Sitemap not accessible

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap not being accessible. There could be several reasons for this problem. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot:

1. Check if Your Sitemap is Accessible: Use a tool like httpstatus.io to check the status of your sitemap URL. This will help identify any issues preventing access by Googlebot.
   

2. Sitemap Caching: If your sitemap is being cached, you may need to exclude it from caching. You can refer to our tutorial on how to exclude Sitemaps from caching.

3. Server Configuration: If you are using an Apache or Nginx web server, ensure that the necessary rewrite rules are added to your server configuration. This is crucial for the sitemap to function correctly.

   • For Apache, you can add the following to your .htaccess file:

     # START of Rank Math Sitemap Rewrite Rules
     RewriteEngine On
     RewriteBase /
     RewriteRule ^sitemap_index.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=1 [L]
     RewriteRule ^([^/]+?)-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=$1&sitemap_n=$2 [L]
     RewriteRule ^([a-z]+)?-?sitemap.xsl$ /index.php?xsl=$1 [L]
     # END of Rank Math Sitemap Rewrite Rules

   • For Nginx, add the following to your config file:

     # START Nginx Rewrites for Rank Math Sitemaps
     rewrite ^/sitemap_index.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=1 last;
     rewrite ^/([^/]+?)-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=$1&sitemap_n=$2 last;
     rewrite ^/([a-z]+)?-sitemap.xsl$ /index.php?xsl=$1 last;
     # END Nginx Rewrites for Rank Math Sitemaps

If you continue to experience issues, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so we can assist you further. A human agent from our support team will take over and provide more specific guidance.

Thank you for raising this concern!

Sources:
Indexed, Not Submitted in Sitemap – Google Search Console » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math