by Gunjan Jaswal 4 (1 reviews)

Lightweight Newscast XML Sitemap For Google News

Name: Lightweight Newscast XML Sitemap For Google News
Rating: 4.0 (1 reviews)
Author: Gunjan Jaswal

Generates a Google News compatible XML sitemap for WordPress sites to be submitted to Google Search Console for better news content indexing.

Lightweight Newscast XML Sitemap For Google News ranks #14,734 among WordPress.org plugins with 100+ active installations, is #583 of 3,803 in the SEO & Marketing category, a 4/5 rating from 1 reviews, and was last updated Sep 5, 2026. Data from WordPress.org, refreshed twice daily — see methodology.

Compatible with WP 7.1.2

v1.3.3 Current Version v1.3.3

Updated 2 weeks ago Last Update on 05 Sep, 2026

Refreshed 9 hours ago Last Refreshed on

#583 of 3,803 in SEO & Marketing Top 25% by installs Downloads -38.1% this week Actively maintained

View on WordPress.org

Rank

#14,734

+99 this week

Active Installs

100+

-10.7%

KW Avg Position

58.5

1.7 worse

Downloads

1.7K

+2 today

Support Resolved

— No change

Rating

80%

Review 4 out of 5

4 (1 reviews)

Next Milestone 200

Total Progress 56%

100+ 200+

2,030

Ranks to Climb

Growth Needed

8,000,000

Active Installs

Pro

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Rank Changes

Current #14,734

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Active Installs Growth

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Active Installs 0,000,000+

Growth +0.0%

Peak 0,000,000

Downloads Growth

Downloads

Growth

Peak

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Reviews & Ratings

4.0

1 reviews

Overall 80%

0 (0%)

1 (100%)

0 (0%)

Security History

Source: WPVulnerability

No known vulnerabilities on record for Lightweight Newscast XML Sitemap For Google News. Checked 1 month ago.

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Plugin Details

Version: 1.3.3
Last Updated: Sep 05, 2026
Requires WP: 5.0+
Tested Up To: 7.1.2
PHP Version: 7.4 or higher
Author: Gunjan Jaswal

Support & Rating

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆ 4
Reviews: 1
Support Threads: 0
Resolved: 0%

Keywords

google news news seo sitemap xml sitemap

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XML Sitemap Generator for Google

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TL;DR

AI summary of the plugin's readme

This plugin is for news publishers, magazine sites, and SEO professionals managing news content on WordPress. It generates a Google News compatible XML sitemap so search engines can discover and index news content more efficiently.

Google News compatible XML sitemap
Compatible with Yoast SEO, Rank Math, All in One SEO
Respects noindex settings
SEO title support
Category and tag include/exclude control
Featured image sitemap support
Automatic updates with caching
Sitemap health panel

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Lightweight Newscast XML Sitemap For Google News

Go to Google Search Console Add your website property and verify ownership Navigate to Sitemaps section in the left menu Submit your sitemap URL (http://yoursite.com/lightweight-newscast-xml-sitemap-for-google-news.xml) Wait for Google to crawl and index your content

Yes! This plugin is specifically designed to work alongside popular SEO plugins like Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All in One SEO without conflicts.

If you encounter issues with the pretty permalink (/lightweight-newscast-xml-sitemap-for-google-news.xml), you can use the alternative query parameter URL (/?news_sitemap_google_news=1).

Yes! You can configure post types, maximum age of posts, categories to include, categories and tags to exclude, and the maximum number of posts to include in the sitemap. You can also exclude an individual post using the "Exclude from Google News sitemap" checkbox in the post editor.

Open Settings > Lightweight Newscast XML Sitemap For Google News and check the Sitemap Health panel, which lists the articles currently in the sitemap and their age. A post is left out when any of these apply: It was published more than 48 hours ago (Google News only accepts articles from the last 2 days). It sits in an excluded category or carries an excluded tag, or has the per-post exclude box ticked. It is set to "noindex" in Rank Math or Yoast, and "Respect SEO noindex" is enabled. The sitemap is being served from cache or a page cache/CDN. Click "Clear Sitemap Cache" and purge any caching plugin or CDN, then reload.

Yes. When a post is marked noindex in Rank Math or Yoast SEO, it is kept out of the news sitemap by default. You can turn this off on the settings screen.

Yes! The plugin generates XML sitemaps in the exact format required by Google News, including proper publication name and language tags with fallback values.

The plugin uses the timezone configured in your WordPress General Settings (Settings > General > Timezone).