Two site maps in google search console during indexing

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the sitemaps in Google Search Console. It seems that there might be a conflict or an issue with how the sitemaps are being generated or recognized by Google.

Here are some steps you can take to troubleshoot and resolve this issue:

1. Validate Your Sitemap

First, ensure that your sitemap is correctly configured. You can validate your sitemap using the Validate XML Sitemap tool. Enter your sitemap URL (`https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/) and check for any issues.

2. Check for Plugin Conflicts

Sometimes, other plugins may create additional sitemaps. To check for conflicts, you can use the Health Check plugin. This will help identify if another plugin is generating the page-sitemap.xml.

3. Review Robots.txt File

Ensure that your robots.txt file is not blocking any of your sitemaps. You can check this by going to Rank Math SEO → General Settings → robots.txt.

4. Clear Cache

If you are using a caching plugin, clear your cache to ensure that the latest sitemap is being served.

5. Resubmit Your Sitemap

After making sure everything is set up correctly, resubmit your sitemap index URL (`https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/) in Google Search Console. This will help Google recognize the correct sitemap.

6. Remove Unwanted Sitemaps

If the page-sitemap.xml is still being detected and you are sure it should not exist, you may need to investigate further to see if there are any remnants of it in your site’s configuration or if it was created by another plugin.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, please reply to this ticket with more details about your site setup, and a human agent from our support team will assist you further.

Thank you for raising this concern! We hope this helps you get your sitemap issues sorted out soon!

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 query and we are so sorry about the trouble this must have caused.

Please access your FTP server and go to your website’s root directory. Then, look for any XML files there and delete it.

If the issue persists, Please follow the steps below:

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. Apply the following filter code to your site.

add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

Here’s how you can add filter to your WordPress site:https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

4. Remove all your sitemaps from your Google Search Console and re-submit only the index sitemap (https://website.com/sitemap_index.xml)

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

Hello,

In that case, please edit the first post on this ticket 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.

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.