Error: “mywebsite.com/sitemap.xml” is not a sitemap index.

#25421
  • I am receiving this error in RankMath ‘mywebsite.com/sitema.pxml’ is not a sitemap index. (see sensitive data for actual url)

    Can manually traverse to this location and see a sitemap, but Bing and Search Console both do not like whatever is happening here and flag me with a sitemap error. This will surely impact search-ability.

    I tried deleting the original sitemap, flushing the WordPress permalinks, Saving the sitemap settings in RankMath, Reauthorizing Search Console within Rank Math, and still getting this error. Disabled security plugins to see if writing access was being denied but the problem persists through plugin deactivation.

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  • Todd
    Rank Math free

    Hi Alexandra,

    Thanks for getting in touch.

    Could you please check the following:
    1. Is the sitemap working fine in your browser? You can check that by going domain(.)com/sitemap_index.xml

    If the sitemap is working fine, you can try validating it on this link: https://www.xml-sitemaps.com/validate-xml-sitemap.html

    If the validation works, please move to the second point.

    2. Have you verified the correct version of your website on Google? Please check if you have verified the www (or non-www) and https (or http) version of your website. If there is a mismatch, please fix that.

    3. Finally, make sure you have cleared the cache and excluded Google bot from seeing a cached version of your sitemap.

    If you have followed these and you are able to view your sitemap without any problem, then Rank Math is outputting your sitemap correctly and the error must be coming from Google. You can try and use a 3rd party sitemap plugin to confirm. Just make sure you have disabled the Sitemap module of Rank Math in WordPress Dashboard > Rank Math > Dashboard when using a 3rd party sitemap plugin.

    If the other plugin works, please do let us know.

    Thank 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.

Viewing 1 replies (of 1 total)

The ticket ‘Error: “mywebsite.com/sitemap.xml” is not a sitemap index.’ is closed to new replies.