Sitemap 404 issue

Hello, I’m sorry to hear that you’re experiencing issues with your sitemap. It looks like two of your sitemaps are returning a 404 error. This can cause problems with Google’s ability to index your site properly.

To address this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Flush the Sitemap Cache: After making changes, you need to flush the sitemap cache for the changes to take effect. You can do this by navigating to Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings and changing the Links Per Sitemap. Then click on Save Changes.

2. Ensure Pages Are Set to Index: Your sitemap will become empty if all your posts are set to noindex. To set your posts to index, head over to Rank Math SEO → Titles & Meta and enable the Index checkbox.

If the issue persists after trying these steps, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to assist you further.

Sources:
Why the Sitemap_Index.xml is Throwing a 404 Error » 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,

Thank you for contacting us and sorry for any inconvenience that might have been caused due to this issue.

Please follow the steps below for initial troubleshooting:

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/

If the issue persists then try disabling the transient cache for the sitemap. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site. To do this, you need to add a small piece of code to your site’s functions.php file or use a plugin like Code Snippets.
The code you need to add is this:

/**
* 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/.

It will show you step-by-step how to use the Code Snippets plugin or edit the functions.php file safely.

After you add the code, please clear any cache on your site or server and check your XML sitemap again. If you’re still facing issues with the sitemap, please let us know – we are happy to investigate further.

Thanks.