Hello,
We apologize for the issues you are facing with the sitemaps generated by Rank Math. Let’s address your concerns step by step.
1. Sitemap Loading Correctly but Not Readable by Google
Since your main sitemap at `https://httpstatus.io/ is loading correctly but Google Search Console indicates it cannot be read, please follow these steps:
- Validate Your Sitemap: Use the Validate XML Sitemap tool to check if there are any issues with your sitemap configuration. If it returns a success message, then the sitemap is correctly configured.
- Check for Errors: Ensure that your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation and that your posts are set to index. You can do this by going to Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and ensuring the Index checkbox is enabled for your posts.
2. 404 Errors for Other Sitemaps
For the other sitemaps that are returning 404 errors:
- Flush Permalinks: Sometimes, flushing permalinks can resolve 404 errors. Go to the Permalinks settings in your WordPress dashboard and click Save Changes without making any changes. This can help refresh the rewrite rules.
- Check Sitemap Settings: Ensure that the sitemaps you want included are properly configured in Rank Math settings. You can check this under Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings.
- Rewrite Rules: If you are using an Apache server, ensure that your
.htaccess file has the correct rewrite rules for Rank Math sitemaps. If you are using Nginx, make sure your Nginx config file has the appropriate rewrite rules as well. You can refer to our guide on fixing sitemap issues for more details.
If these steps do not resolve the issues, please reply to this ticket with any error messages you encounter or additional details about your setup, and a human agent from our support team will assist you further. Thank you for bringing this to our attention!
Sources:
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
Hello,
Thank you for your query and we are so sorry about the trouble this must have caused.
Can you please follow these steps?
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/
That should fix the issue.
Please let us know if that does not. We are here to assist.
Hello, I’ve done all that and I can see that the sitemap URL is now working (thank you) and not resulting in a 404. Example = https://hijackwebdesign.com/main-services-sitemap.xml
However… when submitting to Google it comes up with ‘Couldn’t Fetch’
Sitemap can be read, but has errors
Invalid URL
1 instance
This is not a valid URL. Please correct it and resubmit.
Examples
URL:
/main-services-sitemap.xml
Line 4
Parent tag:
url
Tag:
loc
Hello,
Please take a full screenshot of the report you see from Google and share it here with us using this handy tool: https://imgur.com/upload
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Thank you, I’ve taken screenshots. https://imgur.com/a/zxn7tVo
Could I get a response please
Hello,
We deeply apologize for the unexpected delay in response.
We checked your sub-sitemaps, and we can see they are working properly without any issues:
In this case, please clear your website cache, remove all the submitted sitemaps, and resubmit only the /sitemap_index.xml in the Search Console and see if that works for you.
Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Thank 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.
