site map cant be fetched and cant be read by google

#1096106
  • Resolved James

    1 month ago

    Rank Math free

    Hi

    I have been trying to submit my site map to Google and I keep getting the cannot fetch error either “General HTTP Error” (for /sitemap_index.xml) or “Sitemap Cannot Be Read” (for /?sitemap=1).

    Please note that I have have:
    – Flushed and reset cache and permalinks (and included no caching at server)
    – Checked the sitemap on httpstatus.io using the googlebot (which verified that everything is ok for both /sitemap_index.xml and /?sitemap=1)
    – Checked the robots.txt file (all correct)
    – Checked that the sitemap is set to index
    – Checked WordPress settings to make sure that “Discourage search engines” setting is turned off
    – Submitted both /sitemap_index.xml and /?sitemap=1 to Google
    – Event tried to changing X-Robots-tag as suggested with a code snippet (which I realise shouldnt have any impact but thought it worth trying), which had no effect.

    So it should be working and the host (WP Engine) cant see anything on their side. please could you advise as soon as possible further steps to resolve this.

    Thanks

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • RankBot

    1 month ago

    Hello,

    We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap not being fetched by Google. It sounds like you’ve already taken several important troubleshooting steps. Here are a few additional suggestions that may help resolve the issue:

    1. Rename the Sitemap File: Sometimes, changing the name of the sitemap file can help. In Google Search Console, go to Indexing → Sitemaps and try submitting the following sitemap URL:

      https://yourdomain.com/?sitemap=1

      Rename the sitemap file

    2. Validate Your Sitemap: Ensure your sitemap is correctly configured by using the Validate XML Sitemap tool. This will help confirm that there are no issues with the sitemap structure.

      An example displaying how to validate a sitemap

    3. Check for Plugin Conflicts: If you haven’t already, consider checking for any plugin conflicts that might be affecting your sitemap. You can use the Health Check plugin to help identify any issues.

    4. Flush Cache Again: Even though you’ve flushed the cache, ensure that any server-side caching (like WP Engine’s caching) is also cleared. Sometimes, it may require a deeper cache flush from the hosting provider.

    5. Check for Custom Canonicals: If you have custom canonical URLs set for your posts, they may not appear in the sitemap. Ensure that you are allowing Rank Math to generate the canonical URLs for your posts.

    6. Ensure Sitemap is Not Blocked: Double-check your robots.txt file to ensure that there are no rules blocking access to your sitemap.

    If you’ve tried all these steps and are still encountering issues, we recommend replying to this ticket with your site URL so that a human agent from our support team can assist you further.

    Thank you for your patience, and we hope to resolve this issue for you soon!

    Adetayo

    1 month ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for contacting us. We apologize for any inconvenience that may have been caused.

    Please try to follow the steps below and see if that works for you.

    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/

    3. If the above steps don’t seem to work, kindly apply the following filter to your site.

    add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

    Here’s how you can add a filter/hook to your WordPress site:
    https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

    Once done, clear your website cache, remove all the submitted sitemaps, and resubmit only the index sitemap in the Search Console.

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

    Thank you.

    RankBot

    1 day, 5 hours ago

    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.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

The ticket ‘site map cant be fetched and cant be read by google’ is closed to new replies.