Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you.
Could you please also share your website to check (assuming that you’re already using Rank Math)? You can add it in the sensitive data section
It is completely secure, and only our support staff has access to that section.
Also, you will need to submit your main sitemap only /sitemap_index.xml, and Google will use it to crawl the other sitemaps.
Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hi,
I’ve added the website address.
Best,
Leo
Hello,
Thank you for that information.
I’ve checked your sitemap, and it seems that you haven’t verified the www (or non-www) and HTTP (or HTTP) version of your website. I’ve attached the screenshot in the sensitive data section. You can use this tool to check as well.
Please ensure that only 1 version of the sitemap is working (200 Ok status), and the rest are redirecting to it. You can also use this tool to check. Please follow the steps in this link:
https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/#5-check-for-the-correct-version-of-the-sitemap
Once done, clear your website’s cache and resubmit your main sitemap only /sitemap_index.xml to your Google Search Console account.
I hope that helps.
Thank you.
Thanks for your reply,
Having used the tool httpstatus.io, I checked the sitemaps using a range of Agents, and all seem to return 200 OK replies, except for Googlebot (Desktop), which returns 403 errors.
Is there a reason as to why only Googlebot wouldn’t be able to read the sitemaps?
Hello,
Thank you for getting back to us.
Upon checking on the httpstatus.io site, it shows two URLs with the 200 status code. It is possible to Google see the other version which is displaying as a blank sitemap.
https://studypolitics.co.uk/sitemap_index.xml
Depending on the server type you are using you should redirect this URL to the WWW version which I am assuming is your main site URL. Please see our recommendation of this on the same guide here: https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/#num-5-4-redirect-all-three-other-versions-to-your-preferred-variation
We recommend getting in touch with your host to help you redirect this sitemap URL to WWW version.
Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
Thank you.
Hi,
Thanks for your reply. Upon further investigation, it seems that the Googlebot issue is being caused by Cloudflare not allowing access to crawl the sitemap.
Should this issue therefore be raised with my hosting provider and/or Cloudflare as opposed to Rank Math directly?
Hello,
Thanks for getting back to us.
You should get in touch with Cloudflare about allowing Googlebot to access your website. They will be able to assist you to set up a rule to whitelist Googlebot access to your website.
Hope this helps solve your issue.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you require any further assistance.
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.
