Site Map index issue

#355450
  • Resolved Artur MacLellan
    Rank Math free

    I keep getting the following error for my sitemap and bots can not crawl. How do I fix it?

    This page contains the following errors:

    error on line 6 at column 6: XML declaration allowed only at the start of the document
    Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Hello,

    Thank you for contacting the support, and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.

    That is usually due to extra whitespace at the end or beginning of the functions.php file on your theme or to some plugins.

    To troubleshoot this, you can try switching your theme to the default one and see if the issue goes away. You can also do the same with your plugins. You may follow this simple guide: https://rankmath.com/kb/check-plugin-conflicts/

    Only the site admin would know and your users won’t be affected by this troubleshooting.

    If the issue persists on your end, we might need to take a closer look at the settings. Please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress & FTP logins in the designated Sensitive Data section.
    Sensitive Data Section

    It is completely secure and only our support staff has access to that section. If you want, you can use the below plugin to generate a temporary login URL to your website and share that with us instead:

    https://wordpress.org/plugins/temporary-login-without-password/

    You can use the above plugin in conjunction with the WP Security Audit Log to monitor what changes our staff might make on your website (if any):

    https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/

    We really look forward to helping you.

    Okay, so i’ve narrowed down the issue to when Rank Math plugin is enabled then the Site Map comes up with those errors. Can you send me your email so I can add send you a temporary link to login?

    Hello,

    Please make use of our support email s******@r*********** to create the temporary login.

    Looking forward to helping you on this one.

    Hello,

    I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?

    Thank you.

    I updated the sensitive data section with the URL to login.

    Hello,

    Thank you so much for providing the temporary login.

    I conducted the troubleshooting steps again and it seems the issue is caused by your custom theme. Kindly check my videos screencast in the sensitive data section.

    Please contact your theme author support as they should be able to locate the specific line from their theme files that causes this conflict with our plugin.

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

    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 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

The ticket ‘Site Map index issue’ is closed to new replies.