Your sitemap does not contain a URL. Check and resend your sitemap.

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap. It seems that Google is indicating that your sitemap is empty, which can happen for a few reasons. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve this issue:

1. Validate Your Sitemap

First, ensure that your sitemap is correctly configured. You can use the Validate XML Sitemap tool to check for any issues. If your sitemap is correctly configured, the tool should return a "No issues detected" message.

2. Ensure Your Posts Are Set to Index

If all your posts are set to noindex, your sitemap will appear empty. To check this, go to Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and ensure that the Index checkbox is enabled in the Robots Meta settings.

3. Flush Permalinks

Sometimes, flushing permalinks can resolve issues with sitemaps. To do this, go to the Permalinks page in your WordPress dashboard and click Save Changes without making any changes.

4. Check Sitemap Location

Make sure your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation. The correct URL should look like this:

https://rankmath.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Add-a-new-sitemap.png

5. Clear Cache

If you have caching enabled on your website, clear your website cache and try submitting the sitemap again in Google Search Console.

If you have followed these steps and are still encountering issues, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.

Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope this helps resolve the issue!

Sources:
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

Hello,

Your sitemap is validating fine.

In this case, 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/

Once done, remove all your submitted sitemaps and submit your main sitemap only /sitemap_index.xml

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

Could you please share the screenshot of the issue so we can check and advise accordingly?

You can upload screenshots using this tool and add the link here.

We checked your sitemap and looks like Google is crawling it as an HTML page.

In this case, please try to clear your website cache including any server-level cache, remove all the submitted sitemap, and resubmit only the /sitemap_index.xml in the Search Console.

If the issue persists, you can try to submit /?sitemap=1 and see if that works for you.

Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.

Thank you.

Hello,

In the field, you submitted sitemap_index.xml, submit ?sitemap=1 instead.

Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.

Thank you.

Hello,

Please check if you have received any manual actions for your site.

You may check this section in your GSC for that:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9044175?hl=en

If there are no manual actions imposed on your site, you may try removing the property and verifying your website again in your Google Search Console account.

Looking forward to helping you.