sitemap to google submission problem

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Rank Math support.

Please follow this guide to troubleshoot the couldn’t fetch issue: https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/

If everything is fine on your end, and Google still returns the error, please note that not all sitemaps are processed by Google. Not necessarily because there is something wrong with the sitemap.

Even a perfect sitemap may not be processed by Google.

Most of the time, it’s still sitting in the queue waiting for processing. Remember, Google is processing millions of sitemap daily, sometimes it takes time to get to yours. But for whatever reason, Google never gets around to some sitemaps. It just doesn’t think it is worth it.

And Search Console sometimes shows ‘Pending’ as ‘couldn’t fetch’ incorrectly. You can check the replies of Google experts for the Couldn’t Fetch(especially for the TLDs except for .com) issues on the following threads:
https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/29055233/missing-xml-sitemap-data-in-google-search-console-for-tld-domain?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/31835653/sitemap-couldn-t-fetch-sitemap-couldn-t-be-read-by-google-search-console?hl=en

You can try using a different sitemap plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins/xml-sitemap-generator-for-google/ to generate the sitemap and see if Google can read them. Please make sure to disable the Sitemap module of our plugin in WP Dashboard > Rank Math > Dashboard.

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

Hello,

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

We can see that the sitemap is not loaded correctly on your site (see the image in the sensitive data section).

Please confirm that there is no sitemap_index.xml or sitemap.xml file in the root directory of your site. If there is please delete as Rank Math generates the sitemap dynamically.

Also 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.

Hello,

Thank you for your patience.

From your screenshot, you would need to wait for the “Last read/crawl date” column after submitting your sitemap.

Also, you should submit your main sitemap index only and Google will use that to crawl the sub-sitemaps:
https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

As mentioned in my previous reply, Couldn’t Fetch is a common issue, especially for the TLDs except for .com. If you think the issue is related to our plugin, please try using a different sitemap plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins/xml-sitemap-generator-for-google/ to generate the sitemap and see if Google can read them. Please make sure to disable the Sitemap module of our plugin in WP Dashboard > Rank Math > Dashboard.

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