Sitemap Could not fetch error

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rank Math support. I’m sorry to hear that you are having trouble submitting your sitemap to Google Search Console.

There are a few possible reasons why you might be getting this error. Can you please share the URL of the sitemap in question with me? I’d love to help troubleshoot this error. Also, have you read and followed this guide: https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/. If not, it’s a good place to start.

Looking forward to helping you troubleshoot this issue

Hello again,

Thanks for sharing more details with us.

It seems like the issue is with the sitemap URL that you are trying to submit to Google. Your sitemap is not in the right place – it should be in the root of your domain, not in the index.php folder. The correct sitemap URL for your site should be https://accuratewriter.com/sitemap_index.xml, not https://accuratewriter.com/index.php/sitemap_index.xml.

To fix this, you need to add some code to your .htaccess file. You can edit this file by navigating to Rank Math > General Settings > Edit .htaccess. Just copy and paste this code, preferably at the beginning of the file:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>

This code will redirect your sitemap to the correct location. After you save the file, clear your site cache and check if https://accuratewriter.com/sitemap_index.xml works. If it does, you can submit this sitemap to Google without any errors. If it doesn’t, you may need to add another piece of code to your .htaccess file:

<IfModule mod_security.c>
SecFilterEngine Off
</IfModule>

This code will disable a security module that may be blocking the rewrite. Try again and see if it works. If not, please let me know and I’ll be happy to help you further.

I hope this helps. Have a great day!

Hello,

The second code should go in the same file.

That said, to help you resolve this issue, we might need to take a closer look at your website and settings. Please follow these steps:

• Edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress and FTP logins in the Sensitive Data section. This is a secure section that only our support staff can access.
  
• Make sure you take a complete backup of your website before sharing the information with us.
• If you prefer, you can use this 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 also use this plugin to monitor what changes our staff might make on your website (if any): https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/

We appreciate your cooperation and patience. Thank you for choosing Rank Math.

Hello,

I appreciate your prompt reply and I’m sorry to hear that you’re still having this trouble.

In order to fix this issue, we need to access some files on your WordPress configuration that are not accessible through the admin panel. For this, we need your FTP login details.

If you don’t know your FTP login details, you can contact your hosting provider and ask them to provide it to you.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding.

Best regards,