Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to that.
I’ve checked your sitemap using this tool and there’s no error and it’s a valid sitemap.
May I check with you, Have you verified the correct version of your website on Google? Please check if you have verified the www (or non-www) and https (or http) version of your website. If there is a mismatch, you would need to fix that.
Finally, make sure you have cleared the cache and excluded Google bot from seeing a cached version of your sitemap.
You can follow this article below to exclude your sitemap from caching:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
If you have followed these and Rank Math is outputting your sitemap correctly and the error must be coming from Google. You can try and use a 3rd party sitemap plugin to confirm. Just make sure you have disabled the Sitemap module of Rank Math in WordPress Dashboard > Rank Math > Dashboard when using a 3rd party sitemap plugin.
Looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
Hello Febby
Thank you for your answer!
On Google the website is correct, and all the other 10 sitemaps from RankMath did upload without any problem.
As you suggested I now excluded the sitemaps from caching and then cleared the cache, then deleted the page-sitemap on Google Search Console, and loaded it again. But still 9 errors.
As the other sitemaps of RankMath are already uploaded, also the sitemap_index, I’m not sure if it’s good to take another plugin? Maybe I just delete the page-sitemap from the Search Console? Is this better than leave it there with errors? I read that Google can find the pages anyway? What do you suggest to do now?
Thank you and best regards
Simone Aeschbacher
Hello,
Let’s try this, Could you please remove your sitemaps on GSC and resubmit only the main sitemap(sitemap_index.xml) then allow some time for it to be crawled, this has been known to resolve the issue.
Since you have already resubmitted your site for recrawl, it may take several days but there is no exact period that Google takes to handle the recrawls. Here are the method you can use to submit for a recrawl: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/crawling/ask-google-to-recrawl
Looking forward to hearing back from you.
Hello Febbie
So I did this, I deleted all the sitemaps. Then I added the sitemap_index.html again. It looks fine, except the same page-sitemap within it. This on still has 9 errors.
I used the Google URL check tool to search for the most important pages, they are with no error. Some are indexed, some not yet. I asked for indexing.
But I still don’t know what the errors are??
Best regards
Simone
Hello,
If you can view your sitemap without any problem, and there is no validation issue, Rank Math is outputting your sitemap correctly, and the error must be coming from Google.
Can you try and use a 3rd party sitemap plugin to confirm.
Just make sure you have disabled the Sitemap module of Rank Math in WordPress Dashboard > Rank Math > Dashboard when using a 3rd party sitemap plugin.
Let us know the outcome.
Looking forward to helping you.
Hello Danial
I’m a bit unsure to install a new SEO plugin…
So do you think it’s important to try this or is it a minor problem with these 9 errors in the Google Search Console?
Thanks a lot and best regards
Simone Aeschbacher
Hello,
Thank you for following up, and sorry for the delay.
This would be a minor problem if the URLs that GSC points out are not important URLs. As you have mentioned, there are URLs that are set to index, and some of them are not indexed.
If you are using WooCommerce, and the WooCommerce module is enabled in the Rank Math dashboard, Rank Math automatically adds the noindex to the robots meta of the pages like Myaccount, Checkout, and Cart by default.
I hope that helps. Thank you, and looking forward to your update.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hello Reinelle
Unfortunately, some of the important pages are not indexed. And I don’t know where the errors in the page-sitemap are. How to find out?
What you say could be a reason: The pages like newsletter or account and so on are maybe not disallowed? See the my robots.txt in the appendix. I checked the box of WooCommerce in RankMath, so as you say these pages should have a disallow?
Best regards
Simone
Hello,
Would you mind if we o through your settings from the backend? If not, please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress & FTP logins in the designated 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.
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.
