## **🔍 Overview**

If your **video-sitemap.xml** or **news-sitemap.xml** is returning an empty URL set despite having published video pages or recent news articles on your site, the most common cause is that the relevant **custom post types have not been enabled** in your sitemap settings. This article walks you through how to identify and fix the issue.

## **❓ Why Are My Sitemaps Empty?**

Search Atlas generates video and news sitemaps based on the post types you explicitly select in the sitemap configuration. By default, only standard post types (such as **Posts** and **Pages**) may be active. If your video content or news articles live inside a custom post type, those URLs will be excluded from the sitemap until you enable them manually.

Common scenarios where this happens include:

- Video content is stored in a custom post type such as **Videos**, **Media Posts**, or a plugin-generated type.
- News articles are published under a custom post type rather than the default **Posts** type.
- A recent site migration or plugin change created new post types that were never added to the sitemap settings.

## **🛠️ How to Enable Custom Post Types in Your Sitemap Settings**

1. Log in to your **WordPress admin** panel for your connected site.
2. Navigate to **Search Atlas → Settings** to open the sitemap settings area.
3. Locate the section for the sitemap type that is empty — either the video sitemap or the news sitemap.
4. Find the option to select or enable post types for that sitemap. You should see a list of post types registered on your site.
5. Enable each custom post type that contains your video or news content.
6. Save your settings using the available save option in the interface.
7. If a sitemap regeneration option is available, trigger it; otherwise, wait for the next scheduled refresh.
8. Once regenerated, visit your **video-sitemap.xml** or **news-sitemap.xml** URL directly in your browser to confirm URLs are now appearing.

## **✅ How to Verify the Fix Worked**

After saving and regenerating, confirm the following:

- Open **yourdomain.com/video-sitemap.xml** or **yourdomain.com/news-sitemap.xml** in your browser. You should now see a list of URLs matching your published content.
- The number of URLs listed should reflect your published posts in those custom post types.
- If you use **Google Search Console**, resubmit your sitemap after the fix to prompt Google to recrawl.

## **💡 Tips to Prevent This Issue**

- Whenever you install a new plugin that registers additional post types, review your sitemap settings to ensure those types are included if needed.
- After any site migration, audit your sitemap configuration to confirm all relevant post types are still enabled.

If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type **human teammate** to be connected with a member of our team.