If you’re a website owner or digital marketer, you’ve probably come across issues in Google Search Console (GSC). One of the most frustrating errors is the “Sitemap or sub-sitemap could not be fetched” error. In this blog post, I’ll share my personal experience, the potential causes of this issue, and the exact steps I took to resolve it. Whether you’re dealing with a similar problem or just want to stay prepared, this guide has you covered.
Understanding the Sitemap Fetching Process
Before diving into the issue, it’s essential to understand what a sitemap is and how Google Search Console interacts with it. A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the important pages, posts, categories, and other content types of your website. It helps search engines crawl and index your site efficiently.
When you submit your sitemap to GSC, it verifies the file and processes its contents. If everything works smoothly, Google fetches the URLs and adds them to its crawl queue. However, sometimes errors arise, and one of the most common ones is the “Could not fetch” error.
The Issue: Categories Sitemap Could Not Be Fetched
Recently, I encountered a situation where the categories sitemap on my website failed to fetch in Google Search Console. Interestingly, the other parts of the sitemap—such as pages, posts, and tags—fetched successfully. Even the category sitemap URL was accessible online but GSC was unable to fetch. This left my categories unindexed, impacting the visibility of my website’s content in search results.
Here’s what I noticed:
- The pages, posts, and tags were indexed properly.
- The categories sitemap showed a “Could not fetch” error in GSC although the sitemap URL was accessible online.
- My categories were not appearing in Google’s index.
Given the importance of categories for organizing content and improving SEO, I needed to fix this issue immediately.
The Solution: Resubmitting the missing Sitemap
After hours of searching online and troubleshooting, I came across a simple yet effective solution—resubmitting only the categories sitemap. After resubmitting, I waited for 10 to 20 minutes, refreshed the page and the error was gone. My blog posts’ categories sitemap fetched successfully.
Some other possibilities for the error
Although the abover solution worked for me, I still consider it important to highlight some other possibilities for this error. Based on my research and experience, the following factors might cause a sitemap fetching error:
- Incorrect Sitemap URL: If the URL of your sitemap is incorrect or inaccessible, GSC will fail to fetch it.
- Server Response Errors: Sometimes, your server may not respond properly when GSC tries to access the sitemap. This could be due to server downtime or misconfigurations.
- Sitemap Plugin Issues: If you’re using a plugin like Yoast SEO or Rank Math to generate sitemaps, there might be a bug or misconfiguration in the plugin.
- Large Sitemap File: If your sitemap contains too many URLs, it might take too long to load, causing GSC to time out.
- Blocked by Robots.txt: If your robots.txt file unintentionally blocks the sitemap URL, GSC won’t be able to access it.
Key Takeaways
From this experience, I learned several important lessons:
- Don’t Panic: GSC errors can be frustrating, but many of them are easier to resolve than they seem.
- Isolate the Problem: Focus on the specific part of your sitemap causing the issue instead of making changes to the entire site.
- Resubmission Works: In many cases, simply resubmitting the sitemap can resolve the problem, especially if the error is caused by a temporary server response issue.
- Server Response Matters: Even if your server appears to be working fine, occasional glitches can affect how GSC interacts with it.
- Monitor Your Sitemaps Regularly: Make it a habit to check your sitemaps in GSC to ensure all parts of your site are indexed correctly.