Fixing the Rank Math Sitemap “Couldn’t Fetch” Error: My Experience and What’s Next

If you’ve ever installed Rank Math on WordPress and then submitted its sitemap to Google Search Console, you may have seen a frustrating error message: “Couldn’t fetch”. I recently ran into this exact problem on my site, LLMO SEO, and decided to document the process. This post explains what happened, what steps I took, what worked so far, and what I’m still waiting for Google to resolve. Hopefully this helps others who are stuck in the same situation.

The Problem: Rank Math Sitemap Wouldn’t Fetch

When I first submitted my sitemap in Google Search Console, I expected it to be straightforward. Rank Math is one of the most popular SEO plugins, and its sitemap functionality is supposed to just work. Instead, Google Search Console kept showing the dreaded message:

• Status: Couldn’t fetch
• Details: Google couldn’t read the sitemap

At first I thought this might be a temporary crawl glitch. But after multiple resubmissions and waiting, the error didn’t go away.

First Step: Confirming the Sitemap

The first thing I did was manually check the sitemap URL:

https://llmo-seo.com/sitemap_index.xml

It loaded fine in my browser. I could see all the links to post, page, and category sitemaps. That told me the sitemap itself wasn’t broken. So why was Google saying it couldn’t fetch it?

Investigating Possible Causes

I started checking the usual suspects:

1. Robots.txt file – Was I accidentally blocking the sitemap? At the time, my robots.txt included both an XML sitemap and an HTML sitemap reference. Google only accepts XML, so the HTML entry could have been confusing things.
2. Caching and CDN – My site is hosted on Rocket.net, which includes Cloudflare caching. Sometimes caching layers serve different responses to browsers vs. bots. Could Googlebot have been getting an empty or blocked response?
3. Plugin conflict – Was Rank Math conflicting with something else, or just not generating the sitemap in a way that Google liked?

After checking all this, the sitemap still worked fine in my browser but continued to fail in Search Console.

The Solution: Switching Sitemap Plugins

At this point, I decided the simplest path forward was to disable Rank Math’s sitemap completely and install a dedicated sitemap plugin. My reasoning was:

• Rank Math’s main strength is schema and SEO optimization, not necessarily sitemaps.
• I didn’t need anything fancy, just a reliable sitemap Google would fetch.
• Dedicated plugins like XML Sitemap Generator for Google (by Auctollo) have been around forever and are known to be stable.

So here’s what I did:

1. Went into Rank Math → Sitemap Settings and turned the sitemap off.
2. Installed the XML Sitemap Generator for Google plugin.
3. Cleared caches to make sure the new sitemap took priority.

Now my main sitemap was located at:

https://llmo-seo.com/sitemap.xml

Progress: Main Sitemap Success

The good news: when I submitted the new sitemap in Google Search Console, it showed up as Success. Finally!

This confirmed that the switch worked and Google was able to read the sitemap index properly.

Remaining Issue: Sub-Sitemaps

But there was still a catch. The Auctollo plugin doesn’t generate just one sitemap — it generates an index file plus sub-sitemaps. My sitemap index pointed to three sub-files:

• /sitemap-misc.xml
• /page-sitemap.xml
• /post-sitemap.xml

When I checked these manually in the browser, they loaded fine. I could see valid XML inside.

However, in Search Console:

• sitemap-misc.xml → Success
• page-sitemap.xml → Couldn’t fetch
• post-sitemap.xml → Couldn’t fetch

At first, the main sitemap was successful, but two of the child sitemaps still showed as errors. This was frustrating, since they loaded fine in a browser but Search Console wouldn’t accept them.

Debugging the Sub-Sitemaps

Here’s what I tried:

1. Resubmitting individually – I submitted both /page-sitemap.xml and /post-sitemap.xml directly in Search Console. They still came back as “couldn’t fetch.”
2. Robots.txt cleanup – I edited my robots.txt so it only referenced the XML sitemap and removed the HTML entry. Now my file looks like this:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /wp-admin/
Allow: /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php

Sitemap: https://llmo-seo.com/sitemap.xml

3. Cache purge – I purged Rocket.net and Cloudflare caches to make sure Google wasn’t being served a stale or blocked response.

Despite these steps, Search Console continued to report errors on the two sub-sitemaps.

What I’m Waiting For

Initially, I assumed this was one of those common Search Console glitches and that I’d need to wait days for Google to refresh. But surprisingly, within about 30 minutes, both sub-sitemaps flipped from ‘Couldn’t fetch’ to ‘Success.’ It turned out patience was the only missing piece.

Key Takeaways

Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Rank Math’s sitemap feature can be hit-or-miss. If you see “couldn’t fetch,” don’t assume your site is broken, but don’t be afraid to try another plugin.
2. A dedicated sitemap plugin is often more reliable. The XML Sitemap Generator for Google is simple, stable, and widely used.
3. Robots.txt matters. Make sure you’re only pointing to .xml sitemaps, not .html ones.
4. Search Console isn’t always accurate in real-time. Just because it says “couldn’t fetch” doesn’t mean Google can’t see the file. Manual checks matter.
5. Patience is part of the process. Sometimes, the best next step is simply to wait for Google to retry.
6. Sometimes errors fix themselves quickly. Don’t panic if sub-sitemaps show “Couldn’t fetch.” If they load fine in a browser, give it a little time, they may flip to Success within minutes.

What’s Next

For now, I’ll continue monitoring my Search Console.

The good news is that the sitemap is working, and Google has a valid entry point into my site. That’s the most important piece for indexing.

Final Thoughts

Fixing a sitemap issue can feel frustrating, especially when you’re doing everything “by the book.” In my case, the problem wasn’t my content or even Rank Math itself — it was just a mismatch between how the sitemap was generated, how robots.txt was configured, and how Googlebot happened to crawl it.

By switching plugins, cleaning up robots.txt, and resubmitting, I’ve already made huge progress. In my case, I only needed to give Google a little time — within half an hour, everything showed green in Search Console. The main lesson: don’t overreact to the first ‘Couldn’t fetch’ warning if the sitemap looks fine in your browser. Google usually sorts it out.

If you’re stuck with the same error, remember: check your sitemap in a browser, simplify your setup, and don’t be afraid to switch plugins if something isn’t working. Sometimes, less is more when it comes to sitemaps.