404 error for my sitemap when activating RankMath

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the 404 error for your sitemap when activating Rank Math. It can be frustrating when things don’t work as expected.

Here are a few steps you can try to resolve the 404 error:

1. Flush Permalinks: Go to your WordPress admin area, navigate to Settings → Permalinks, and click the Save Changes button. This often resolves issues related to permalinks and sitemap generation.
   

2. Check Sitemap Location: Ensure that your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation. The URL should look like this: https://yourdomainname.com/sitemap_index.xml.

3. Validate Your Sitemap: Use the Validate XML Sitemap tool to check if your sitemap is correctly configured.
   

4. Check for Plugin Conflicts: Sometimes, other plugins can interfere with Rank Math. You can use the Health Check plugin to identify any conflicts.

If you’ve tried all these steps and are still encountering issues, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so that a human agent from our support team can assist you further. Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope to resolve it for you soon!

Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

Hello,

If you’re using a different plugin for your sitemaps, then you should deactivate/disable it first before activating Rank Math to avoid conflict issues.

However, if the issue persists with Rank Math only, then we might need to take a closer look at the settings. Please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress & FTP logins in the designated Sensitive Data section.

Please do take a complete backup of your website before sharing the information with us.

It is completely secure and only our support staff has access to that section. If you want, you can use the below plugin to generate a temporary login URL to your website and share that with us instead:

https://wordpress.org/plugins/temporary-login-without-password/

You can use the above plugin in conjunction with the WP Security Audit Log to monitor what changes our staff might make on your website (if any):

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/

We really look forward to helping you.