be available to manage them.
Privacy / GDPR This plugin does not collect any user or visitor data nor set browser cookies. Using this plugin should not impact your site privacy policy in any way.
Data that is published
An XML Sitemap index, referencing other sitemaps containing your web site’s public post URLs of selected post types that are already public, along with their last modification date and associated image URLs, and any selected public archive URLs.
An author sitemap can be included, which will contain links to author archive pages. These urls contain author/user slugs, and the author archives can contain author bio information. If you wish to keep this out of public domain, then deactivate the author sitemap and use an SEO plugin to add noindex headers to the respective archive pages.
A Google News Sitemap containing your web site’s public and recent (last 48 hours) URLs of selected news post type, along with their publication time stamp and associated image URL.
Data that is transmitted
when a connection between your site and Google Search Console is configured in this plugin, the sitemap index and google news sitemap can be submitted to Google. No data is transmitted to any third party.
Contribute If you’re happy with this plugin as it is, please consider writing a quick rating or helping other users out on the support forum.
If you wish to help build this plugin, you’re very welcome to translate it into your language or contribute code on Github.
Credits XML Sitemap Feed was originally based on the discontinued plugin Standard XML Sitemap Generator by Patrick Chia. Since then, it has been completely rewritten and extended in many ways.
NOTES:
If you do not use fancy URL’s or you have WordPress site running in a subdirectory, a dynamic robots.txt will NOT be generated.
On large sites, it is advised to use a good caching plugin to improve your site and sitemap performance.
Category rankings
As of Jul 14, 2026- Google news#0of 4Top 1%
- News#0of 35Top 1%
- Robots#0of 28Top 1%
- Sitemap#0of 64Top 1%
- Xml#0of 25Top 1%
- _browse_popular#310of 509Top 61%
See 90-day rank history for each category
Track daily rank changes, category shifts, and position volatility.
Keyword rankings
XML Sitemap & Google News ranks for 1 keywords across WordPress Plugin Directory. Here are the top 1:
- Rank #770
Competitors & alternatives
XML Sitemap & Google News doesn't have curated competitor matchups yet. Other tracked sitemap apps on WordPress:
Where XML Sitemap & Google News stands in the Sitemap category
XML Sitemap & Google News ranks #0 of 64 apps in the Sitemap category, placing it in the top 1% of the listing.
Frequently asked questions
What is XML Sitemap & Google News?
XML Sitemap & Google News is an app for WordPress. It currently holds a 4.4-star rating from 84 merchant reviews, and AppRanks has been tracking its public marketplace data on the refresh cadence published in our methodology. It is listed under the Sitemap category on AppRanks, where you can see its current category position, review-velocity trend, and how it compares against the top alternatives in the same space. Developed by Rolf Allard van Hagen.
Who uses XML Sitemap & Google News?
Currently around 100,000 active stores have installed XML Sitemap & Google News. Its review base is still building, which usually maps to early-stage merchants and stores piloting a new workflow. It is part of the Sitemap category on WordPress.