OSMap Documentation

How to Exclude a Single Joomla Article from an OSMap XML Sitemap

If you want to exclude a single Joomla article from the OSMap XML sitemap, you can do this using the Joomla Robots settings.

The most reliable method is to create a dedicated menu item for the article and then set the article Robots option to noindex, nofollow.

This guide explains the complete process.

Step 1: Create a Dedicated Menu Item for the Article

  • In Joomla administrator, go to Menus > Your Menu > Add New Menu Item.
  • Select Articles > Single Article as the menu item type.
  • Select the article you want to exclude from the XML sitemap.
  • Optionally, set the menu item not to be displayed in the frontend menu. To do this, set Link Type > Display in Menu to No. This allows Joomla and OSMap to use the menu item internally for routing while keeping it hidden from your site's navigation menu.
  • Save the menu item.

Step 2: Set the Article Robots Parameter

  • Go to Content > Articles > Your Article.
  • Open the Publishing tab.
  • Find the Robots setting.
  • Set it to noindex, nofollow.
  • Save the article.

Step 3: Clear Joomla Cache

  • Go to System > Clear Cache.
  • Clear the Joomla cache.
  • Delete expired cache items if necessary.

Step 4: Regenerate or Refresh the XML Sitemap

  • Open your OSMap XML sitemap in the browser.
  • For example: https://www.example.com/index.php?option=com_osmap&view=xml&id=1
  • Check whether the article URL is still listed. The article should no longer appear in the XML sitemap.

Important Note About Category Blog Menu Items

If the article is included in the sitemap through a Joomla Category Blog menu item, the article-level Robots setting will not be respected.

In some situations:

  • Global Configuration = index, follow
  • Category Blog menu item = index, follow
  • Article = noindex, nofollow

This may still allow the article URL to appear in the XML sitemap.

However, when the article has its own dedicated Single Article menu item, the article-level Robots setting works reliably.

Because of this, creating a dedicated menu item for the article is currently the safest method.

XML Sitemap vs HTML Sitemap

This guide applies only to the OSMap XML sitemap.

The OSMap HTML sitemap behaves differently.

Even if an article is excluded from the XML sitemap, it may still appear in the HTML sitemap depending on your configuration.

Final Notes

OSMap respects Joomla Robots settings for XML sitemap visibility.

However, sitemap behavior can vary depending on how Joomla generates the article URL.

Using a dedicated Single Article menu item currently provides the most reliable method for excluding a single article from the XML sitemap.