Sitemap problem with search console

Hello,

I’m sorry to hear about the issue you’re facing with your sitemap in Google Search Console. It can be frustrating when the sitemap is not being read or retrieved despite being accessible and set up correctly.

Based on the information you provided and the guides you’ve already tried, I recommend checking a few specific steps to troubleshoot this issue further:

1. Validate Your Sitemap: Ensure that your sitemap is correctly configured by using the Validate XML Sitemap tool as mentioned in the Rank Math guide. Make sure there are no issues detected.

2. Ensure the Sitemap Location: Double-check that your sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation with the correct URL structure (https://yourdomainname.com/sitemap_index.xml).

3. Set Posts to Index: Confirm that your posts are set to index in Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta as described in the guide.

4. Add Sitemap to Google Search Console: If you haven’t already, add the correct sitemap URL to Google Search Console under Indexing → Sitemaps. Make sure there are no spaces in the sitemap URL.

5. Flush Permalinks: If you encounter a 404 error and Google can’t find your sitemap index, try flushing permalinks by clicking Save Changes from the Permalinks page in your WordPress dashboard.

If after following these steps the issue persists, please reply here, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further. Thank you for your patience and cooperation!

Sources:
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

Please share the sitemap URL you are submitting so we can check as well.

Also, take a screenshot of the sitemap section of your Google Search Console so we can see the issue. You can upload screenshots using this tool and add the link here.

Meanwhile, please follow these steps to flush your sitemap cache (if not yet):

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. Disable the transient cache for the sitemap by applying this filter. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site:

/** 
 * Filter if XML sitemap transient cache is enabled.
 *
 * @param boolean $unsigned Enable cache or not, defaults to true
 */
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

If you’re not sure how to add this code, you can follow this guide:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

In this case, please remove the sitemap on your Google Search Console, then submit ?sitemap=1 only:
https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/#rename-the-sitemap

Once done, please wait for the “Last read” column to be updated after submitting your sitemap.

Let us know if the issue still persists after Google crawls your sitemap.

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

You may need to give Google some time to crawl your sitemap.

The “Last Read” column will update and show the date where the sitemap was crawled.

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

It seems that the issue is on Google’s end. I’ve double-checked your sitemap, and it appears to be working fine with no reported issues.

There was a similar issue discussed previously on the Google Webmaster forum, which you can find here. We’ve also noticed multiple user reports of similar issues occurring again.

We recommend giving it a bit more time and reporting the issue on the Webmaster forum so that Google is aware (or reminded) of it.

Please feel free to reach out if you need assistance with anything else.