About this plugin
Pic-Time Connect automatically generates comprehensive image sitemaps for all your Pic-Time photo galleries, helping search engines discover and index your images for better SEO performance.
Key Features
- 🎯 Smart SEO Analysis – Automatically detects and processes Pic-Time galleries
- 📱 WordPress Integration – Seamlessly integrates with WordPress 5.5+ sitemap system
- ⚡ Performance Optimized – Focused data processing for faster sitemap generation
- 🔧 Selective Mode – Choose which galleries to include in sitemaps
- 🌐 Multiple Formats – Supports both standalone and WordPress-integrated sitemaps
- 🛡️ SEO Plugin Compatible – Works alongside popular SEO plugins
- 🔍 Robots.txt Management – Advanced troubleshooting and diagnostics tools
How It Works
The plugin scans your posts and pages for Pic-Time gallery embed codes, extracts image data from the Pic-Time API, and generates XML sitemaps that search engines can easily crawl and index. This helps improve your images’ visibility in search results.
Sitemap Integration
- WordPress Sitemap Integration: Images appear in your main WordPress sitemap index ( /wp-sitemap.xml )
- Standalone Sitemaps: Alternative endpoints for maximum compatibility
- Robots.txt Integration: Automatically adds sitemap URLs to your robots.txt file
Robots.txt Management
- Diagnostic Tool: One-click testing and automatic fix attempts
- Platform-Specific Guides: Instructions for WordPress.com, WP Engine, Kinsta, and more
- SEO Plugin Integration: Step-by-step guides for Yoast, Rank Math, SEOPress, and others
- Force Add Option: Override SEO plugin conflicts when needed
Selective Gallery Mode
Control which galleries are included in your sitemaps using the data-pt-sitemap="true" attribute on gallery embed codes. Perfect for:
- Privacy control for personal galleries
- Improved performance with fewer galleries
- Strategic SEO management
Developer Features
- Comprehensive debug logging
- Action hooks and filters for customization
- SEO plugin compatibility detection
- Maintenance tools for troubleshooting
External Services
This plugin connects to external services provided by Pic-Time to function properly:
Pic-Time Update Service
- Service: Pic-Time Plugin Update Server
- URL: https://pictime1system.blob.core.windows.net/pictures/pt_wordpress_plugins/version.json
- Purpose: To check for plugin updates and display notifications to administrators
- Data Sent: Plugin version number and site URL (for compatibility checking)
- When: Once daily via WordPress cron, or when manually checked by administrators
- Privacy Policy: https://www.pic-time.com/privacy-policy
- Terms of Service: https://www.pic-time.com/terms-of-service
Pic-Time Gallery API
- Service: Pic-Time Image Data API
- Purpose: To fetch image metadata from your Pic-Time galleries for sitemap generation
- Data Sent: Gallery IDs extracted from your embed codes
- When: When generating sitemaps or when pages containing Pic-Time galleries are processed
- Privacy Policy: https://www.pic-time.com/privacy-policy
- Terms of Service: https://www.pic-time.com/terms-of-service
This plugin only functions with existing Pic-Time gallery accounts and embed codes. No data is sent without your explicit configuration of Pic-Time galleries on your website.
Support
For support with this plugin, please visit the Pic-Time support forum.
For Pic-Time account and gallery-related questions, please contact Pic-Time support.
Privacy Policy
This plugin does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data. It only processes publicly available image URLs from your Pic-Time galleries to generate search engine sitemaps.
Third-Party Services
This plugin communicates with Pic-Time’s servers to retrieve image metadata for sitemap generation. Please review Pic-Time’s Privacy Policy for information about their data handling practices.
Development
This plugin follows WordPress coding standards and best practices:
- Full internationalization support with proper text domains
- Secure coding practices with proper input validation and output escaping
- WordPress filesystem API usage for file operations
- Proper database query optimization with caching
- SEO plugin compatibility detection and handling
- Comprehensive error handling and logging
Technical Requirements
- WordPress 5.0 or higher (5.5+ recommended for full sitemap integration)
- PHP 7.4 or higher
- Active Pic-Time galleries on your website
- Public site visibility for robots.txt integration
Credits
Developed by Shahaf Wieder with Claude AI assistance.
Special thanks to the Pic-Time team for API support and integration guidance.