Empty sitemap index

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues with your sitemap index showing as empty in Google Search Console. This could be due to various reasons, such as conflicts with other plugins or themes, caching issues, or exclusion settings within Rank Math.

To troubleshoot this issue, you can follow these steps:

1. Check for Plugin or Theme Conflicts: Use the Health Check plugin to identify if any other plugins or themes are causing conflicts with your sitemap. You can find more information on how to check for conflicts here.

2. Flush Sitemaps Cache: Try flushing the sitemaps cache and excluding them from caching. This can often resolve issues with empty sitemap indexes. You can find detailed instructions on how to exclude sitemaps from caching here.

3. Exclude Posts and Terms: Ensure that the post or page you are looking for is not excluded from the Sitemap Settings of Rank Math. Check the Exclude Posts and Exclude Terms settings under the Sitemap tab in Rank Math.

If after following these steps you still encounter issues with your sitemap index being empty, please feel free to reply to this ticket, and a human agent from our support team will assist you further.

Thank you for reaching out, and we appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this issue for you.

Closing spiel.

Sources:
Why Google Search Console Shows Zero Discovered URLs Through Sitemap? » Rank Math
Why Isn’t My URL Included in the Sitemap? » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for contacting support.

If the sitemap is loading fine when you access it on your browser and you see the data correctly it means that it is working fine.

The reason for the empty sitemap on Google Search Console is because hasn’t crawled the sitemaps yet so you need to be patient and wait a couple of weeks for those to be processed.

It’s important to note that the processes that involve SEO usually take a lot of time to process and patience is key.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.

Hello,

Please share a screenshot so we’re sure of what you’re referring to. You can share images with us by uploading them to an image hosting site like Imgur, and then sharing the generated URL with us here.

We are looking forward to hearing back from you.

Hello,

Can you share the URL of your sitemap with us so we can also check if there’s any issue there?

You can share it in the sensitive data section by editing the first post in this ticket.

We look forward to hearing back from you.

Hello,

There’s no issue here and your sitemap is loading perfectly fine. You can see from the screenshot you shared that Google was able to process your sitemap without any issues.

However, there are no URLs or sub-sitemaps being discovered yet which we already explain why in this reply. Please note that each time Google uses a sitemap to find a URL, the count of the Discovered URLs increases by one. Sitemaps is only one of the few methods Google uses to discover your URLs.

When the count of the Discovered URLs is zero or shows empty in your Google Search Console, it means Google didn’t use the sitemap to find the URLs.

It mostly happens when you have good internal linking or use the Instant Indexing plugin.

Here’s a link for more information:
https://rankmath.com/kb/zero-discovered-urls-through-sitemap/

Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.

Hello,

Sitemaps disappearing doesn’t directly cause a drop in rankings. There could be several reasons why your website’s ranking dropped. Here are some possible causes:

– Google frequently updates its algorithms, which can cause fluctuations in rankings. If Google has recently updated its algorithms, it might affect your site’s ranking.

https://rankmath.com/kb/google-algorithm-updates/
https://rankmath.com/blog/google-algorithm-update-recovery/

– Your competitors might have improved their SEO strategies, resulting in their websites ranking higher.

– If your site has lost backlinks recently, it could affect your site’s authority and rankings.

– There could be technical issues with your site that are affecting its ranking. This could include slow loading speed, broken links (which we are currently fixing now), or issues with mobile-friendliness.

– If Google has imposed a manual penalty on your site, it could cause a drop in rankings.

To diagnose the issue, you can start by checking Google Analytics and Google Search Console for any noticeable changes or alerts. You should also ensure that your website is still indexed by searching for site:yourdomain.com in Google. You may refer to this guide: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7440203?hl=en

– Lastly, you may check our full guide to conduct a full audit on your website: https://rankmath.com/blog/seo-audit/

Looking forward to helping you.