Hello, I’m sorry to hear that you’re encountering this issue with your sitemap in Google Search Console. The error message “The Sitemap is in HTML format” indicates that Google is reading your sitemap as an HTML page instead of the expected XML format.
This issue can occur due to various reasons, such as incorrect submission of the sitemap URL or conflicts with plugins like W3 Total Cache. To resolve this, you can follow these steps:
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Ensure that you have submitted the correct XML sitemap URL to Google. The correct URL format should be something like: `https://rankmath.com/kb/fix-sitemap-issues/
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If you are certain that the correct URL has been submitted and you are still facing the error, you can check for plugin conflicts using the Health Check plugin.
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If you are using W3 Total Cache along with Rank Math, you can create a user agent group and add the ‘_googlebot’ user agent to it.
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If the above solutions don’t resolve the issue, you can include a specific filter in your theme’s functions.php or rank-math.php file.
Here is the filter:
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');
If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to reach out to our dedicated support team. You can contact them here. We’re available 24/7, 365 days a year.
I hope this helps!
Sources:
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
How to Create HTML Sitemap Using Rank Math » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Why GSC Shows “No Referring Sitemaps Detected”
Hello,
Thank you for your patience.
Please follow the steps above to flush your sitemap cache.
Once done, remove all your submitted sitemaps in your Google Search Console and resubmit your main sitemap index only:
https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/
Looking forward to helping you.
Sitemaps cannot be removed from Search Console. I resubmitted the sitemaps.
Hello,
You can click the Remove Sitemap button to remove the previously submitted sitemap on Google Search Console:
However, can you please confirm if you’re still facing the issue on Google Search Console?
Looking forward to helping you.
Thank 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.
