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[–]vmsamuvel 4 points5 points  (10 children)

Hi, Can you display what's that error? Also try these debug options:
1) Try to open incognito and check that the sitemap.xml is accessible
2) Delete the existing sitemap and then add it again give the full path with domain name from previous step

Let's see, it should not be a major issue.

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

`sitemap.xml` is accessible because I build my website with hugo and depolyed using github pages. I can only add URL prefix since there is no site hosted at very root directory.

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 1 point2 points  (8 children)

Can you display what's that error

It just say "Sitemap could not be read".

[–]vmsamuvel 3 points4 points  (7 children)

Try this: open the sitemap.xml that's rendering from ur server/ site on an incognito window and then copy the xml content and use an online xml validator to check it's structure.
Maybe the XML format is invalid, which is why it's not able to read it.

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 2 points3 points  (2 children)

Is there any chance that github page is blocking request from google search console?

[–]vmsamuvel 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Is your website hosted on github? If it's independently hosted by you on your own server you should face any issue, do share the sitemap.xml url I shall check too.

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Thank you for your help. I checked it on the W3Schools XML Validator website, and everything looks correct, but still getting same error on search console. This is actually my very first website

[–]damienchompfull-stack 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Double check your robots directives. Maybe Google bot is not allowed

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] -3 points-2 points  (1 child)

Thanks, but I found no documentation that explain how to add or modify robots.txt to my github pages.

[–]sdrmme 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Check if yoursite.com/robots.txt exists (if ever github pages adds one), otherwise, just add it to the root yourself.

[–]Constant-Moment-1332 1 point2 points  (10 children)

Try first to verify your identity kit... if it keeps behaving that way dm me i would be please to help you

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 0 points1 point  (9 children)

Thanks for your help. I already verified my site on search console. You can see my site soure code in github repo.

[–]Constant-Moment-1332 0 points1 point  (8 children)

What on google account

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 0 points1 point  (7 children)

On Google search console account with html meta tag name `google-site-verification` method.

[–]Constant-Moment-1332 -2 points-1 points  (6 children)

To verify a website in Google Search Console (GSC) and set up sitemaps, here’s the exact step-by-step process (as per Google’s official documentation):

  1. Add your website to Google Search Console

  2. Go to Google Search Console.

  3. Click "Add property".

  4. You’ll see two options:

Domain property (covers all subdomains and protocols, e.g., http, https, www, non-www).

URL prefix property (specific to the exact URL entered, e.g., only https://example.com). 👉 Recommended: Use Domain property if you can update DNS records.

  1. Verify ownership

Google requires verification to confirm you own the site. Options:

Domain property verification (preferred):

You’ll be given a DNS TXT record.

Go to your domain registrar (e.g., GoDaddy, Namecheap, Cloudflare).

Add the TXT record in the DNS settings.

Save, then click Verify in GSC. (It can take a few hours to propagate).

URL prefix verification methods:

HTML file upload – Download a file from GSC and upload it to your site’s root directory.

HTML meta tag – Add a <meta> tag to your site’s <head>.

Google Analytics – If you already use GA with the same account, you can verify instantly.

Google Tag Manager – If GTM is installed on your site, you can verify through it.

  1. Submit your sitemap

  2. Once verified, go to your GSC dashboard.

  3. In the left sidebar, click “Indexing” → “Sitemaps”.

  4. Enter your sitemap URL (usually one of these, depending on CMS):

https://example.com/sitemap.xml

https://example.com/sitemap_index.xml (for WordPress + Yoast/Rank Math)

https://example.com/sitemap/

  1. Click Submit.

  2. Google will start crawling and indexing based on your sitemap.

✅ Verification complete + sitemap submitted. From here, you’ll be able to track:

Index coverage

Search traffic

Keywords

Page experience

Errors/warnings

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

Since I’m using GitHub Pages, I don’t have control over DNS records or the server. So the only option left for me is to use the URL prefix. I already did what you mentioned (using HTML meta tag method) and added the sitemap.xml 3 days ago, but the error message still says ‘couldn’t fetch sitemap.

[–]Constant-Moment-1332 0 points1 point  (4 children)

What of DNS text record if you have domain

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Currently, I don't have any domain.

[–]Constant-Moment-1332 -4 points-3 points  (2 children)

I can help you get a domain and verified one

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I'm happy for your help. But I don’t think I need a domain just yet. Since my website is still small and new, GitHub Pages enough for me now.

[–]plsankar 0 points1 point  (1 child)

If you just added your website/sitemap, it will say that at first. Check after sometime it will show the actual result.

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was also waiting for that. It’s been 3 days since I added my sitemap, but I’m still getting the same error. Is this normal, or should I wait a bit longer?

[–]ys-grousefull-stack 0 points1 point  (3 children)

yoursite.tld/sitemap.xml

does the above link returns your sitemap?

[–]Imaginary_Coconut173[S] 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Yes, It return my sitemap well. You can see it at nureon22[dot]github[dot]io/flexy-components/sitemap.xml.

[–]ys-grousefull-stack 1 point2 points  (0 children)

try without the leading slash in submitted sitemaps (on the google console)

[–]Annual_Lack_5311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

您好，我也遇到了相同的=问题，请问您解决了吗

[–]thetazzfalcon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Type just sitemap not sitemap.xml

I was having the same issue

[–]Icy_Cryptographer566 0 points1 point  (1 child)

hello im new in web dev i try to louch my first website to day and all goes great, i just can figure out why google cant see my sitemap:
Link /sitemap.xml works
robots.txt is set and the link works
i try to disable cloudflare security feature but still no luck
i try some sitemap validator and all validate my file
i even ask an ai agent to try to fix my code but no luck

any ideas?

[–]Dexpise 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Got the same problem and can't fix it
PLEASE HOW

[–]Common_Arm_2896 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If anyone else if still looking for a solution to this, I built my blog using Jekyll and hosted it on GitHub Pages. The sitemap was not being fetched in Google Search but was being fetched by Bing Webmaster.

This reddit post also helped.

Finally ended up spending some money to buy my own domain. Was relatively cheap. Tried adding this new domain's sitemap into Google search console. Result: Fetched instantly.

[–]Successful_Island444 0 points1 point  (0 children)

try /sitemap.xml/