Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math, and sorry for any inconvenience caused.
If the sitemap is working fine, you can try validating it on this link: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/validate-xml-sitemap.html
If the sitemap is validated, clear the website cache and purge the cache from Cloudflare and re-submit the sitemap_index.xml again.
If the issue persists, please share the sitemap URL in the sensitive data section so we can check further.
We really look forward to helping you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Tried all you said still facing the same issue. Please check the sitemap URL in the sensitive data section.
Hello,
The sitemap is working fine when you load it in the browser. Please follow the steps below to further fix the issue in GSC:
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/
After that, remove all your sitemaps from your GSC and resubmit only the primary sitemap (sitemap_index.xml).
See if the error from your GSC goes away after doing so.
Let us know how that goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Not working still shows the same error. Tried all the above steps.
Hello,
I’ve checked your sitemap, and it is already working fine. However, your robots.txt format seems incorrect. Please update it to look like this:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
Sitemap: https://www.yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml
Update the yourdomain.com to your actual domain name. Here’s a link on how to edit your robots.txt using Rank Math:
https://rankmath.com/kb/how-to-edit-robots-txt-with-rank-math/
Once done, clear your website’s cache and check again.
If the issue still persists, you can check this link for more troubleshooting steps:
https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/
I hope that helps.
Thank you.
Not Solved. Tried all the above steps.
Hello,
I checked the robots.txt, it is still incorrect.
Check the screenshot in the sensitive data section.
Please replace the content of the robots.txt file with the rules mentioned by my colleague above(replace yourdomain.com with your domain name).
Also, it looks like you are using NGINX server, you may need to add the following code to your configuration 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;
# END Nginx Rewrites for Rank Math Sitemaps
If you are not sure, you can ask your web host to add these rewrite rules.
Also, make sure that the server is not caching the sitemaps.
Once done, clear the website cache and resubmit the sitemap_index.xml in the Search Console.
Looking forward to helping you.
Tried all the above steps you said. Still not working. Even turned off the NGINX setting from the hosting server.
Hello,
Are you using SiteGround for hosting your website?
We have received a similar case from our users and mentioned that this is an internal issue with SiteGround.
Here’s an article about this issue as well:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/siteground-problem/426852/#close
I hope that helps.
Thank you.
