On November 17, Chrome 158 stops reading the little stylesheet that turns your WordPress sitemap into a neat, clickable table. Open your sitemap after that day and you’ll see a wall of XML code instead. It looks broken. It isn’t, and Google doesn’t care at all.
In 30 seconds
- Chrome 158 (November 17, 2026) removes XSLT, the technology that styles XML files in the browser. Firefox and Safari plan to do the same.
- WordPress’s own sitemap (wp-sitemap.xml) uses it, and so do most SEO plugins, ours included. Opened in Chrome, they’ll show raw XML instead of a table.
- Search engines never used that styling. Your sitemap keeps working exactly as before: nothing to fix for SEO.
- If you’d like a page people can read, add an HTML sitemap or remove the stylesheet line. Both are below.
What’s changing, and when
XSLT is an old web standard from 1999: a file can say “display me with this stylesheet”, and the browser turns the XML into a readable page. Almost nobody uses it anymore, except for one very visible thing: sitemaps. Chrome decided it isn’t worth the security risk of keeping it alive, and is removing it step by step.
- Dec 2, 2025 Chrome 143 officially deprecates XSLT and starts showing warnings.
- Aug 25, 2026 Chrome 152 opens an origin trial for the few sites that really need more time.
- Nov 17, 2026 Chrome 158: XSLT stops working for everyone else. Styled sitemaps show as raw XML.
- Aug 17, 2027 Chrome 176: the last exceptions (origin trial and enterprise policy) end. XSLT is gone for good.
Firefox and Safari have said they’ll remove it too, so this isn’t a Chrome quirk you can wait out.
Does it hurt your SEO?
No. A sitemap is written for search engines, and Googlebot, Bingbot and the others read the XML itself. The stylesheet was only ever a convenience for humans who open the file in a browser. Your sitemap URL, its content, its submission in Search Console: none of that changes.
The only real risk is a human one: someone opens the sitemap, sees code, thinks the site is broken, and starts “fixing” things. If you manage sites for clients, it’s worth a short heads-up before the 17th.
Which WordPress sitemaps are concerned?
To check yours, open the sitemap and look at its source (Ctrl+U or Cmd+Option+U). If you see a line starting with <?xml-stylesheet near the top, it’s styled with XSLT.
What to do (pick one)
1. Nothing. Honestly, that’s the right answer for most sites. Search engines are fine, and very few visitors ever open a sitemap.
2. Give humans a real page. If people do use your sitemap to find their way around (documentation, big archives), publish an HTML sitemap page instead: a normal WordPress page listing your sections and posts. Many SEO plugins and themes can generate one, and it will keep working in every browser.
3. Remove the stylesheet from the WordPress core sitemap. If you’d rather see clean XML than a broken-looking page, WordPress has two filters for it. Add this to your theme’s functions.php, or to a small code snippet:
add_filter( 'wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_url', '__return_false' );
add_filter( 'wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_index_url', '__return_false' );Browsers then display the sitemap as plain XML, which is what it really is. For a plugin’s sitemap, check its settings or its developer’s plans rather than editing its files: an update would undo your change anyway.
The bigger picture
I like this kind of change, even if it’s a little annoying. Browsers are dropping old features that few people use but attackers love, and XSLT has had its share of security holes. The sitemap table was nice, but it was never the point of a sitemap. Keep it enabled, keep it submitted in Search Console, and let it look as nerdy as it wants 🙂
Will Google stop reading my sitemap after November 17? No. Google reads the XML directly and never used the stylesheet. Nothing changes in Search Console.
Should I disable my sitemap so it doesn’t look broken? No, keep it. The sitemap helps search engines find your pages; the look only mattered to humans.
Is it only Chrome? Chrome goes first on November 17, 2026, and Edge follows Chrome. Firefox and Safari have announced they’ll remove XSLT as well.
Sources: Chrome for Developers, Removing XSLT for a more secure browser · WordPress developer reference: wp_sitemaps_stylesheet_url
