Configuration, usage & debugging

CONFIGURATION

PERMISSIONS

The module permission 'administer sitemap settings' can be configured under admin/people/permissions.

SITEMAPS

It is possible to have several sitemap instances of different sitemap types with specific links accessible under certain URLs. These sitemaps can be configured under admin/config/search/simplesitemap. The module comes with the default sitemap 'default' which is accessible under /sitemap.xml by default.

SITEMAP INDEX

There is also the 'sitemap index' sitemap which is disabled by default and which can be used to index all other sitemaps. If one wanted to create an index of all sitemaps, one would enable the sitemap index, move it to the end in the sitemap list (admin/config/search/simplesitemap) and set it as the default sitemap (admin/config/search/simplesitemap/settings). Now links to all sitemaps will be available under /sitemap.xml.

SITEMAP TYPES

A sitemap type is a configuration entity consisting of one sitemap generator plugin and several URL generator plugins. These plugins can be implemented by custom modules. The module comes with the sitemap types 'default_hreflang' and 'index'. Sitemap types can be defined via the UI under admin/config/search/simplesitemap/types.

ENTITIES

Initially only the home page is indexed in the default sitemap. To include content into a sitemap, visit admin/config/search/simplesitemap/entities to enable support for entity types of your choosing. After enabling support for an entity type, indexation settings for each sitemap can be set by pressing 'Configure'. For entity type bundles, one can optionally set the indexation settings right on the bundle's configuration pages, e.g. admin/structure/types/manage/[content type] for nodes.

When including an entity type or bundle into a sitemap, the priority setting can be set which will set the 'priority' parameter for all entities of that type. Same goes for the 'changefreq' setting. All Images referenced by the entities can be indexed as well. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitemaps to learn more about these parameters.

Inclusion settings of bundles can be overridden on a per-entity basis. Just head over to a bundle instance edit form (e.g. node/1/edit) to override its sitemap settings. If you wish for the sitemap to reflect the new configuration instantly, check 'Regenerate sitemaps after clicking save'. This setting may only appear if a change in the settings has been detected.

Once sitemaps are set up in admin/config/search/simplesitemap, all the above settings can be configured and overwritten on a per sitemap basis right from the UI.

As the sitemaps are accessible to anonymous users, bear in mind that only links will be included which are accessible to anonymous users. There are no access checks for links added through the module's hooks (see below).

VIEWS

To index views, enable the included, optional module Simple XML Sitemap (Views) (simple_sitemap_views). Simple views as well as views with arguments can be indexed on a per-sitemap basis on the view edit page. For views with arguments, links to all view variants will be included in the sitemap.

CUSTOM LINKS

To include custom links into a sitemap, visit admin/config/search/simplesitemap/custom.

SEARCH ENGINES

The module can submit sitemap changes to search engines as well as notify search engines of entity changes directly. These functionalities are available through the included simple_sitemap_engines submodule. After enabling this module, go to admin/config/search/simplesitemap/engines/settings to set it up.

SITEMAP SUBMISSION

It is possible to have the module automatically submit specific sitemaps to search engines. New engines can be added programmatically via simple_sitemap_engine entities. Specific sitemaps can be submitted to specific search engines, the time interval is configurable. The industry is deprecating the sitemap ping protocol; use the IndexNow protocol if applicable.

INDEXNOW SUBMISSION

The module also supports the IndexNow service provided by Bing and Yandex. The two search engines are preconfigured and new engines can be added programmatically via simple_sitemap_engine entities. For the submission to work, a key needs to be generated under admin/config/search/simplesitemap/engines/settings. This key will be saved to Drupal's state, but it is recommended to store it in the settings.php or settings.local.php file by adding the line $settings['simple_sitemap_engines.index_now.key'] = xxx;

Do not forget to include entities under admin/config/search/simplesitemap/entities.

PERFORMANCE

The module can be tuned via UI for a vast improvement in generation speeds on huge sites. To speed up generation, go to admin/config/search/simplesitemap/settings and increase 'Entities per queue item' and 'Sitemap generation max duration'. Further things that can be tweaked are unchecking 'Exclude duplicate links' and increasing 'Maximum links in a sitemap'. These settings will increase the demand for PHP execution time and memory, so please make sure to test the sitemap generation behaviour. See 'PERFORMANCE TEST'.

OTHER SETTINGS

Other settings can be found under admin/config/search/simplesitemap/settings.

USAGE

The sitemaps are accessible to the whole world under [sitemap]/sitemap.xml. Additionally, the default sitemap is accessible under /sitemap.xml. To view the XML source, press ctrl+u.

If the cron generation is turned on, the sitemaps will be regenerated according to the 'Sitemap generation interval' setting. A manual generation is possible on admin/config/search/simplesitemap. This is also the place that shows the overall and sitemap specific generation status.

The sitemap can also be generated via drush:

• simple-sitemap:generate or ssg: Generates the sitemaps (continues generating from queue, or rebuilds queue for all sitemaps beforehand if nothing is queued).
• simple-sitemap:rebuild-queue or ssr: Deletes the queue and queues elements for all or specific sitemaps. Add --variants flag and specify a comma separated list of sitemaps if you intend to queue only specific sitemaps for the upcoming generation.

Generation of hundreds of thousands of links can take time. Each sitemap gets published as soon as all of its links have been generated. The previous version of the sitemap is accessible during the generation process.

Debugging

PERFORMANCE TEST

The module includes a script that can be used to test the sitemap generation performance. Run drush scr --uri http://example.com modules/simple_sitemap/tests/scripts/performance_test.php on your production environment to calculate generation speed and the amount of queries performed.

If testing on a non-production environment, you can generate dummy content prior to generation: drush scr --uri http://example.com modules/simple_sitemap/tests/scripts/performance_test.php -- generate 500