diff --git a/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/createSitemaps.test.ts b/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/createSitemaps.test.ts
index 1827cff8e..d2fec7115 100644
--- a/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/createSitemaps.test.ts
+++ b/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/createSitemaps.test.ts
@@ -15,18 +15,17 @@ describe('createRootSitemapIndex', () => {
     process.env = envBackup;
   });
 
-  const invalidSitemapIndexXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="//headless.local/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/main-sitemap.xsl"?>
+  const invalidSitemapIndexXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!-- XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO -->`;
 
-  const validSitemapIndex1RecordXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="//headless.local/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/main-sitemap.xsl"?>
+  const validSitemapIndex1RecordXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
     <sitemap>
       <loc>http://headless.local/post-sitemap.xml</loc>
     </sitemap>
-  </sitemapindex>
-  <!-- XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO -->`;
+  </sitemapindex>`;
 
-  const validSitemapIndexXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="//headless.local/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/main-sitemap.xsl"?>
+  const validSitemapIndexXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
     <sitemap>
       <loc>http://headless.local/post-sitemap.xml</loc>
@@ -41,8 +40,7 @@ describe('createRootSitemapIndex', () => {
       <loc>http://headless.local/author-sitemap.xml</loc>
       <lastmod>2021-12-17T16:56:55+00:00</lastmod>
     </sitemap>
-  </sitemapindex>
-  <!-- XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO -->`;
+  </sitemapindex>`;
 
   it('returns undefined when the response to the WP sitemap is not ok', async () => {
     jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce(() => {
@@ -86,10 +84,7 @@ describe('createRootSitemapIndex', () => {
   });
 
   it('ignores sitemaps that match the sitemapPathsToIgnore property', async () => {
-    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(
-      sitemapUtils,
-      'createSitemapIndex',
-    );
+    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemapIndex');
     jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce(() => {
       return Promise.resolve({
         ok: true,
@@ -123,10 +118,7 @@ describe('createRootSitemapIndex', () => {
   });
 
   it('ignores sitemaps that match a sitemapPathsToIgnore wildcard', async () => {
-    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(
-      sitemapUtils,
-      'createSitemapIndex',
-    );
+    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemapIndex');
     jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce(() => {
       return Promise.resolve({
         ok: true,
@@ -160,10 +152,7 @@ describe('createRootSitemapIndex', () => {
   });
 
   it('returns the proper sitemap urls with replacing URLs', async () => {
-    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(
-      sitemapUtils,
-      'createSitemapIndex',
-    );
+    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemapIndex');
     jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce(() => {
       return Promise.resolve({
         ok: true,
@@ -211,10 +200,7 @@ describe('createRootSitemapIndex', () => {
    * configured properly. Ensure it returns an array of URLs
    */
   it('returns the proper sitemap urls with only 1 record', async () => {
-    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(
-      sitemapUtils,
-      'createSitemapIndex',
-    );
+    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemapIndex');
     jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce(() => {
       return Promise.resolve({
         ok: true,
@@ -242,6 +228,132 @@ describe('createRootSitemapIndex', () => {
 
     expect(createSitemapIndexSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expectedSitemaps);
   });
+
+  // New tests for sitemapIndexPath feature
+
+  it('uses the default sitemapIndexPath when none is provided', async () => {
+    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemapIndex');
+    jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce((url) => {
+      expect(url).toBe('http://headless.local/sitemap.xml');
+      return Promise.resolve({
+        ok: true,
+        status: 200,
+        text: () => Promise.resolve(validSitemapIndexXML),
+      }) as Promise<Response>;
+    });
+
+    const req = {
+      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml',
+    } as NextRequest;
+
+    const config: GetSitemapPropsConfig = {
+      frontendUrl: 'http://localhost:3000',
+    };
+
+    await createSitemaps.createRootSitemapIndex(req, config);
+
+    const expectedSitemaps = [
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=post-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=page-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=category-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=author-sitemap.xml',
+        lastmod: '2021-12-17T16:56:55+00:00',
+      },
+    ];
+
+    expect(createSitemapIndexSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expectedSitemaps);
+  });
+
+  it('uses the custom sitemapIndexPath when provided', async () => {
+    jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce((url) => {
+      expect(url).toBe('http://headless.local/custom-sitemap-index.xml');
+      return Promise.resolve({
+        ok: true,
+        status: 200,
+        text: () => Promise.resolve(validSitemapIndexXML),
+      }) as Promise<Response>;
+    });
+
+    const req = {
+      url: 'http://localhost:3000/custom-sitemap-index.xml',
+    } as NextRequest;
+
+    const config: GetSitemapPropsConfig = {
+      frontendUrl: 'http://localhost:3000',
+      sitemapIndexPath: '/custom-sitemap-index.xml',
+    };
+
+    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemapIndex');
+
+    await createSitemaps.createRootSitemapIndex(req, config);
+
+    const expectedSitemaps = [
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/custom-sitemap-index.xml?sitemap=post-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/custom-sitemap-index.xml?sitemap=page-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/custom-sitemap-index.xml?sitemap=category-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/custom-sitemap-index.xml?sitemap=author-sitemap.xml',
+        lastmod: '2021-12-17T16:56:55+00:00',
+      },
+    ];
+
+    expect(createSitemapIndexSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expectedSitemaps);
+  });
+
+  it('constructs correct child sitemap URLs with custom sitemapIndexPath', async () => {
+    jest.spyOn(global, 'fetch').mockImplementationOnce((url) => {
+      expect(url).toBe('http://headless.local/sitemap_index.xml');
+      return Promise.resolve({
+        ok: true,
+        status: 200,
+        text: () => Promise.resolve(validSitemapIndexXML),
+      }) as Promise<Response>;
+    });
+
+    const req = {
+      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap_index.xml',
+    } as NextRequest;
+
+    const config: GetSitemapPropsConfig = {
+      frontendUrl: 'http://localhost:3000',
+      sitemapIndexPath: '/sitemap_index.xml',
+    };
+
+    const createSitemapIndexSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemapIndex');
+
+    await createSitemaps.createRootSitemapIndex(req, config);
+
+    const expectedSitemaps = [
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap_index.xml?sitemap=post-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap_index.xml?sitemap=page-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap_index.xml?sitemap=category-sitemap.xml',
+      },
+      {
+        loc: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap_index.xml?sitemap=author-sitemap.xml',
+        lastmod: '2021-12-17T16:56:55+00:00',
+      },
+    ];
+
+    expect(createSitemapIndexSpy).toHaveBeenCalledWith(expectedSitemaps);
+  });
 });
 
 describe('createPagesSitemap()', () => {
@@ -259,7 +371,7 @@ describe('createPagesSitemap()', () => {
       frontendUrl: 'http://localhost:3000',
     };
 
-    let req = {
+    const req = {
       url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap-faust-pages.xml',
     } as NextRequest;
 
@@ -310,7 +422,7 @@ describe('createPagesSitemap()', () => {
 
     const createSitemapSpy = jest.spyOn(sitemapUtils, 'createSitemap');
 
-    let req = {
+    const req = {
       url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap-faust-pages.xml',
     } as NextRequest;
 
@@ -330,8 +442,8 @@ describe('handleSitemapPath()', () => {
   afterAll(() => {
     process.env = envBackup;
   });
-  const validSitemapXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="//headless.local/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/main-sitemap.xsl"?>
-  <urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1 http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1/sitemap-image.xsd" xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
+  const validSitemapXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+  <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
       <url>
           <loc>http://headless.local/</loc>
       </url>
@@ -347,19 +459,16 @@ describe('handleSitemapPath()', () => {
           <changefreq>weekly</changefreq>
           <priority>0.5</priority>
       </url>
+  </urlset>`;
 
-  </urlset>
-  <!-- XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO -->`;
-
-  const validSitemap1RecordXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="//headless.local/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/main-sitemap.xsl"?>
-  <urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1 http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1/sitemap-image.xsd" xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
+  const validSitemap1RecordXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+  <urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
       <url>
           <loc>http://headless.local/about</loc>
       </url>
-  </urlset>
-  <!-- XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO -->`;
+  </urlset>`;
 
-  const invalidSitemapXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="//headless.local/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/main-sitemap.xsl"?>
+  const invalidSitemapXML = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
   <!-- XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO -->`;
 
   it('returns undefined when the response to the WP sitemap is not ok', async () => {
@@ -371,7 +480,7 @@ describe('handleSitemapPath()', () => {
     });
 
     const req = {
-      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap-posts.xml',
+      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=post-sitemap.xml',
     } as NextRequest;
 
     const config: GetSitemapPropsConfig = {
@@ -392,7 +501,7 @@ describe('handleSitemapPath()', () => {
     });
 
     const req = {
-      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap-posts.xml',
+      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=post-sitemap.xml',
     } as NextRequest;
 
     const config: GetSitemapPropsConfig = {
@@ -415,7 +524,7 @@ describe('handleSitemapPath()', () => {
     });
 
     const req = {
-      url: 'http://localhost:5000/sitemap-pages.xml',
+      url: 'http://localhost:5000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=page-sitemap.xml',
     } as NextRequest;
 
     const config: GetSitemapPropsConfig = {
@@ -461,7 +570,7 @@ describe('handleSitemapPath()', () => {
     });
 
     const req = {
-      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap-pages.xml',
+      url: 'http://localhost:3000/sitemap.xml?sitemap=page-sitemap.xml',
     } as NextRequest;
 
     const config: GetSitemapPropsConfig = {
diff --git a/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/getSitemapProps.test.ts b/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/getSitemapProps.test.ts
index 0f148e13e..7ee6a1d29 100644
--- a/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/getSitemapProps.test.ts
+++ b/packages/faustwp-core/tests/server/sitemaps/getSitemapProps.test.ts
@@ -105,4 +105,35 @@ describe('validateConfig', () => {
       'The pages path property must be a string',
     );
   });
+
+  it('throws an error if sitemapIndexPath is not a string', () => {
+    const config: any = {
+      frontendUrl: 'http://localhost:3000',
+      sitemapIndexPath: 123,
+    };
+
+    expect(() => getSitemapProps.validateConfig(config)).toThrow(
+      'sitemapIndexPath must be a string',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('throws an error if sitemapIndexPath does not start with a forward slash', () => {
+    const config: any = {
+      frontendUrl: 'http://localhost:3000',
+      sitemapIndexPath: 'sitemap_index.xml',
+    };
+
+    expect(() => getSitemapProps.validateConfig(config)).toThrow(
+      'sitemapIndexPath must start with a forward slash',
+    );
+  });
+
+  it('passes validation when sitemapIndexPath is a valid string', () => {
+    const config: any = {
+      frontendUrl: 'http://localhost:3000',
+      sitemapIndexPath: '/sitemap_index.xml',
+    };
+
+    expect(() => getSitemapProps.validateConfig(config)).not.toThrow();
+  });
 });