Sitemap couldn’t fetch

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with your sitemap showing "couldn’t fetch" in Google Search Console. This can be caused by several factors. Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve the issue:

1. Validate Your Sitemap

First, ensure that your sitemap is correctly configured. You can use the Validate XML Sitemap tool to check for any issues. If your sitemap is correctly configured, it should return a success message.

2. Ensure the Sitemap is Located in the Root Folder

Make sure your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation. The URL should look like this:

http://yourdomain.com`

3. Check Indexing Settings

Ensure that your posts are set to index. Go to Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and make sure the Index checkbox is enabled for your posts.

4. Flush the Cache

If your sitemap appears outdated, you may need to flush the sitemap cache. Navigate to Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings, increase the value of Links Per Sitemap by one, and then save your settings. After that, go to Settings → Permalinks and click Save Changes to apply the current settings.

5. Exclude the Sitemap From Caching

Make sure that your sitemap is not being cached. You can refer to this article on ensuring that your sitemaps are excluded from caching.

6. Add the Correct Version of Your Sitemap to Google Search Console

Ensure you have added the correct version of your site URL in Google Search Console. You can check this in your WordPress dashboard under Settings → General.

7. Resubmit Your Sitemap

After making these changes, resubmit your sitemap URL in Google Search Console.

If you continue to experience issues after following these steps, please reply to this ticket with your site URL so we can assist you further. Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope these steps help resolve the issue!

Sources:
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

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.

Hello,

Please give Google some time to crawl and read your sitemap, then check again.

If everything is fine on your end, and Google may still return the error, please note that not all sitemaps are processed by Google not necessarily because there is something wrong with the sitemap.

Even a perfect sitemap may not be processed by Google. Most of the time, it’s still sitting in the queue waiting for processing.

You can check the replies of Google experts for the Couldn’t Fetch (especially for the TLDs except for .com) issues on the following threads: https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/29055233/missing-xml-sitemap-data-in-google-search-console-for-tld-domain?hl=en and
https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/31835653/sitemap-couldn-t-fetch-sitemap-couldn-t-be-read-by-google-search-console?hl=en

Meanwhile, you shouldn’t be worried about the “No: “noindex” detected in the HTTP header “X-Robots-Tag” error, as it’s completely fine and normal to have noindex tag on your sitemap URLs.

Because, by default, sitemap URLs are set to noindex as it is not meant to be indexed and appear in the search results. The sitemap should only be submitted in the sitemaps section in the Search Console.

The reason is that we don’t want Google to index the sitemap itself; we only want Google to index the pages and posts that are listed on the sitemap. The sitemap is simply a way to inform Google about the pages and posts on your website, not a page that you want to appear in search results.

Do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.

Hello,

We checked the sitemap and it works correctly.

We also tested them and found no issues there.

You can try disabling the transient cache for the sitemap. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site. Kindly add this code snippet to your site:

/** 
 * Filter if XML sitemap transient cache is enabled.
 *
 * @param boolean $unsigned Enable cache or not, defaults to true
 */
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

If you’re not sure how to add this code, you can follow this guide: https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/.

After you add the code, please clear any cache on your site or server and try removing and adding your main sitemap (sitemap_index.xml) to GSC.

Please note that Google can take some time to recrawl your sitemaps. You can monitor the “Last read/crawl date” column in the sitemap index as it will update the date when Google crawls your sitemap.

Also, please note that the ‘Discovered Pages’ on the Google Search Console only shows the number of pages that were discovered using the sitemap, and since the sitemap is not the only tool Google uses to discover pages, the number of ‘Discovered Pages’ might differ from your number of pages on your sitemap.

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

Thank you.

Hello,

The code should be applied to your theme’s functions.php. You can follow this guide to know other methods of applying the filter code: https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

If you are still having difficulties applying the code, 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.

Please do take a complete backup of your website before sharing the information with us.

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.

Hello,

We have already updated the filter in your Code Snippets plugin, as it is set as HTML instead of PHP.

Please remove all your submitted sitemaps and resubmit your main sitemap only:
https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

Once you’ve done this, give Google some time to recrawl your site. It will also update the “Last read” date column.

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

Please check the “Last read” date in the sitemap section of the search console to know when it was last fetched by Google.

You can also share this with us. You can take a screenshot using https://imgur.com/upload so that we can investigate the issue further.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.