Hello, I’m sorry to hear about the trouble you’re facing with your sitemap. It seems like there might be an issue with the sitemap format. The error message “Sitemap is HTML” typically indicates that Google is expecting an XML sitemap but is receiving an HTML file instead.
To resolve this issue, you’ll need to ensure that your sitemap is in the correct XML format. If you’re using Rank Math, you can access your sitemap at https://yourdomainname/sitemap_index.xml. This is the URL you should submit to Google Search Console.
If you’re still encountering issues after ensuring that your sitemap is in the correct format, please validate your sitemap using the Validate XML Sitemap tool. This will help confirm if there are any issues with the sitemap itself.
If you need further assistance, please feel free to reply, and we’ll be happy to help.
Sources:
Why Did My Website Disappear From Google Search? » Rank Math
How to Configure Sitemaps in Rank Math – Best Settings and Tips
Why Google Search Console Shows Zero Discovered URLs Through Sitemap? » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Working With the News Sitemap in Rank Math » Rank Math
but in GCS the total no. of discovered post is showing upto 179 but i have posted near 190 post
for your information i have google news sitemap which i have submitted to GCS
Hello,
Thank you for your patience.
Could you please share your sitemap URL so we can check?
Meanwhile, follow the steps in this link to flush your sitemap cache:
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/
Let us know how this goes.
Hello,
We’ve checked your sitemap, and it is validating fine.
Please follow the steps we have previously shared 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.
i have done it but nothing is working for me.
Hello,
We checked your sitemap and looks like Google is crawling it as an HTML page.
In this case, please try to clear your website cache including any server-level cache, remove all the submitted sitemap, and resubmit only the /sitemap_index.xml in the Search Console.
If the issue persists, you can try to submit /?sitemap=1 and see if that works for you.
Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Thank you.
how to remove website cache and server level cache and you are telling to submit only one sitemap but i have two one for the site and the other one for google news sitemap
nothing is working for me i have cached website and in server level also
Hello,
You can resubmit only the primary sitemap (https://example.com/sitemap_index.xml or https://example.com/?sitemap=1) and Google will eventually crawl all the sub sitemaps inside it.
Please try both the variations of sitemap we have mentioned and let us know how that goes.
Looking forward to helping you.
I have submitted many times but nothing works, it only show 179 discovered pages but I have posted nearly 200 post.
Hello,
If we search your website on Google using the site: query, it shows 194 posts as you can see in the screenshot below:
This means that Google has already discovered all your posts but not everything is coming from the sitemap. It could be from an internal link within your website or a backlink from a different website.
In this case, it is completely fine to see incomplete numbers of URLs in the sitemap report of your GSC as long as all your posts have already been crawled and indexed.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any other questions.
Is there any further steps I have to do
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.
