Troubleshooting • 12 min read

Google Search Console Sitemap Errors: Complete Fix Guide (2025)

Google Search Console Sitemap Errors: Complete Fix Guide (2025)

You submitted your sitemap to Google Search Console, and instead of seeing a nice green "Success" status, you're staring at red error messages.

Don't panic. Sitemap errors are incredibly common, and most of them are easy to fix once you understand what's causing them.

The reality: Even large, well-maintained websites get sitemap errors occasionally. The key is knowing how to diagnose and fix them quickly.

In this guide, I'll walk you through every major sitemap error you might encounter in Google Search Console, explain what each one means, and show you exactly how to fix it. For a broader troubleshooting workflow, check out our sitemap troubleshooting guide.

How to Check for Sitemap Errors

Before we dive into specific errors, here's how to find them:

  1. Log into Google Search Console
  2. Select your property
  3. Go to Sitemaps (in the left sidebar under "Indexing")
  4. Look at the "Status" column

What you'll see:

  • Success: Your sitemap was processed without issues
  • Couldn't fetch: Google can't access your sitemap
  • Has errors: Some URLs in your sitemap have problems
  • Warnings: Non-critical issues that should be addressed

Click on any sitemap to see detailed error information.

The Most Common Sitemap Errors (And How to Fix Them)

Error #1: "Couldn't Fetch"

What it means: Google tried to download your sitemap but failed.

Common causes:

  • Your server is down or slow
  • Firewall blocking Googlebot
  • Incorrect sitemap URL
  • DNS issues
  • robots.txt blocking the sitemap
  • Server returning wrong HTTP status code

How to diagnose:

  1. Test the URL yourself:
  2. Open your sitemap URL in an incognito browser window

  3. If you can't access it, neither can Google

  4. Check your server logs:

  5. Look for Googlebot requests around the time of the error

  6. Check for 500 errors or timeouts

  7. Verify robots.txt isn't blocking it: User-agent: Googlebot Disallow: /sitemap.xml ← This would block it!

  8. Test with cURL: bash curl -I https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml Should return 200 OK, not 404 or 500.

How to fix:

If your server is down:

  • Contact your hosting provider
  • Check your server status dashboard
  • Verify your DNS is resolving correctly

If Googlebot is blocked:

  • Check your firewall settings
  • Whitelist Googlebot IP ranges
  • Verify your CDN (Cloudflare, etc.) isn't blocking bots

If robots.txt is blocking it:

  • Edit robots.txt to allow the sitemap: ``` User-agent: * Allow: /sitemap.xml

Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml ```

If the URL is wrong:

  • Verify the sitemap actually exists at that URL
  • Check for typos in the submitted URL
  • Re-submit with the correct URL

Error #2: "Submitted URL Not Found (404)"

What it means: URLs listed in your sitemap return 404 errors when Google tries to crawl them.

Why this happens:

  • You deleted pages but didn't update the sitemap
  • URLs changed but the sitemap wasn't regenerated
  • Typos in the sitemap URLs
  • Sitemap is outdated

How to diagnose:

  1. Download your sitemap:
  2. Save the XML file locally

  3. Search for the problematic URLs

  4. Test the URLs:

  5. Visit each URL in your browser

  6. Check if they actually exist

  7. Check for redirects:

  8. Use a redirect checker tool
  9. URLs that redirect should use the final destination URL

How to fix:

For WordPress users:

  1. Go to your SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math)
  2. Find the sitemap settings
  3. Click "Regenerate sitemap" or clear the sitemap cache
  4. Re-submit to Google Search Console

For Shopify/Wix/Squarespace:

  • These platforms auto-update sitemaps
  • If you're seeing 404s, the pages might actually be deleted
  • Check your content to verify

For custom sites:

  1. Regenerate your sitemap from your database
  2. Remove any deleted or redirected URLs
  3. Upload the new sitemap
  4. Re-submit to Google Search Console

Quick fix for a few URLs:

  • Manually edit the sitemap XML
  • Remove the problematic URLs
  • Re-upload and re-submit

Error #3: "Submitted URL Marked 'noindex'"

What it means: You're telling Google to index a page (by including it in your sitemap) but also telling Google NOT to index it (with a noindex tag).

Why this happens:

  • Page has a <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> tag
  • Page has an X-Robots-Tag: noindex HTTP header
  • SEO plugin set the page to noindex
  • Staging site protection left on

How to diagnose:

  1. Check the page source:
  2. Visit the URL
  3. View page source (Ctrl+U or Cmd+U)

  4. Search for "noindex"

  5. Check HTTP headers: bash curl -I https://yourdomain.com/page Look for X-Robots-Tag: noindex

  6. Check your SEO plugin:

  7. WordPress: Edit the page, check Yoast/Rank Math settings
  8. Look for "Allow search engines to show this page in search results"

How to fix:

If you want the page indexed:

  1. Remove the noindex tag from the page
  2. For WordPress: Edit page → SEO settings → Set to "Index"
  3. Wait for Google to re-crawl (or request indexing in Search Console)

If you don't want the page indexed:

  1. Remove it from your sitemap
  2. For WordPress: SEO plugin settings → Exclude from sitemap
  3. Regenerate sitemap

Common culprit: Staging site protection plugins that add noindex to all pages. Make sure to disable these on your live site!

Error #4: "Submitted URL Blocked by robots.txt"

What it means: Your sitemap includes URLs that your robots.txt file tells search engines not to crawl.

Why this happens:

  • Conflicting rules in robots.txt
  • Accidentally blocking important pages
  • Plugin added overly aggressive rules

How to diagnose:

  1. Check your robots.txt:
  2. Visit https://yourdomain.com/robots.txt

  3. Look for Disallow rules

  4. Test in Search Console:

  5. Go to Settings → robots.txt Tester
  6. Enter the problematic URL
  7. Click "Test"

Example of the problem:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /blog/  ← This blocks all blog posts

Sitemap: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml  ← But sitemap includes blog posts!

How to fix:

If you want the URLs crawled:

  1. Edit robots.txt to remove or modify the Disallow rule
  2. Or use Allow to override: User-agent: * Disallow: /admin/ Allow: /blog/

If you don't want the URLs crawled:

  1. Remove them from your sitemap
  2. Regenerate the sitemap

Important: If a page is in your sitemap, it should be crawlable. Don't block pages you want indexed!

Error #5: "Redirect Error"

What it means: URLs in your sitemap redirect to other pages instead of returning content directly.

Why this happens:

  • HTTP to HTTPS redirects
  • www to non-www redirects (or vice versa)
  • Moved content with 301 redirects
  • Redirect chains (A → B → C)

How to diagnose:

  1. Test the URL: bash curl -I https://yourdomain.com/page Look for 301 or 302 status codes

  2. Check for redirect chains:

  3. Use a redirect checker tool
  4. Follow the redirect path

How to fix:

Update your sitemap to use final URLs:

Bad:

<loc>http://example.com/page</loc>  ← Redirects to HTTPS

Good:

<loc>https://example.com/page</loc>  ← Final destination

For WordPress:

  1. Regenerate your sitemap (plugin should use correct URLs)
  2. Check your WordPress Address and Site Address settings
  3. Make sure they match (both HTTP or both HTTPS)

For custom sites:

  1. Update your sitemap generation script
  2. Use the canonical/final URL for each page
  3. Test all URLs before adding to sitemap

Error #6: "Parsing Error" or "Invalid XML"

What it means: Your sitemap file has syntax errors and Google can't read it.

Common causes:

  • Missing closing tags
  • Special characters not escaped
  • Invalid XML structure
  • Encoding issues
  • File corruption

How to diagnose:

  1. Open the sitemap in a browser:

  2. If you see an error message instead of XML, there's a syntax problem

  3. Validate the XML:

  4. Use XML Sitemap Validator

  5. Or paste into an XML validator

  6. Check for special characters:

  7. Look for &, <, >, ", ' in URLs
  8. These must be escaped

How to fix:

Escape special characters:

Bad:

<loc>https://example.com/page?id=1&category=2</loc>

Good:

<loc>https://example.com/page?id=1&amp;category=2</loc>

Character escaping table: | Character | Escaped Version | | --------- | --------------- | | & | &amp; | | < | &lt; | | > | &gt; | | " | &quot; | | ' | &apos; |

Check XML structure:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<urlset xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <url>
    <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
  </url>
</urlset>

For WordPress users:

  • Regenerate sitemap through your SEO plugin
  • If that doesn't work, deactivate and reactivate the plugin

For custom sites:

  • Review your sitemap generation code
  • Test with a small sample first
  • Use an XML library instead of string concatenation

Error #7: "Sitemap is an HTML Page"

What it means: Google expected XML but got an HTML page instead.

Why this happens:

  • Server redirecting to homepage
  • Wrong file uploaded
  • .htaccess rewrite rule interfering
  • Plugin conflict

How to diagnose:

  1. Check the Content-Type header: bash curl -I https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml Should be Content-Type: application/xml or text/xml

  2. View the sitemap in browser:

  3. If you see your website's HTML instead of XML, that's the problem

How to fix:

Check your .htaccess file (WordPress):

# Make sure this isn't redirecting .xml files
RewriteRule ^sitemap\.xml$ /index.php [L]  ← Could be the problem

Verify the file:

  • Make sure sitemap.xml is actually an XML file
  • Check that it wasn't accidentally saved as HTML

For WordPress:

  • Flush permalinks: Settings → Permalinks → Save Changes
  • Regenerate sitemap in your SEO plugin

Error #8: "Sitemap File Size Exceeds Limit"

What it means: Your sitemap is larger than 50MB (uncompressed) or contains more than 50,000 URLs.

How to fix:

Option 1: Compress the sitemap:

gzip sitemap.xml

Upload sitemap.xml.gz instead. Google can read gzipped sitemaps.

Option 2: Split into multiple sitemaps:

Create a sitemap index:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<sitemapindex xmlns="http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9">
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-posts.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-pages.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
  <sitemap>
    <loc>https://example.com/sitemap-products.xml</loc>
  </sitemap>
</sitemapindex>

For WordPress:

  • Most SEO plugins automatically split large sitemaps
  • Check your plugin settings for sitemap limits

Error #9: "General HTTP Error"

What it means: Google received an unexpected HTTP status code (not 200 OK).

Common status codes:

  • 500 Internal Server Error: Server-side problem
  • 503 Service Unavailable: Server temporarily down
  • 403 Forbidden: Permission issue
  • 401 Unauthorized: Authentication required

How to diagnose:

curl -I https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml

How to fix:

For 500 errors:

  • Check server error logs
  • Look for PHP errors or database connection issues
  • Contact your hosting provider

For 503 errors:

  • Check if your server is under maintenance
  • Verify your hosting isn't rate-limiting requests

For 403 errors:

  • Check file permissions (should be 644)
  • Verify your security plugin isn't blocking Googlebot

For 401 errors:

  • Remove password protection from your sitemap
  • Check for .htaccess authentication rules

Warnings (Non-Critical Issues)

Warning: "Indexed, Though Blocked by robots.txt"

What it means: The page is indexed but can't be crawled to update its content.

Why this matters: Google can't see changes to the page.

How to fix:

  • Remove the robots.txt block if you want the page crawled
  • Or remove the page from your sitemap if you don't want it indexed

Warning: "Duplicate Content"

What it means: Multiple URLs in your sitemap point to the same content.

How to fix:

  • Use canonical tags to specify the preferred version
  • Only include the canonical URL in your sitemap
  • Remove duplicate URLs

Sitemap Error Prevention Checklist

Prevent errors before they happen:

  • [ ] Only include indexable URLs: No noindex pages, no blocked pages
  • [ ] Use canonical URLs: HTTPS, correct www/non-www, no parameters
  • [ ] Keep it updated: Regenerate when content changes
  • [ ] Test before submitting: Validate XML syntax
  • [ ] Monitor regularly: Check Search Console weekly
  • [ ] Set up alerts: Get email notifications for new errors
  • [ ] Use absolute URLs: Always include https://domain.com
  • [ ] Escape special characters: Properly encode &, <, >, etc.
  • [ ] Stay under limits: 50,000 URLs, 50MB max
  • [ ] Compress if needed: Use gzip for large sitemaps

How to Re-Submit Your Sitemap After Fixing Errors

  1. Fix the underlying issue (see above)
  2. Regenerate your sitemap (if needed)
  3. Test the sitemap (validate XML, check URLs)
  4. Go to Google Search Console → Sitemaps
  5. Remove the old sitemap (click the three dots → Remove)
  6. Submit the sitemap again (enter URL and click Submit)
  7. Wait 24-48 hours for Google to re-process it
  8. Check back to verify errors are gone

Pro tip: You can also request immediate re-crawling:

  • Go to URL Inspection tool
  • Enter your sitemap URL
  • Click "Request Indexing"

Monitoring Your Sitemap Health

Set up ongoing monitoring to catch issues early:

Weekly Checks

  • Log into Search Console
  • Check Sitemaps section for new errors
  • Review Coverage report for indexing issues

Monthly Audits

  • Download your sitemap
  • Verify all URLs still exist
  • Check for outdated lastmod dates
  • Test a sample of URLs

Automated Monitoring

When to Get Help

Some sitemap issues require developer assistance:

Call a developer if:

  • You're getting persistent 500 errors
  • Your sitemap generation script is broken
  • You have complex redirect chains
  • Your server configuration is blocking Googlebot
  • You need to implement a custom sitemap solution

What to provide them:

  • The exact error message from Search Console
  • Your sitemap URL
  • Server error logs (if available)
  • Screenshots of the issue

Next Steps

Now that you've fixed your sitemap errors:

  1. Monitor for new issues - Check Search Console weekly
  2. Optimize your sitemap - Learn about crawl budget optimization
  3. Understand indexing - Read our guide on "Discovered - Not Indexed" issues
  4. Visualize your sitemap - Use our Sitemap Explorer to see your site structure
  5. Learn the fundamentals - Review what XML sitemaps are if you need a refresher

Key Takeaways

  • Most common error: "Submitted URL not found" (404s) - usually from outdated sitemaps
  • Easiest fix: Regenerate your sitemap through your CMS/plugin
  • Prevention: Only include indexable, canonical URLs
  • Monitoring: Check Search Console weekly for new errors
  • Don't panic: Sitemap errors are normal and usually easy to fix

Remember: A few sitemap errors won't tank your SEO. What matters is fixing them promptly and preventing them from recurring.

Having trouble visualizing what's in your sitemap? Explore it with our free tool to see your site structure and catch issues before Google does.

Ready to audit your sitemap?

Visualize your site structure, spot errors, and improve your SEO with our free tool.

Launch Sitemap Explorer
Back to all posts