Hello,
Thanks for contacting us, and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.
Can you please try following the steps below to 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/
3. If the above steps doesn’t seem to work, kindly apply the following filter code to your site.
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');
Here’s how you can add filter/hook to your WordPress site:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/
Once you’ve done following the above steps, please remove and re-submit your sitemap_index.xml on GSC and allow Google a while to crawl your sitemap again.
Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
I have tried the first method and it’s not working While the second method is not applicable because I do not use the cache plugin. So I tried the third method and I pasted the above filter code in the code snippet plugin but this method is also not working. Sitemap is still not updating in search console.
Hello,
Can you please share your sitemap URL with us so we can check this further for you? You can also share a screenshot of the GSC using this tool.
Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
Sitemap URL
Here you will get 72 URLs whereas in the search console it is showing 47 URLs.
Hello,
It seems like Googlebot is encountering 403 error while trying to crawl your sitemap. Which means, there might be something that is blocking only Googlebot from accessing your sitemap. I’m suspecting, the issue is might be happening due to that.
Here’s a screenshots for your reference:
However, If your site URLs are being indexed on Google, then Google might be found those URLs by other means. Since, sitemap is just a backup crawling mechanism for Google.
In order to fix this issue, please try checking Firewalls, security plugins, server settings if they block Googlebot from accessing your site URLs.
Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
I use Wordfence security plugin, I checked in its firewall section there is nothing which is blocking google bot.
I checked the url of sitemap in search console, there is no 403 error show, but Page Fetch is telling successful.
I do not understand why the sitemap is not getting updated. I have to index all my url with request indexing.
Hello,
I’ve checked your sitemap, and it is showing a white page without anything in the source code. However, it is working with this URL:
https://celebpaycheck.com/?sitemap=1
In this case, you can follow the steps in this link to fix this issue:
https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/#apache-error
Also, you may need to get in touch with your web host for the 403 error on your site for crawlers and bots.
Hope that helps.
Thank you.
I have two more websites which are on same web host and I am using rankmath in both of them and I have no issue.I am facing issue only on this site.
When I am creating sitemap manually then it is reading and updating all the urls. It is confusing for me that when I am manually creating sitemap the issue is getting fixed and when i am using rankmath then the issue is coming again.
The solution you mentioned above is too technical for me. I feel that I should use some other plugin.
Hello,
The server rules and settings for each site can be different. Something on your server is causing the issue with the generation of our sitemap on the normal URL and the rewrite rules will fix the issue. You can edit your .htaccess file and add the rewrite rules mentioned in the guide in WP Dashboard > Rank Math > General Settings > Edit .htaccess. You can also get in touch with your host and ask them to add the rewrite rules for you.
Once the rules are added the sitemap should work fine on the normal URL.
Let us know how that goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Can you tell me in detail how to rewrite the rules? I see some rules in edit.htacess, i don’t know what are these and how to rewrite them.
Hello,
Please paste the following lines to the bottom of the Rank Math .htaccess editor and click “Save Channges”:
# 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
Once the .htaccess has updated, follow the steps to flush the sitemap cache.
Hope that helps. Please let us know if you have questions.
You said that I have to paste the above code in rankmath .htaccess, so do I have to delete the existing code first or paste the new code below it.
Hello,
We deeply apologize for the delay in response.
You won’t need to delete existing rules in .htaccess . Just paste the rules mentioned above at the bottom of your .htaccess file.
If it seems to be complicated to you, get in touch with your hosting provider to do that for you.
Note: Please take a backup of your .htaccess file before editing.
Hope that helps.
Thank you.
This method is aso not working, sitemap is still not updating
Hello,
We might need to take a closer look at the settings. Please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress & FTP logins in the designated Sensitive Data section.
Please do take a complete backup of your website before sharing the information with us.
It is completely secure and only our support staff has access to that section. If you want, you can use the below plugin to generate a temporary login URL to your website and share that with us instead:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/temporary-login-without-password/
You can use the above plugin in conjunction with the WP Security Audit Log to monitor what changes our staff might make on your website (if any):
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/
We really look 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.
