Issue with the sitemap created by rankMath

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the sitemap created by Rank Math. Here are some common issues and their solutions that you can try:

1. Blank or White Page: If your sitemap shows a blank or white page, check the source code of the page. If the source code is empty, there may be a conflict with another plugin or theme. You can use the Health Check plugin to identify the conflicting plugin or theme. If there is data in the source code, try flushing the sitemaps cache and excluding it from any caching plugins.
   

2. 404 Error: If Rank Math does not create a sitemap and throws a 404 error, ensure that you have the correct rewrite rules in your server configuration. For Apache, add the following to your .htaccess file:

   # START of Rank Math Sitemap Rewrite Rules
   RewriteEngine On
   RewriteBase /
   RewriteRule ^sitemap_index.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=1 [L]
   RewriteRule ^([^/]+?)-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=$1&sitemap_n=$2 [L]
   RewriteRule ^([a-z]+)?-?sitemap.xsl$ /index.php?xsl=$1 [L]
   # END of Rank Math Sitemap Rewrite Rules

   For Nginx, add this to your configuration:

   # START Nginx Rewrites for Rank Math Sitemaps
   rewrite ^/sitemap_index.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=1 last;
   rewrite ^/([^/]+?)-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml$ /index.php?sitemap=$1&sitemap_n=$2 last;
   rewrite ^/([a-z]+)?-sitemap.xsl$ /index.php?xsl=$1 last;
   # END Nginx Rewrites for Rank Math Sitemaps

3. Sitemap Blocked by robots.txt: Ensure that your robots.txt file does not block access to your sitemap. You can check this in Rank Math SEO → General Settings → robots.txt.

4. Custom Canonicals: If you have added custom canonical URLs to your posts, they may not appear in the sitemap. To include all posts in the sitemap, consider removing custom canonicals and allowing Rank Math to generate them.

5. Static File Conflict: Check if there is a static file named sitemap_index.xml on your server. If so, remove it as it can cause conflicts with the dynamically generated sitemap.

For more detailed troubleshooting, you can refer to our guide on fixing sitemap issues.

If these solutions do not resolve your issue, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.

Thank you for raising this concern!

Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

Hello,

Your sitemap index seems fine: https://sirfcricket.com/sitemap_index.xml

However, the sub-sitemaps are opening a different file showing invalid/spam links.

Please check if these files exist in your website root directory:
post-sitemap.xml
page-sitemap.xml
category-sitemap.xml

You may get in touch with your web host as well for assistance in managing your website files. If you have found them, you may need to delete those files for Rank Math to generate your actual sub-sitemaps.

Also, we recommend running a security scan on your site and checking if there is malware that is causing the issue.

Here’s a great article on how to secure your WordPress website:
https://mythemeshop.com/blog/wordpress-security-tips/

Looking forward to helping you.