Gregius Optimizer – Sitemap

Overview

The Sitemap panel tunes how your site publishes its wp-sitemap.xml stage composition. WordPress auto-generates this file for every public post type, taxonomy, and author. Exclude low-signal content types and pages that should not appear in search results to tighten crawl budgets and direct indexer attention to your highest-value content.

All controls reside in one Block Editor sidebar panel. Changes populate the next wp-sitemap.xml request immediately — no cache flush is required.

What you can control

• Post types included in the stage composition (Posts, Pages, Products, and custom post types)
• Taxonomies included (Categories, Tags, and custom taxonomies)
• Author archive pages — enabled or suppressed
• Individual user exclusion from author sitemap entries
• Per-page noindex and sitemap exclusion

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Technical Prerequisites & Blocks

• Gregius Optimizer plugin installed and activated
• WordPress 6.9 or later

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Exclude a post type from the sitemap

Exclude a post type when it serves internal workflows and adds no value to search discovery. Internal notes, archived events, and administrative content types belong outside the public stage composition.

1. Open any post or page in the Block Editor.
2. Locate the Sitemap panel in the right sidebar. If you don’t see it, check that the post type supports custom fields.
3. Click Settings to open the configuration modal.
4. Under Post types, find the post type you want to exclude.
5. Toggle the switch to off.
6. Click Update to save.

The post type drops from wp-sitemap.xml immediately. Existing posts of that type remain accessible by direct URL — only indexer visibility is removed.

Re-enable a post type

1. Open the Sitemap modal again.
2. Toggle the post type back to on.
3. Click Update.

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Exclude a taxonomy from the sitemap

Categories and Tags are suppressed by default to keep the stage composition lean. Enable them only when they carry unique, substantive content worth indexing. Exclude any taxonomy that adds crawl noise.

1. Open the Sitemap modal from the Block Editor sidebar.
2. Scroll to the Taxonomies section.
3. Toggle each taxonomy on or off as needed.
4. Click Update.

Note: Sparse taxonomies — those with fewer than a handful of entries — dilute crawl budget and produce thin-content index signals. Enable only when the taxonomy pages carry original, substantial body content.

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Enable the author sitemap

Author archives are suppressed by default. Enable them only when individual author pages carry distinct, indexed content — then selectively exclude authors who have not published or whose work should remain outside search visibility.

1. Open the Sitemap modal.
2. Under Author sitemap, toggle Include author page in sitemap to on.
3. A list of all authors appears below the toggle.
4. Toggle individual authors off to exclude them from the sitemap.
5. Click Update.

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Hide a page from search engines

Mark any page or post as hidden from search engines. Gregius Optimizer inserts a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag and strips the URL from all sitemaps in one action.

1. Open the post in the Block Editor.
2. In the Sitemap panel, find the Hide page from search engines toggle.
3. Toggle it to on.
4. Update or publish the post.

• The page gets a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag.
• The page is excluded from wp-sitemap.xml.
• The page remains accessible via direct link.

Tip: Apply to thank-you pages, admin-only content, low-quality posts, and any URL that should not consume crawl budget.

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Reset to defaults

Restore all toggles to their original composition:

1. Open the Sitemap modal.
2. Click Reset to defaults.
3. The button is disabled when no overrides exist — a grayed-out control confirms you are at default settings.

This reverts all post type, taxonomy, and author toggles to their original composition. The per-page “Hide from search engines” setting on individual posts is unaffected.

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Permissions

Action	Required capability
View sitemap settings	manage_options
Update sitemap settings	manage_options
Hide a post from search engines	edit_post (on that post)

Global sitemap configuration requires manage_options capability — administrators and super admins. Content editors with edit_post can suppress their own posts from search visibility.

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