WordPress doesn't generate XML sitemaps by default in most versions, so you need a plugin or manual code. The fastest route is installing Yoast SEO, RankMath, or All in One SEO. Once activated, navigate to the plugin's settings, enable XML sitemaps (usually a toggle under SEO > General or Features), and the plugin auto-generates a sitemap at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml or a similar URL shown in the settings panel. After enabling, copy that sitemap URL and submit it in Google Search Console under Sitemaps and in Bing Webmaster Tools. This tells search engines where to find your updated content. Most plugins automatically update the sitemap when you publish or update posts and pages, so you don't touch it again unless you exclude specific content types like tags or media attachments. If you run WordPress 5.5 or newer, core includes a basic sitemap at yoursite.com/wp-sitemap.xml. It works for simple sites but lacks customization—you can't exclude post types, set priority, or add change frequency. For any site beyond a personal blog, a dedicated plugin gives you control over what's indexed and avoids bloating the sitemap with irrelevant URLs. At Ottawa SEO, we typically use RankMath on client sites because it handles sitemap splits for large catalogs (e.g., separate sitemaps for posts, pages, products) and integrates schema markup in the same tool. For a 200-page site, the default plugin sitemap is fine. For a 5,000-product WooCommerce store, you want granular control to keep each sitemap under the 50,000 URL limit and prioritize money pages. One common mistake: forgetting to check your robots.txt file. If a previous developer or plugin blocked the sitemap path, search engines won't fetch it. Visit yoursite.com/robots.txt and confirm there's no Disallow line covering /sitemap or the specific sitemap URL. Also verify in Search Console a week after submission that Google actually crawled URLs from the sitemap—submission doesn't guarantee indexing, but it speeds discovery.