Back to Community
Home / Community / Plugin → Yoast seo

Troubleshooting Common Yoast SEO Sitemap Errors: A Step-by-Step Guide

17 threads Sep 16, 2025 Plugin → Yoast seo

Content

Encountering an error with your Yoast SEO-generated sitemap is a common and often frustrating experience for WordPress users. These errors can prevent search engines from properly indexing your site, potentially impacting your visibility. Based on community support threads, this guide outlines the most frequent sitemap issues and provides a structured approach to diagnosing and resolving them.

Why Do Sitemap Errors Occur?

Sitemap errors typically stem from a few key areas: conflicts with other plugins or your theme, server resource limitations, incorrect file generation due to whitespace, or database inconsistencies. Pinpointing the exact cause is the first step toward a solution.

Step 1: The Initial Checks

Before diving deep, perform these basic checks:

  • Verify Sitemap is Enabled: In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Yoast SEO > Settings > General > Site Features and ensure the "XML sitemaps" toggle is switched on.
  • Resave Permalinks: Go to Settings > Permalinks and simply click "Save Changes" without making any modifications. This refreshes your site's rewrite rules, which can often resolve 404 errors.
  • Clear All Caches: Thoroughly clear any and all caching. This includes your WordPress caching plugin, server-level cache (contact your host if unsure), CDN cache (like Cloudflare), and even your browser cache.

Step 2: Perform a Conflict Check (The Most Common Fix)

A vast majority of sitemap issues, particularly those involving blank lines or XML declaration errors, are caused by conflicts. The safest way to test for this is by using the free Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin.

  1. Install and activate the Health Check plugin.
  2. Go to Tools > Site Health > Troubleshooting and enable troubleshooting mode. This mode deactivates plugins and themes only for you, not your site's visitors.
  3. Switch your theme to a default WordPress theme like Twenty Twenty-Four.
  4. Enable only the Yoast SEO plugin.
  5. Check if your sitemap error persists. If the sitemap now loads correctly, you have a conflict.
  6. Begin re-enabling your plugins one by one, checking the sitemap after each one. The plugin that causes the error to return is the source of your conflict. Contact that plugin's support for assistance.
  7. Finally, switch back to your regular theme and test again.

Step 3: Investigate Server Errors (500, 502, 503)

If your sitemap returns a 5xx server error, the problem often lies with your server's configuration or resources.

  • Check Server Error Logs: This is the most critical step. Access your server's error logs through your hosting control panel (e.g., cPanel) or by asking your hosting provider for assistance. The logs will contain specific PHP errors or memory exhaustion warnings that point directly to the cause.
  • Increase PHP Memory Limits: If the error logs mention memory exhaustion, try increasing the limits. You can add the following line to your `wp-config.php` file above the line that says `/* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */`:
    define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );
  • Check for Static Files: A 503 error that resolves to a blank sitemap can sometimes be caused by a static `sitemap.xml` file existing in your website's root folder. Use your hosting file manager or FTP to check for and delete any such file.

Step 4: Address Specific XML Validation Errors

  • Empty Tags in Sitemap: If Google Search Console reports errors on specific lines pointing to empty `image:loc` tags, this means a page in your sitemap has a featured image that is either a broken link or an improperly formatted SVG. Edit the problematic page and assign a valid, properly uploaded image.
  • Missing Lastmod Date: An error on a sitemap index pointing to a missing modification date is usually a database issue. To fix it, simply edit and save one of the posts or pages listed in the affected sitemap (e.g., edit a user's profile if the error is on the author sitemap). This action refreshes the timestamp and resolves the issue.

When to Seek Further Help

If you have gone through all these steps and the issue remains, the information you gathered will be invaluable for getting further help. Be prepared to provide:

  • The exact text of any errors from your server logs.
  • The steps you have already taken to troubleshoot.
  • The URL of your sitemap.

By methodically working through these common causes, you can successfully resolve most Yoast SEO sitemap errors and ensure search engines can properly crawl and index your valuable content.

Related Support Threads Support