In short. Exclude an entity on its edit form for each relevant sitemap, save the settings, and regenerate the sitemap to publish the change.
Definition: To exclude an individual Drupal entity, such as a content page, select its exclusion option in Simple XML Sitemap on the edit form, save, and regenerate the sitemap. Bundle settings supply the default inclusion controls for groups such as content types.
Key facts
- As of 17 October 2026, the project's release 4.2.3 configuration documentation describes bundle defaults and individual overrides, configurable separately for each sitemap.
- The module's entity form handler offers an exclusion choice and marks the bundle's default option.
- The form access code accepts either the
administer sitemap settingsoredit entity sitemap settingspermission for access to entity sitemap controls.
Where are the default inclusion controls?
Drupal's Entity API documentation calls an individual item an entity and a subtype a bundle. For content pages, bundles are content types.
The project's configuration documentation identifies these administration paths:
admin/config/search/simplesitemap/entities
admin/structure/types/manage/[content type]
The first enables entity type support and provides a Configure action for sitemap settings. The second provides bundle settings for a content type.
The bundle form handler supplies inclusion and exclusion options for entities of that bundle in each sitemap. Selecting exclusion there applies the control at the content type level.
How is one entity excluded?
The project's README gives node/1/edit as an example entity edit path. The actual edit form belongs to the item being excluded.
In its Simple XML Sitemap settings, select the exclusion choice for the relevant sitemap and save the entity. The entity form handler constructs the label from “Do not index this”, the bundle name, and the sitemap name. Its save handler stores settings separately for each sitemap.
For exclusion across several sitemaps, apply the choice to each relevant sitemap. The option marked “default” reflects the bundle setting.
How is the exclusion verified?
The regeneration control is labelled “Regenerate all sitemaps after hitting Save”. Selecting it requests generation with the changed settings; this checkbox requires administer sitemap settings.
The project's usage instructions also place manual generation and generation status at:
admin/config/search/simplesitemap
After generation finishes, inspect the relevant sitemap's XML for the entity URL. The default sitemap is available at /sitemap.xml. The previous sitemap remains accessible during generation, so checking before publication can show the old URL list.
Related terms
- XML sitemap
- How do I generate a sitemap with Drupal Simple XML Sitemap?
- How does Drupal Simple XML Sitemap handle translations?
- How do I set noindex on a Drupal content page?
FAQ
Why are the individual entity controls disabled?
The entity form handler disables these fields when the bundle is excluded. To manage individual exceptions within an included content type, enable bundle inclusion first.
Does sitemap exclusion remove a page from Google Search?
Sitemap exclusion controls membership in the sitemap. Google's noindex documentation describes noindex as the rule for preventing indexing, supplied through a meta tag or HTTP response header. Google must be able to crawl the page to read that rule.
Sources
- Simple XML Sitemap project, "README.md", release 4.2.3
- Simple XML Sitemap project, "EntityFormHandler.php", release 4.2.3
- Simple XML Sitemap project, "BundleEntityFormHandler.php", release 4.2.3
- Simple XML Sitemap project, "FormHelper.php", release 4.2.3
- Drupal core, "Entity API", release 11.2.0
- Google Search Central, "Block Search indexing with noindex", 10 December 2025
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