Language Sitemaps for TranslatePress

A separate XML sitemap for each language — so you don't have to search for your translated URLs in the main index.

If your WordPress site has multiple languages, that doesn't automatically mean you can test each language version separately. With TranslatePress and language directories such as /en/ or /fr/ Technically, the URLs are all on the same website. This is convenient for people. However, it often means there isn't a separate entry point for each language when it comes to sitemaps, robots.txt, and cache warm-up.

You'll notice this, at the very latest, when you try to answer a simple question: Which English URLs are in the sitemap? Which language versions does the robots.txt file promote? Which list of URLs gets a cache warm-up? Language Sitemaps for TranslatePress Instead, it creates separate XML sitemap indexes for each published TranslatePress language, without replacing the normal Rank Math index.

What the plugin does

• One sitemap index per language: for example sitemap_index_en.xml, sitemap_index_fr.xml or sitemap_index_de.xml.
• Language-specific child sitemaps: per post type and taxonomy, for example sitemap_en_post_1.xml or sitemap_en_product_1.xml.
• Rank Math rules remain in effect: deactivated post types and taxonomies, noindex-Exclusions and items_per_page will be covered.
• robots.txt Advertising: The language indexes are automatically listed in the robots.txt file.
• Optional NitroPack Warmup Index: nitro-warmup-sitemap.xml plus wp localized-sitemaps sync-nitro.
• WP-CLI Check: wp localized-sitemaps list-indexes shows the available sitemap endpoints.

In production use

The plugin was developed for the rollout of one of my clients’ websites using TranslatePress, Rank Math, and NitroPack. There, for example, it generates an English sitemap index with six child sitemaps. The robots.txt file points to the English language index; the Rank Math root index remains unchanged. Since then, I’ve used this plugin in all my multilingual projects that utilize TranslatePress and Rank Math.

Prerequisites

• WordPress 6.0 or later
• PHP 7.4 or later
• TranslatePress with Directory URLs
• Rank Math SEO
• Use NitroPack only if you want to use the separate warm-up index. If necessary, or if there is demand, the extension could in principle be implemented for caching solutions with a sitemap-based warm-up option.

Downloads, Updates, and Open Source

The download is free. When you place a 0-euro order, you'll receive a license key; once you activate it in the plugin list, updates will be delivered through the standard WordPress update mechanism.

The source code is open source under the GPL v2.0 or later: github.com/s-a-s-k-i-a/localized-sitemap-indexes. Installable ZIP files are also available on the GitHub Releases page.

Conscious Boundaries

• No hreflang annotations in the XML sitemap. The plugin builds discovery paths, not alternate logic.
• No separate domain setup per language. The scope is TranslatePress directory URLs.
• No parity with every Rank Math specialty provider, such as Author, News, or Video sitemaps.
• No ranking guarantees. A sitemap helps with discoverability and auditability; it does not guarantee indexing or better rankings.

Verification