Sitemap could not be read by Google Search Console

  • Resolved clgm

    (@clgm)


    2 years, 11 months ago

    Hi, I added /sitemap_index.xml over a week ago to the Google Search Console, and it has been unable to read it.

    If I check the sitemap on https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/robots-testing-tool?siteUrl=https://andrewwheldon.com.au/ I get the following –

    User-agent: *
Disallow:

Sitemap: https://andrewwheldon.com.au/sitemap_index.xml

    I don’t have a robots.txt file, and there’s nothing in the .htaccess file either.

    I have cleared all caches on the site, and resubmitted the sitemap several times. I still get the error.

    If I do a live tests of the sitemap URL on the GSC, I get the error “No: ‘noindex’ detected in ‘X-Robots-Tag’ http header”

    How do I get rid of this, please, so I can get the site indexed by Google?

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Plugin Support Maybellyne

    (@maybellyne)

    2 years, 11 months ago

    Hello Clgm,

    I am sorry to learn that the Google Search Console reports that your sitemap could not be read. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t provide more information about why they cannot read the sitemap.

    The sitemap loads fine at my end and the sitemap validator reports no issues/errors.

    Your robots.txt file is located at https://andrewwheldon.com.au/robots.txt and meets our recommendations. Can you please check if the URL inspection tool‘s live test show any errors with the sitemap URL? If yes, please resolve the errors. Also, did you submit the sitemap to the Google Search Console profile that matches the preferred URL format including HTTP(S) and WWW or non-WWW?

    If you’ve checked everything above, please contact Google for further assistance here.`

    Thread Starter clgm

    (@clgm)

    2 years, 11 months ago

    Hi, the URL inspection tool’s live test shows these errors for the sitemap at https://andrewwheldon.com.au/sitemap_index.xml –

    URL is not available to Google

    Discovery
    Not checked in live tests
    Crawl
    Time
    Aug 15, 2022, 8:56:48 AM
    Crawled as
    Googlebot smartphone
    Crawl allowed?
    Yes
    Page fetch
    Successful
    Indexing allowed?
    error
    No: ‘noindex’ detected in ‘X-Robots-Tag’ http header
    Indexing
    User-declared canonical
    None
    Google-selected canonical

    Only determined after indexing

    How do I resolve these errors? If I look at the page source for the site homepage, I can see the following line of code –

    <meta name='robots' content='index, follow, max-image-preview:large, max-snippet:-1, max-video-preview:-1' />

    Where is ‘X-Robots-Tag’ http header specified?

    Regarding your comment: did you submit the sitemap to the Google Search Console profile that matches the preferred URL format including HTTP(S) and WWW or non-WWW

    Google will only allow me to add a new sitemap to https://andrewwheldon.com.au/ so I submitted /sitemap_index.xml

    To submit the sitemap in another format I would need to add a new property. Is that what you mean?

    Thanks

    Thread Starter clgm

    (@clgm)

    2 years, 11 months ago

    I don’t know if this is relevant, but if I submit the other sitemaps for this domain, /category-sitemap.xml and /page-sitemap.xml are processed successfully, but /post-sitemap.xml (which should show 3 URLs) has a missing XML tag and I get the following error –

    This required tag is missing. Please add it and resubmit.
Examples
Line 3
Parent tag:
urlset
Tag:
url

    For /author-sitemap.xml and /project-sitemap.xml I get ‘Sitemap could not be read’

    Thread Starter clgm

    (@clgm)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    This is the source code for /post-sitemap.xml 

    
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="//andrewwheldon.com.au/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-seo/css/main-sitemap.xsl"?>
<urlset xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:image="http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9 http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9/sitemap.xsd http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1 http://www.google.com/schemas/sitemap-image/1.1/sitemap-image.xsd" xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
	<url>
		<loc>https://andrewwheldon.com.au/do-you-have-a-business-partner/</loc>
		<lastmod>2022-07-19T01:09:34+00:00</lastmod>
	</url>
	<url>
		<loc>https://andrewwheldon.com.au/what-a-will-kit-doesnt-do/</loc>
		<lastmod>2022-07-19T01:13:14+00:00</lastmod>
	</url>
	<url>
		<loc>https://andrewwheldon.com.au/options-to-renew-in-commercial-leases-dont-get-caught-out/</loc>
		<lastmod>2022-08-12T03:06:31+00:00</lastmod>
	</url>
</urlset>
<!-- XML Sitemap generated by Yoast SEO -->

    So you can see, the required tags are not missing.

    I have resubmitted the sitemap several times but I get the same error.

    Can you help, please?

    Thread Starter clgm

    (@clgm)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    Hi, the problem has been solved via the Yoast Test Helper plugin 

    Can you please try resetting our indexables in the database tables by following the steps below?
1. Install & activate the Yoast Test Helper plugin
2. Go to Tools > Yoast Test
3. Hit the “Reset indexables & migrations” button.
4. Go to SEO > Tools, and under SEO data, click the “SEO Data Optimization” button to allow Yoast to rescan your pages.

    (see solution on https://wordpress.org/support/topic/this-required-tag-is-missing-please-add-it-and-resubmit-3/)

    Thanks

    Thread Starter clgm

    (@clgm)

    2 years, 10 months ago

    Thank you

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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