Sitemap "Couldn't Fetch" Issue

Hi,

I'm having an issue with the sitemap on my website. I launched the site over a year ago and have constantly had the "couldn't fetch" issue when I've uploaded it to Google Search Console. I've read countless forums and articles regarding this but I can't seem to get anything to work. Squarespace have resubmitted my sitemap multiple times but the issue persists.

I've just made some major changes to my website to optimise it for SEO as our search ranking is quite poor and I'm concerned that the sitemap issue may be contributing to this. 

Is anyone else having this issue and if so, have they managed to find a solution?

Thanks in advance!

Danny

3 hours ago, DannyF said:

I'm having an issue with the sitemap on my website.

The sitemap is automatically generated and managed by Squarespace. You can access it by adding "/sitemap.xml" to the end of your URL.

You can read more about it from Squarespace's article Your Site Map

If you share your URL, I can check it for you.

Hi Melody,

Thanks for getting back to me. I know where the location of my sitemap is but I have always received this error when submitting my sitemap to Search Console. I can't seem to manage to fix this.

Please post the URL for a page on your site where we can see your issue. For us to see the URL you need to include the link in the content of your post. The URL field the forum software provides is not shown to us.

A link to the backend of the your site won’t work for us, i.e. a URL that contains /config/.

Please set up a site-wide password, if your site is not public and you've not already done so.

Post the password here.

Adding a site-wide password does not allow anyone to alter your site. It only allows those with the password to see your site.

Please read the site-wide password and how to share a link documentation to understand how they work.

You may find How to post a forum question post useful.

We can then take a look at your issue.

Hi Creedon,

Here is the sitemap URL: https://www.kobo10.com/sitemap.xml

6 hours ago, DannyF said:

Here is the sitemap URL: https://www.kobo10.com/sitemap.xml

If you click on the sitemap url, you can see that there are no problems there, so that's good!

23 hours ago, DannyF said:

I have always received this error when submitting my sitemap to Search Console. 

Please share the whole screenshot to show where you are inputting the sitemap URL and showing the sitemap URL, to see if we can spot any errors there.

I'm adding it to the Search Console

On 7/19/2024 at 12:01 PM, DannyF said:

I'm adding it to the Search Console

I can't tell from the screenshot if there are other things going on with the setup of your Google Search Console, but I normally see the domain url under "Add a new sitemap".

Here is what I mean, instead of inputting the entire url into the box (which you have done), normally would only need to put "/sitemap.xml" because Google knows which domain you are referring to and prepends your domain url before the input box. 

And under "Submitted sitemap", I would see "/sitemap.xml" instead of the full url. 

I think, maybe you've selected the domain property rather than the website property. Check the drop down in the top left hand corner. 

Edit: 

Re SEO, btw I had a look, and your website is indexed by Google i.e. your website can appear in Google search results. If you are struggling with being seen, then you need to review your SEO strategy and see how to achieve what you are looking for. 

Hi @DannyF. If you click on that result above, Google should give you more details.

FWIW sitemaps are not imperative and they do not affect search rankings. They serve as a tool to help search engines understand a site’s structure and discover pages faster. Search engines will find and index your pages without a sitemap. In at least two support docs Google states small sites don’t need sitemaps: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451001 

That said, every Squarespace site has a sitemap and Google is already aware of it because it is listed in the robots.txt file. But we suggest submitting the sitemap in GSC because it uncovers any issues with it (such as what you seem to be experiencing). 

On 7/19/2024 at 6:01 PM, DannyF said:

I'm adding it to the Search Console

 

 

Have you solve this issue? Your GSC UI a bit different from mine, where the domain is prefill

@melody495 and @Beyondspace the UI looks different based on what type of property was setup, URL-prefix or domain. Here's more info: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/34592?hl=en