General HTTP error,Sitemap could not be read

#1114032
  • Hi, Team hope your are doing well. Actually i’m facing an issue in my search console and tried lots of things but it’s not working. here is the issue:

    Sitemap could not be read

    General HTTP error

    1 instance
    We encountered an error while trying to access your sitemap. Please ensure that your sitemap is present at the specified address and is not blocked to Google. See our Help Centre for more debugging help.

    I’m getting this issue when i’m submitting my master sitemap-index.xml in search console.

    Actually initially instead of master sitemap_index.xml i submitted my individual sitemap into search console naming page_sitemap.xml and webs-tories-sitemap.xml and then it was working perfectly my content was also indexing perfectly within 24hour but when i reached 950+ web stories entry in my webs-tories-sitemap.xml then it was not loading so i found it taking too much time to show the list and my new web stories was not indexing even google crawler stoped crawling my site so i researched and found that my web-stories-sitemap.xml is not loading so might be it’s making difficult to crawl for google bot so i found one option in rankMath tool that i can automatically split sitemap in various child sitemap by setting link per sitemap so i set it to 200 link per sitemap and it automatically splitted my web-stories-sitemap.xml into many sitemap as web-stories-sitemap1.xml, web-stories-sitemap2.xml, web-stories-sitemap3.xml, web-stories-sitemap4.xml, web-stories-sitemap5.xml, web-stories-sitemap6.xml.

    Now for me it was very difficult to submit child sitemap every time when it crossed 200+ web story entry in my web-story-sitemap.xml so i decided instead of child sitemap i will submit only one master sitemap-index.xml. but when i submitted my master sitemap-index.xml then i found this
    General HTTP error issue as i have mentioned above. i deleted and again submitted many time but issue was not solving so i decided to check what is happening when submitting individually. when i submitted all child sitemap individually along with my master-sitemap.xml i was surprised my newly splitted child sitemap was throwing error “type=unknow” and “status=couldn’t fetch”. and my previous both child sitemap page-sitemap.xml and web-story-sitemap.xml which i was using before spliting my main master web-story-sitemap.xml it was saying success but was having previous last read date and was not indexing my any new web story or any content.

    I’m attaching here screenshot of my search console please have a look on it so that you can have clear idea about my issue: https://imgur.com/a/j6diq7J

    then i did some search on google and rankMath support portal and followed some already suggested option to solve this issue but wasn’t successful. so i request you to please help me to solve this issue as soon as possible.

    Here i’m listing all the steps which i have already followed to solve this issue:

    1. Validate Your Sitemap
    I have validate all my sitemap(master sitemap, and all child sitemap)
    you can see here: https://imgur.com/a/HGaEzlH

    2. Ensure the Sitemap is Located in the Root Folder
    here is the my sitemap location. please visit and verify: https://blog.upforearn.com/sitemap_index.xml

    3. Flush Permalinks
    I have already Flushed the permalinks multiple time.

    4. Check for Caching Issues
    I use litespeed cashing and i have excluded sitemap. please have a look on this here:https://imgur.com/a/0K42MCu

    5. Check Server Response
    I have checked all the sitemap(master sitemap and child sitemap) are giving proper response. please see it here: https://imgur.com/a/NrHDz5I

    6. Ensure Your Posts Are Set to Index
    I have already set it it index. please see here: https://imgur.com/a/oILa99u

    Please help me to solve this issue.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Hello,

    We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap in Google Search Console. The "Sitemap could not be read" error can occur due to several reasons. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve this issue:

    1. Validate Your Sitemap

    Make sure your sitemap is correctly configured. You can validate your sitemap using the Validate XML Sitemap tool. Enter your sitemap URL and click VALIDATE SITEMAP. If there are no issues, it should return a success message.

    An example displaying how to validate a sitemap

    2. Check Sitemap Accessibility

    Use the httpstatus tool to check if your sitemap is accessible. Enter your sitemap URL and check the status code. It should return a status code of 200.

    Check if sitemap is accessible in httpstatus tool

    3. Flush Permalinks

    Sometimes, flushing permalinks can resolve access issues. Go to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress dashboard and click Save Changes without making any changes.

    4. Ensure Sitemap is Not Blocked

    Check your robots.txt file to ensure that it does not block access to your sitemap. You can find this under Rank Math SEO → General Settings → robots.txt.

    5. Clear Cache

    If you are using a caching plugin, clear your website cache and try submitting the sitemap again.

    6. Rename the Sitemap File

    If the above steps do not work, consider renaming your sitemap file as suggested by John Mueller. You can submit it in Google Search Console using the URL format: https://yourdomain.com/?sitemap=1.

    If you continue to experience issues after trying these steps, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so that we can assist you further. A human agent from our team will take over and provide more specific guidance.

    Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope to help you resolve it soon!

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

    This is an automated reply from Rank Math Support Bot. Your ticket has been assigned to a human agent and we will get back to you shortly.

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting Rank Math support.

    Please add the following filter to the site to disable the sitemap cache and fix the issue: https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/#transient-cache

    Here is how to add a filter to your site: https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

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

    Hello,

    Checking your sitemap, it seems to be loading just fine.

    Please remove all your sitemaps from your GSC account and try submitting this instead: https://blog.upforearn.com/?sitemap=1

    If the issue persists, please share a screenshot of the report from GSC.

    Looking forward to helping you with this one.

    Hello,

    Please click on the errors in the sitemap to reveal a much more detailed error message of the sitemap. Please share a screenshot of the whole report.

    Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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