Hello,
I’m sorry to hear that you are facing issues with indexing pages on Google Search Console due to the error message "Your Sitemap appears to be an HTML page. Please use a supported sitemap format instead." Let’s try to resolve this issue together.
To address this problem, please follow these steps:
-
Verify Sitemap URL: Ensure that you have submitted the correct XML sitemap to Google. The correct URL format should be like this: `https://rankmath.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/An-example-of-a-properly-configured-sitemap-2.png.
-
Check for Plugin Conflict: Verify if there is a plugin conflict causing this issue by using the Health Check plugin.
-
Disable Caching: If you are using W3 Total Cache along with Rank Math, create a new user agent group and add the ‘googlebot‘ user agent to it. If the issue persists, include the following filter in your theme’s rank-math.php file:
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');
If these steps do not resolve the issue, please let us know by replying to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.
Thank you for your patience and cooperation.
Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Hello,
Could you please share your sitemap URL so we can check as well?
Meanwhile, please follow these steps to flush your sitemap cache:
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. Disable the transient cache for the sitemap by applying this filter. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site:
/**
* Filter if XML sitemap transient cache is enabled.
*
* @param boolean $unsigned Enable cache or not, defaults to true
*/
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');
If you’re not sure how to add this code, you can follow this guide:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/
Looking 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.
