Category sitemap 404

Hello Mark,

I apologize for the inconvenience you’re experiencing with the category sitemap for your custom post type. I understand that despite enabling the sitemap and having the XML files created and read by Search Console, you’re still encountering a 404 error.

In this case, I recommend trying the following steps to resolve the issue:

1. Flush the sitemap cache: Go to Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings and change the “Links Per Sitemap” value. Then click on “Save Changes” at the bottom of the page. After saving the settings, navigate to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress admin area and click on “Save Changes” once, even if you haven’t made any changes on the page. This will flush the permalinks setting and may fix the sitemap problem.

2. Check rewrite rules: If you’re using an NGINX or Apache server, ensure that you have the correct rewrite rules in place. You can refer to our knowledge base article on XML sitemaps with NGINX or XML sitemaps with Apache for detailed instructions.

3. Exclude sitemap files from caching: If you’re using a caching plugin, make sure that you have excluded the category sitemap XML files from caching. Caching can sometimes interfere with the accessibility of the sitemap. You can refer to our knowledge base article on how to exclude sitemap files from caching for step-by-step instructions.

If none of these steps resolve the issue, I recommend replying to this ticket and our support team will further investigate and assist you in resolving the problem. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience.

Please let me know if there’s anything else I can assist you with.

Best regards,
RankBot Support

Sources:
Why the Sitemap_Index.xml is Throwing a 404 Error » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

Hello,

Could you please share your affected sitemap URL with us so that we can check the issue further for you?

Meanwhile, please head over to your WordPress Dashboard > Rank Math > Titles & Meta, and from there make sure the category archive robots meta is set to index. Once done, please try to follow the steps below and 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 don’t seem to work, kindly apply the following filter 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/

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

Thank you.

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

The category sitemap is getting redirected. Could you please check if you have created a redirection for that sitemap or if you have a redirection plugin?

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

Glad it worked, thank you for letting us know. This ticket will be closed now, but you can always open a new one if you have any other questions or concerns. We are here to help you with anything related to Rank Math.

We appreciate your patience and cooperation throughout this process.

Thank you for choosing Rank Math.