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Sitemaps

InspireCMS includes built-in sitemap generation to improve SEO and help search engines discover and index your content efficiently. This guide explains how to configure and customize your sitemap.

Sitemap Overview

A sitemap is an XML file that lists URLs for a site along with metadata about each URL so that search engines can more intelligently crawl the site. InspireCMS can:

  • Generate XML sitemaps automatically
  • Include all public content
  • Set update frequency and priority
  • Create multilingual sitemap entries
  • Support image and video sitemaps
  • Configure custom sitemap entries

Default Sitemap

By default, InspireCMS creates a sitemap at:

https://your-domain.com/sitemap.xml

This sitemap includes:

  • All published content pages
  • Language variations (for multilingual sites)
  • Last modified dates
  • Dynamic update frequency based on content type

Sitemap Configuration

Configure basic sitemap settings in your config file:

// config/inspirecms.php
'sitemap' => [
    'generator' => \SolutionForest\InspireCms\Sitemap\SitemapGenerator::class,
    'file_path' => public_path('sitemap.xml'),
],

Managing Sitemaps

Accessing Sitemap Settings

Manage sitemap configuration through the admin interface:

Admin Panel → Settings → Sitemap

Content Inclusion Rules

Control which content appears in your sitemap through two available methods:

Method 1: Content Management via CMS

  1. Navigate to CMS > Content
  2. Select your content and go to the "Sitemap" tab
  3. Configure sitemap settings specific to that content:
    • Toggle inclusion in sitemap
    • Set custom priority and change frequency
    • Add special sitemap metadata

Method 2: Manual URL Addition

  1. Go to Settings → Sitemap
  2. Manually add specific URLs you want to include
  3. For each URL, configure:
    • Priority level
    • Change frequency
    • Last modification date
    • Language/locale information

These two methods can be used complementarily - the CMS method manages existing content pages, while the manual method allows you to add any additional URLs that might not be part of your standard content structure.

Prioritizing Content

Set priorities for different content types:

  1. Higher priority (closer to 1.0) for important pages
  2. Mid-range priority (0.5-0.8) for regular content
  3. Lower priority (below 0.5) for less important pages

Example settings:

Content Type Change Frequency Priority
Homepage weekly 1.0
Main sections weekly 0.8
Regular pages monthly 0.5
Archive yearly 0.3

Sitemap Customization

Custom Generator

Create a custom sitemap generator for specialized needs:

namespace App\Services;

use SolutionForest\InspireCms\Sitemap\SitemapGenerator as BaseSitemapGenerator;

class CustomSitemapGenerator extends BaseSitemapGenerator
{
    protected function getAllAvailableSitemapData(): array
    {
        $data = parent::getAllAvailableSitemapData();
        
        // Add custom URLs
        $data[] = [
            'url' => url('/custom-page'),
            'lastmod' => now()->toAtomString(),
            'changefreq' => 'weekly',
            'priority' => '0.8',
            'code' => 'en-US',
        ];
        
        return $data;
    }
}

Register your custom generator:

// config/inspirecms.php
'sitemap' => [
    'generator' => \App\Services\CustomSitemapGenerator::class,
    'file_path' => public_path('sitemap.xml'),
],

Sitemap Generation

Manual Generation

Generate the sitemap manually:

php artisan inspirecms:generate-sitemap

Scheduled Generation

Configure automatic sitemap generation:

// app/Console/Kernel.php
protected function schedule(Schedule $schedule)
{
    // Generate sitemap daily at midnight
    $schedule->command('inspirecms:generate-sitemap')->daily();
}

Automatic Generation

The sitemap is automatically regenerated when:

  • A sitemap model is created
  • A sitemap model is updated
  • A sitemap model is deleted

This ensures your sitemap always reflects the latest changes without manual intervention.

Best Practices

  1. Regular Updates: Keep your sitemap fresh by regenerating it when content changes
  2. Prioritize Logically: Set priorities based on the importance of content
  3. Exclude Private Content: Don't include login-protected or internal pages
  4. Use Change Frequency: Set realistic update frequencies for different content types
  5. Submit to Search Engines: Register your sitemap with Google, Bing, and other search engines
  6. Monitor Coverage: Check search engine consoles for sitemap coverage issues
  7. Validate XML: Ensure your sitemap follows the sitemap protocol specifications
  8. Avoid Oversized Sitemaps: Split large sitemaps if they exceed 50,000 URLs or 50MB

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Sitemap Not Updating

Check that:

  • Your scheduled task is running
  • The sitemap file is writable by the web server
  • There are no PHP errors during generation

Missing Content

Verify that:

  • Content is published and public
  • Content is not excluded from the sitemap
  • Content passes any custom inclusion rules

Invalid XML

Ensure that:

  • Special characters are properly encoded
  • The sitemap follows the XML sitemap protocol
  • All URLs are properly formatted

Validation Tools

Validate your sitemap with:

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