diff --git a/maintainer/adapt_sitemap.py b/maintainer/adapt_sitemap.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..593b4c4cf4b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/maintainer/adapt_sitemap.py
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+#
+# Adjust path in sitemap.xml
+
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+from xml.etree import ElementTree
+import argparse
+
+# defaults for MDAnalysis, see https://github.com/MDAnalysis/mdanalysis/pull/1890
+# and https://github.com/MDAnalysis/MDAnalysis.github.io/issues/78
+
+RELEASE_URL = "https://www.mdanalysis.org/docs/"
+DEVELOP_URL = "https://www.mdanalysis.org/mdanalysis/"
+
+# change if sitemaps.org updates their schema
+NAMESPACE = {"sitemaps": "http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9"}
+
+def replace_loc(tree, search, replace, namespace=NAMESPACE):
+    root = tree.getroot()
+    urls = root.findall("sitemaps:url", namespace)
+    if len(urls) == 0:
+        raise ValueError("No sitemaps:url element found: check if the namespace in the XML file "
+                         "is still xmlns='{0[sitemaps]}'".format(namespace))
+    for url in urls:
+        loc = url.find("sitemaps:loc", namespace)
+        try:
+            loc.text = loc.text.replace(search, replace)
+        except AttributError:
+            raise ValueError("No sitemaps:loc element found: check if the namespace in the XML file "
+                             "is still xmlns='{0[sitemaps]}'".format(namespace))
+    return tree
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='Change top level loc in sitemap.',
+                                     formatter_class=argparse.ArgumentDefaultsHelpFormatter)
+
+    parser.add_argument('sitemap', metavar="FILE",
+                        help="path to sitemap.xml file, will be changed in place")
+    parser.add_argument('--output', '-o', metavar="FILE",
+                        default="sitemap_release.xml",
+                        help="write altered XML to output FILE")
+    parser.add_argument("--search", "-s", metavar="URL",
+                        default=DEVELOP_URL,
+                        help="search this URL in the loc elements")
+    parser.add_argument("--replace", "-r", metavar="URL",
+                        default=RELEASE_URL,
+                        help="replace the searched URL with this URL in the loc elements")
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+
+    with open(args.sitemap) as xmlfile:
+        tree = ElementTree.parse(xmlfile)
+
+    tree = replace_loc(tree, args.search, args.replace)
+
+    with open(args.output, "wb") as xmlfile:
+        tree.write(xmlfile, encoding="utf-8", xml_declaration=True,
+                   default_namespace=NAMESPACE['sitemaps'])
+
+    print("adapt_sitemap.py: Created output file {} with change in loc:".format(args.output))
+    print("adapt_sitemap.py: {0} --> {1}".format(args.search, args.replace))
diff --git a/maintainer/deploy_master_docs.sh b/maintainer/deploy_master_docs.sh
index 39123162698..2c9d5b8e03a 100755
--- a/maintainer/deploy_master_docs.sh
+++ b/maintainer/deploy_master_docs.sh
@@ -25,6 +25,14 @@
 #  (cd package && python setup.py build_sphinx)
 #
 
+# The release sitemap.xml is generated from the development
+# sitemap.xml by changing MDA_DEVELOPMENT_DOCS_URL --> MDA_RELEASE_DOCS_URL
+#
+# See comment in package/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py for site_url.
+#
+MDA_RELEASE_DOCS_URL="https://www.mdanalysis.org/docs/"
+MDA_DEVELOPMENT_DOCS_URL="https://www.mdanalysis.org/mdanalysis/"
+
 GH_REPOSITORY=github.com/MDAnalysis/docs.git
 #MDA_DOCDIR=${TRAVIS_BUILD_DIR}/package/doc/html/html
 MDA_DOCDIR=package/doc/html/html
@@ -44,6 +52,9 @@ function die () {
 }
 
 rev=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
+rootdir="$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"
+
+maintainer_dir="${rootdir}/maintainer"
 
 # the following tests should be superfluous because of -o nounset
 test -n "${GH_TOKEN}" || die "GH_TOKEN is empty: need OAuth GitHub token to continue" 100
@@ -60,7 +71,7 @@ git config user.name "${GIT_CI_USER}"
 git config user.email "${GIT_CI_EMAIL}"
 
 git remote add docs "https://${GH_TOKEN}@${GH_REPOSITORY}"
-git fetch --depth 50 docs master
+git fetch --depth 10 docs master
 git reset docs/master
 
 touch .
@@ -68,6 +79,13 @@ touch .nojekyll
 
 git add -A .
 git commit -m "rebuilt html docs from branch ${GH_DOC_BRANCH} with sphinx at MDAnalysis/mdanalysis@${rev}"
+
+# fix sitemap.xml for release docs
+${maintainer_dir}/adapt_sitemap.py --search ${MDA_DEVELOPMENT_DOCS_URL} --replace ${MDA_RELEASE_DOCS_URL} -o sitemap.xml sitemap.xml
+
+git add sitemap.xml
+git commit -m "adjusted sitemap.xml for release docs at ${MDA_RELEASE_DOCS_URL}" 
+
 git push -q docs HEAD:master
 
 
diff --git a/package/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py b/package/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
index 58500a79ca2..f1cfeceee83 100644
--- a/package/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
+++ b/package/doc/sphinx/source/conf.py
@@ -42,10 +42,11 @@
 mathjax_path = 'https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/mathjax/2.7.0/MathJax.js?config=TeX-AMS-MML_HTMLorMML'
 
 # for sitemap with https://github.com/jdillard/sphinx-sitemap
-# NOTE: This sitemap is only correct for the release doccs. The development docs
-#       are served from https://www.mdanalysis.org/mdanalysis/ and the sitemap.xml
-#       will NOT be correct for the development docs.
-site_url = "https://www.mdanalysis.org/docs/"
+# NOTE: This sitemap is only correct for the DEVELOPMENT doccs. The RELEASE docs
+#       are served from https://www.mdanalysis.org/docs/ and the sitemap.xml
+#       is manually fixed when deploying the release docs with the
+#       maintainer/deploy_master_docs.sh script
+site_url = "https://www.mdanalysis.org/mdanalysis/"
 
 # Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
 templates_path = ['_templates']