How To Detect + Fix Sitemap Problems In Google Search Console

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If your website pages are not showing up in Google, you may have a problem with your sitemaps. This is a serious problem because it prevents Google from directing people to your website. Let us show you how to fix sitemap problems, and get Google to reindex your website!

Credit : This guide was written with help from Kok Kee from Nasi Lemak Tech!

 

How Serious Are Sitemap Problems?

Sitemap problems are HUGE, because they greatly sap the number of people who visit your website from a Google search. When we started having sitemap problems, the number of unique visitors to Tech ARP was instantly halved.

How does that happen?

  • Your website pages no longer appear in Google searches. If Google can’t see them, Google cannot display your pages in search results!
  • Even if your website pages do appear in Google searches, the links may be corrupt or nonsensical. Look at this example of this search result which leads to a bad link.

  • The description of your website page may also be nonsensical, as the example above also demonstrates.

 

How To Detect + Fix Sitemap Problems

  1. Log into Google Search Console.
  2. Go to the Sitemaps section (Crawl > Sitemaps)
  3. It will show you the sitemaps for your website, as well as any sitemap errors.

  1. Click on the error to find out what’s wrong.

  1. You will need to use the information listed to figure out what’s wrong, and fix the problem.
    a) if the sitemap was deleted, or is corrupt, you will need to generate a new sitemap
    b) if the sitemap is inaccessible due to a permission setting, you need to change its permission setting.
    c) if you are using CloudFlare, try disabling Always use HTTPS.
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  1. After you fix the sitemap problem, you will need to resubmit the sitemap to Google. Go into each sitemap information page, and click on the red Resubmit button at the upper right corner.

  1. After submitting the new sitemap, you can refresh the page to check its status.

  1. Repeat the steps for all of your sitemaps,
  2. Google Search Console should no longer list any sitemap error.

 

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