Sitemap Issue

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing issues with your website’s sitemap. It sounds like the sitemap.xml file is redirecting to the homepage instead of the sitemap_index.xml. This can cause problems with search engines properly indexing your site.

To resolve this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Flush the Sitemap Cache: If you are using a caching plugin, make sure to flush the cache for the sitemap files.

2. Fix Sitemap Issues on Nginx or Apache Server: Ensure that your server configuration is not causing any issues with the sitemap files.

3. Exclude the Sitemap Files in the Caching Plugin: If you are using a caching plugin, exclude the sitemap files from being cached.

4. Add Filter to Enable/Disable Sitemap Caching: You can add a filter to enable or disable sitemap caching as needed.

5. Ensure Pages Are Set to Index: Check that your posts and pages are set to index in the Rank Math SEO settings.

If you have already tried these steps and the issue persists, please let us know, and we will be happy to assist you further.

If you need additional help, please feel free to contact our support team. We are available 24×7 and will be happy to help you out as soon as possible.

I hope this helps!

Sources:
Why the Sitemap_Index.xml is Throwing a 404 Error » Rank Math
Indexed, Not Submitted in Sitemap – Google Search Console » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Remove Blank Lines From Sitemaps » Rank Math

Hello,

Apologies for the inconvenience.

If the sitemap.xml is not redirecting properly, then you may need to add this to your site’s .htaccess:
https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/#apache-error

Let us know how this goes.