XML Sitemap = Google 404 Error!

Hi,

i got a similar issue:

1 – only my news category posts are affected, and when clicked showed a 500 error but my XML site map was working.
2- If you go into wordpress -> settings and update your permalinks by just saving this fixed the issue of the 500 error and the news posts worked again but my XML shows a 404.
3 – Also I can change the XML posts from 1000 to 500, this fixed the XML but brought back the 500 error :{.

To be honest i got that issue for months now but never bother. Now when google takes into account every detail – yeap its time to fix it.

SO far no help from Yoast and the problem seems to be not only for me.

Maybe its time to move to other SEO plugins …

I’m not quite sure what the issue is. Can you please elaborate? Perhaps even provide the exact URLs you see on your site verses the ones you see as broken in Google Search Console? Providing screenshots will help a lot!

Hi @amboutwe

The problem is quite simple as described in my original post:

All “categories” – which in my case are 4 are on the yoast generated xml sitemap.
If i go to that sitemap and click on the link e.g. https://www.mywebsite.com/category1/- it will open the category link in the browser without any problems.

If i open Search Console from Google in Sitemap index – it shows 404 error warning

So it seems that your xml sitemap has something special that google doesnt like. What is it? Its more for you to find out. Im the one who is asking question.

If you have a website on wordpress with Yoast installed. You will have section XML Sitemaps where you simply add or remove what would you like to see there (Post Pages etc etc). That goes also for Tags and Categories. All of that (in my case) is ticked. So if i go to YOAST XML SITEMAP – i have nicely design sitemap and i can see List of Categories.

On the other hand – if you have Google Analitics highly possible you will also have Google Webmaster Tools – there is a section Google Index and then Sitemaps. In this section I see list of groups so /post-sitemap.xml and /page-sitemap.xml AND ALSO /category-sitemap.xml

So the problem …. ONLY /category-sitemap.xml have 46 Warnings

If i go deeper into that: I can see almost all of my pages / posts being highlighted as:

Warning – URLs not accessible – When we tested a sample of the URLs from your Sitemap, we found that some URLs were not accessible to Googlebot due to an HTTP status error. All accessible URLs will still be submitted. – HTTP error 404

If i click on the link with the error IN GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS – yeap i will have 404
If i click on the link directly from YAOST Sitempa – yeap it will open this Category as should be.

The only difference I can see is that THE SAME LINK for this specific category in Google Webmaster tools is in Capital letters and on Yoast SItemap is small letters.

Screenshots are not really helpful here as situation is pretty straightforward.
Google see Category Sitemap differently than it is on Yoast Sitemap XML file. WHY? How you marked this section in the XML sitemap that Google cannot access properly?

Can you fix this or give possible solutions?

Hi @amboutwe

Ive been digging this for week now and i have simply issue with categories not with XML sitemap (Sorry). Turns out i got classic “un-resolvable” permalink in categories issue. SO far i tried everything. Different themes, no plugins, clearing cache, checking htaccess, changing permalink structure. NOTHING WORKS ??

Bit off topic but do you have any other idea how to fix this?
Category link is used as Menu (it works when clicked) but when copy+paste the link in separate browser tab its giving 404.

ok i know whats the problem …. ill create new topic for this – its Yoast – Strip the category base (usually /category/) from the category URL. Problem.

Thanks

Hello
i have also this issue for moth now

i was wondering if you fixed that and how
thanks

@arabicman If you have a similar issue, please open a new request. That way it’s easier to track issues and provide assistance. Thanks!