Google: Sitemap could not be read

#335002
  • I submitted a sitemap to Google over a month ago and it seemed to go through without error.

    All of the pages showed up within Coverage, but didn’t get Indexed. I’ve been waiting patiently, but upon checking today there’s been a drastic reduction in Pages listed in Coverage.

    There are only 2 in Valid and both are “Indexed, not submitted in sitemap”, including the homepage. None of the Excluded ones (now only 11) reference the Sitemap either. This wasn’t the case before, while I was waiting for Indexing of over 100 pages.

    I checked Sitemaps and it says “Couldn’t Fetch, last read one month ago”.

    Clicking through: “Sitemap could not be read

    General HTTP error

    We encountered an error while trying to access your Sitemap. Please ensure that your Sitemap follows our guidelines and can be accessed at the location you provided, and then resubmit.”

    There seemed to be a similar issue with Bing, which had last checked the sitemap a week ago, however clicking on their “Re-submit” button fixed the issue and the URLs were discovered. Now waiting on Indexing.

    I’ve followed your guide here: https://rankmath.com/kb/indexed-not-submitted-in-sitemap

    The sitemap seems to be fine when checked with https://httpstatus.io

    I’ve ensured it’s not in the cache and tried to delete and re-add it in Google, which just brings it back with the same “Last read” date and error.

    What could be going wrong with Google?

    I’ve included a screenshot and link to the sitemap in the Sensitive Data section.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Quick correction as I can’t seem to edit the main text. There should be around 66 URLs, not over 100 as I incorrectly stated above. We have some pages/posts which aren’t live yet.

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you.

    I’ve checked your site, and it seems that you haven’t verified the www version of your website to be redirected to the non-www version. I’ve attached a screenshot in the sensitive data section.

    Please ensure that only 1 version of the sitemap is working (200 Ok status), and the rest are redirecting to it. You can also use this tool to check.

    You can follow the steps in this link to redirect your www version of your site:
    https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/#5-check-for-the-correct-version-of-the-sitemap

    Once done, remove all the sitemaps submitted in your Google Search Console and resubmit your main sitemap. Then give Google some time to recrawl your sitemaps.

    I hope that helps.

    Thank you.

    That’s really helpful, thank you.

    I followed the guide and edited the .htacess file, however GoDaddy doesn’t seem to like it when only pointing to one, so I’ve temporarily reversed it.

    If I choose non-www, does it matter that both the http and https work? i.e. 2/4 (both www) are redirecting. This worked fine with our host, but redirecting the http to https seemed to block everything.

    For the URLs that are redirected, should I be seeing just a 301, or both a 301 and 200?

    Hello,

    Yes, you should also redirect the HTTP version to the HTTPS version. If you’re facing any issue then you can directly get in touch with your host and ask them to help your implement this correctly.

    And the redirected URLs should show both 301 and 200 status when checked with a tool like https://httpstatus.io/

    Hope this helps. Let us know if you need any other assistance.

    Thanks.

    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.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The ticket ‘Google: Sitemap could not be read’ is closed to new replies.