Product category sitemap returning 404

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the product category sitemap returning a 404 error. Since you’ve already taken several steps to troubleshoot, here are a few additional suggestions that might help resolve the issue:

1. Flush Permalinks Again: Sometimes, it may require multiple flushes. Go to Settings → Permalinks in your WordPress admin area and click Save Changes again, even if you don’t make any changes.

2. Check for Plugin Conflicts: Since you mentioned clearing caches, ensure that there are no other plugins conflicting with Rank Math. You can use the Health Check plugin to help identify any conflicts.

3. Rewrite Rules: If you are using an Apache server, ensure that your .htaccess file has the correct rewrite rules for Rank Math. You can add the following code if it’s not present:

   # 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

4. Nginx Configuration: If you are using Nginx, ensure that your Nginx configuration file has the appropriate rewrite rules as well:

   # 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

5. Check Robots.txt: Ensure that your robots.txt file is not blocking access to the product category sitemap. You can check this in Rank Math SEO → General Settings → robots.txt.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so that a human agent from our support team can assist you further.

Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope to get your product category sitemap working correctly soon!

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

Hello,

We’ve checked your product category sitemap, and it is working fine

Please clear your website and browser’s cache if it’s still not working.

Looking forward to helping you.