Sitemap couldn’t fetch on GSC

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the sitemap not being fetched in Google Search Console (GSC). It seems like you’ve already taken several steps to troubleshoot the problem, which is great. Based on the information you’ve provided, it appears that the main issue is related to the noindex tag that is preventing your pages from being indexed.

Here are a few steps you can take to resolve this:

1. Check for Noindex Tags: Ensure that the pages you want indexed do not have a noindex tag. You can check this by viewing the page source and looking for the “ tag or similar in the HTTP headers.

   • If you find it, you will need to remove it from your settings in Rank Math. You can do this by going to Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and ensuring that the Index checkbox is enabled for those pages.

   

2. Flush Cache Again: Even though you’ve mentioned that caching is excluded for the sitemap, it might be worth flushing your entire site cache again to ensure no old settings are being served.

3. Check Sitemap Accessibility: Use the HTTP Status Tool to confirm that your sitemap is accessible without any errors. If it returns a 404 or any other error, that could be part of the issue.
   

4. Submit Correct Sitemap: Make sure you are submitting the correct sitemap URL in GSC, which should typically be https://yourdomainname.com/sitemap_index.xml.

5. Request Indexing: After making these changes, go back to GSC and request indexing for your pages again.

If you’ve gone through all these steps and are still facing issues, we recommend replying to this ticket with your site URL so that a human agent from our support team can assist you further. They will be able to provide more tailored assistance based on your specific setup.

Thank you for raising this concern, and we hope to help you resolve it soon!

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rank Math support. We apologize for any inconvenience 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.