Hello,
We apologize for the issue you are facing with your Rank Math sitemap. It seems like Google is unable to access your sitemap correctly, which can happen if the wrong URL is submitted or if there are issues with the sitemap configuration.
To resolve the issue where Google sees your sitemap as an HTML page, please ensure that you are submitting the correct XML sitemap URL. The correct URL should look like this:
`https://support.rankmath.com
If you are sure that you are using the correct URL and still facing this issue, here are a few steps you can take:
- Check for Plugin Conflicts: Use the Health Check plugin to identify any potential conflicts with other plugins.
- Flush Permalinks: Go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Settings → Permalinks, and simply click Save Changes. This can help resolve 404 errors.
- Validate Your Sitemap: Use the Validate XML Sitemap tool to check if your sitemap is correctly configured.
- Ensure Posts Are Set to Index: Make sure that your posts are set to index by going to Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and enabling the Index checkbox in the Robots Meta settings.
If you still need a physical XML file to upload, Rank Math generates the sitemap dynamically, and it is not typically provided as a downloadable file. Instead, it is accessed via the URL mentioned above. If you need further assistance with setup or configuration, we recommend considering our professional setup service available at Rank Math Services. This service ensures your plugin setup is fully correct and adheres to the latest SEO standards.
Thank you for raising this concern! If you have any more questions or need further assistance, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent will take over from there.
Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
I’m looking at the rankmath plugin. Is the problem because the HTNL sitemap is set to shortcode and not a page?
I have successfully added the page and post sitemaps but it is the index one that is not working.
Hello,
Thank you for contacting us and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.
This issue is unrelated to how the HTML sitemap is created.
Please try to follow the steps below and see if that works for you:
1. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp
2. Exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. The cache could be via a plugin or from the server. For plugins or Cloudflare, please follow this article:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
For more details, you can check the issue: https://rankmath.com/kb/incorrect-http-header-content-type-sitemap-error/
Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
