Google Search Console’s sitemap is not accepting it

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console. Thank you for raising this concern.

Here are some steps you can follow to troubleshoot the problem:

1. Validate Your Sitemap: Use a sitemap validation tool to ensure your sitemap is correctly configured. You can use the Validate XML Sitemap tool. If there are any issues, it will help you identify them.

   

2. Check Sitemap Location: Ensure that your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation. The URL should look like this:

   https://yourdomainname.com/sitemap_index.xml

3. Ensure Posts Are Set to Index: If all your posts are set to noindex, your sitemap may appear empty. To check this, go to Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and ensure the Index checkbox is enabled in the Robots Meta settings.

   

4. Submit the Correct Sitemap URL: Make sure you are submitting the correct sitemap URL in Google Search Console. You should enter sitemap_index.xml in the Add a new sitemap field.

   

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

We appreciate your patience and look forward to helping you resolve this issue!

Sources:
How to Submit a Sitemap to Google » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us. We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may have caused.

Please follow the steps below for initial troubleshooting:

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/

If the issue persists then try disabling the transient cache for the sitemap. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site. To do this, you need to add a small piece of code to your site’s functions.php file or use a plugin like Code Snippets.
The code you need to add is this:

/** 
 * 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/.

After you add the code, please clear any cache on your site or server and check your XML sitemap again. If you’re still facing issues with the sitemap, please let us know – we are happy to investigate further.