Sitemap and robots.txt submission to Google keeps saying fetched error 403

Hello,

We apologize for the inconvenience you’re experiencing with your website’s sitemap and robots.txt file submission to Google. It seems that you are encountering a “Blocked due to other 4xx issue” error for the robots.txt file and a “Couldn’t fetch” error for the sitemap.xml file.

To resolve the issue with the robots.txt file, you can try regenerating your robots.txt file. You can do this by editing your robots.txt file in Rank Math SEO settings. If you’ve removed any default rules from your robots.txt file, you can copy-paste the default rules provided by Rank Math.

Here’s how you can edit your robots.txt file in Rank Math SEO settings:

1. Go to Rank Math SEO → General Settings → Edit .robots.txt.
2. If this section is unavailable on your website, ensure that you’ve switched to the Advanced Mode in Rank Math.

You can also check if there are any unintended rules in your actual robots.txt file or the virtual robots.txt file added by Rank Math.

As for the “Couldn’t fetch” error for the sitemap.xml file, you can follow these steps to ensure that your sitemap is set up correctly:

1. Validate your sitemap using the Validate XML Sitemap tool.
2. Ensure that the sitemap is located in the root folder of your WordPress installation.
3. Ensure that your posts are set to index in Rank Math SEO settings.

If these steps don’t resolve the issue, you may need to contact your web hosting provider for assistance, as there could be a misconfiguration on the server.

If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, please feel free to reach out to our support team directly from here.

Best regards.

Sources:
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
How To Fix Blocked Due to Access Forbidden (403) Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
Rank Math Sitemap Issues and Their Fixes » Rank Math
How to Fix the ‘Blocked Due to Other 4xx Issue’ Error » Rank Math