How to Manually Insert a Custom URL into Your Yoast SEO Sitemap
Optimizing your website’s SEO involves ensuring that all important pages and content are properly indexed by search engines. One common challenge faced by website administrators is how to include specific URLs—especially dynamically generated or custom URLs—into your sitemap for better visibility. If you’re using Yoast SEO on WordPress and need to add a custom URL to your sitemap manually, here’s a comprehensive guide to help you through the process.
Understanding the Context
Often, websites generate pages dynamically, fetching content via APIs using URL parameters such as slugs or identifiers. These pages may not automatically appear in your sitemap because they are generated on the fly or are excluded by default settings. To ensure these pages are discoverable by search engines, you may need to add them manually to your sitemap.
Why Add Custom URLs?
Including custom or dynamic URLs in your sitemap can significantly improve your site’s SEO by:
- Ensuring important content is crawled and indexed.
- Increasing visibility of dynamic pages that are vital for your website’s content strategy.
- Enhancing overall site structure for search engines.
Methods to Insert a Custom URL into Yoast SEO Sitemap
Since Yoast SEO generates sitemaps automatically, adding a specific URL not managed directly by the plugin requires some customization. Here are a few approaches:
1. Using a Filter to Extend the Sitemap
Yoast SEO provides filters that allow developers to modify the sitemap contents programmatically. By leveraging these filters, you can add custom URLs.
Example Implementation:
“`php
add_filter( ‘wpseo_sitemap_entries’, ‘add_custom_url_to_sitemap’, 10, 2 );
function add_custom_url_to_sitemap( $entries, $type ) {
if ( ‘post’ === $type ) {
$custom_url = ‘https://yourwebsite.com/your-custom-page/?param=yourparam’;
$entries[] = [
‘loc’ => $custom_url,
‘lastmod’ => date( ‘c’ ),
‘changefreq’ => ‘monthly’,
‘priority’ => 0.5,
];
}
return $entries;
}
“`
Note: Adjust the $custom_url and other parameters accordingly for your specific scenario.
2. Manually Adding a Static URL
If a single special URL needs to be added, and it is not dynamically generated frequently, you can also consider creating a