sitemap error for /post-sitemap.xml on Google Search Console

#430637
  • Resolved Derek
    Rank Math free

    I have a sitemap issue that is, I think, due to my provider’s Nginx Server as your message recently appeared at the top of my Rank Math page:

    “Since you are using an NGINX server, you may need to add the following code to your configuration file if your Sitemap pages are not loading. If you are unsure how to do it, please contact your hosting provider. Click here to see the code.”

    However, my provider (Laughing Squid and Pressable.com) will not allow changes or edits to their Nginx Server config file. What options do I have to fix my sitemap errors on Google Search Console? Here are the symptoms:

    Yesterday, I noticed that the sitemap listing on Google Search Console was red and it listed ERROR under status. I contacted my hosting company and they reset my permalink and that fixed two of the three sitemaps:

    /category-sitemap.xml
    /page-sitemap.xml

    Both of those files continue to be updated and the “last read” date shows today (Aug 4). So they seem to be OK.

    However, the third file, /post-sitemap.xml, still shows the error, and it hasn’t been read since July 20th. The detail of the error says:

    “We encountered an error while trying to access your sitemap. Please ensure that your sitemap is present at the specified address and is not blocked to Google. See our help center for more debugging help.
    Examples
    HTTP Error:
    404

    I only got the Nginx Server message recently and it appeared to work before without error.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • Hello,

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

    Can you please share your website URL with us so we can further check it on our end? You may insert the URL in the Sensitive Data section.

    Looking forward to helping you on this one.

    Derek
    Rank Math free

    Hello,

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

    Thank you.

    Hello,

    Your post sitemap is working fine. Please remove all previously submitted sitemaps from your GSC account and resubmit your main sitemap(sitemap_index.xml). Once done, wait for Google to recrawl the sitemap and the issue should be resolved after that.

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

    Derek
    Rank Math free

    Good morning Jaideep,

    Can you tell me how long I need to wait? I did as you suggested last night and this morning the error condition still exists for /posts-sitemap.xml

    Hello,

    Could you please confirm if the Last read date of your post sitemap is already updated?

    Last read

    If not yet, please give it some time for Google to recrawl your sitemaps.

    Unfortunately, there’s no definite time for Google to recrawl your sitemaps. According to Googe guidelines, crawling can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks.

    Thank you.

    Derek
    Rank Math free

    the Sitemap index is last read today… but that date has never been the issue. The /post-sitemap.xml still shows July 20… that’s the one that is the problem. (Sorry, I don’t know how to attach my screenshots of it here).

    The site index listing and the category & pages files seem to get updated pretty quickly when I’ve put new site map URLs into GSC… but as you can see, the post-sitemap.xml hasn’t updated at the same rate as the rest of the sitemap for quite some time.

    Derek

    Anas
    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    You can share screenshots using https://imgbb.com/

    I checked the sitemap, it is working fine and is not blocked from the Googlebot.

    Can you please remove all the sitemaps and submit sub-sitemaps(post, page) and see if that helps?

    Let us know how it goes.

    We are here to assist you.

    Derek
    Rank Math free

    As far as I can see on Google Search Console, there is no mechanism for submitting “sub-sitemaps” — so what I did was delete the sitemap-index.xml and submitted the category, page, and post sub-sitemaps individually. Much to my surprise, they didn’t overwrite each other when I submitted them, and each individual submissions now shows up on the Submitted sitemaps page with a green Success status and today’s date for the submitted and last read columns.

    So that appears to have made progress!

    Question: do I lose anything by not having the single sitemap submission with the category, page, and post files in their proper directory order?

    Thanks!

    Anas
    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    Submitting the sub-sitemaps won’t have any negative impact on the website. Google will crawl your post URLs from the sub-sitemaps.

    Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.

    Derek
    Rank Math free

    Thank you… I will. And I appreciate the support to get to this point.

    Marking as resolved!

    Derek

    Anas
    Rank Math business

    Hello,

    We are glad we could address your concerns. If you have any other questions in the future, know that we are here to help you.

    If you don’t mind me asking, could you please leave us a review (if you haven’t already) on https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/seo-by-rank-math/reviews/#new-post about your overall experience with Rank Math? We appreciate your time and patience.

    If you do have another question in the future, please feel free to create a new forum topic, and it will be our pleasure to assist you again.

    Thank you.

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

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