sitemap problem

Hello,

I apologize for the issue you are facing with your website’s sitemap not including the main categories but only the subcategories. This can be a common issue related to how the sitemap is generated and managed.

Based on the information you provided, it seems like the main categories might not be included in the sitemap due to certain settings or configurations. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot and potentially resolve this problem:

1. Check Robots Meta Settings: Ensure that the main categories are not set to “Noindex” in the Robots Meta settings. You can check this by going to the Advanced tab settings of the main category pages and confirming that the Robots Meta tag is set to “Index.”

2. Validate Your Sitemap: Use a tool like Validate XML Sitemap to confirm that your sitemap is correctly configured. Make sure that the main categories are included in the sitemap.

3. Exclude Sitemaps from Caching: If your sitemap is being cached, consider excluding sitemaps from caching. You can refer to our tutorial on how to exclude sitemaps from caching for detailed instructions.

If after checking these steps, the issue persists, please feel free to reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.

Thank you for bringing this concern to our attention. We are here to help you resolve this issue.

Best regards.

Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
Why Isn’t My URL Included in the Sitemap? » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Indexed, Not Submitted in Sitemap – Google Search Console » Rank Math

Hello,

We’re unable to replicate this issue on our test install. Could you please share the affected category URL that is not showing in your sitemap so we can check?

You can add it to the sensitive data section

It is completely secure, and only our support staff has access to that section.

Meanwhile, here are the common reasons why a URL is not included in the sitemap:
https://rankmath.com/kb/url-not-in-sitemap/

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

Can you 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 filter/hook to your WordPress site:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

If the issue persists, then we might need to take a closer look at the settings. Please edit the first post on this ticket again 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.

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/

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

Thank you.