The Sitemaps report: what Success, Has errors and Couldn’t fetch mean

Open Search Console, pick the property that matches your site. Use a Domain property if you can, it covers all subdomains and both http and https. A URL prefix property only covers that exact prefix, such as https://www.yourproduct.com/.

1. 1

   Find your sitemap URL

   Common paths are /sitemap.xml, /sitemap_index.xml or /sitemap.txt. Many CMSs show the path in their settings. If unsure, load /robots.txt and look for a Sitemap: line.

2. 2

   Check it in your browser first

   Open the URL. It must load over https without a login, 200 status, XML, and list your site’s URLs or child sitemap files.

3. 3

   Submit in Search Console

   Go to Indexing, Sitemaps. Paste the full sitemap URL and press Submit.

4. 4

   Wait for the read

   You will see Status, the date last read and the number of URLs discovered when Google fetches it.

If you have more than one sitemap, submit each, or submit a sitemap index that lists them. For programmatic sites, a sitemap index keeps files under the 50,000 URL or 50 MB per file limits.

• Status: Success, Has errors, or Couldn’t fetch
• Last read: when Google last fetched the file
• Discovered URLs: how many URLs or child sitemaps were found

This report is about fetching and reading sitemaps. It is not a guarantee of indexation. Use the Performance and Pages reports to see which URLs get impressions and which are indexed.

Success means Google fetched and parsed the sitemap or index. It does not mean all URLs are indexed. It only says the file was valid and readable.

Has errors means the file was fetched but contains at least one problem. Typical cases include invalid XML, URLs outside the allowed host, or a sitemap index pointing at missing or invalid child sitemaps.

Couldn’t fetch means Google could not retrieve the file. Common causes are a 404, a 5xx, a timeout, a robots.txt block of the sitemap path, or an auth wall.

1. 1

   Fetch it like Google

   Open the sitemap URL in a private window. Use curl -I https://yourproduct.com/sitemap.xml to see the HTTP status and headers. You want 200 OK over https.

2. 2

   Remove access blocks

   The sitemap URL must not require a login or IP allowlist. In robots.txt, do not Disallow the sitemap path. The Sitemap: line can sit anywhere, but the file itself must be allowed.

3. 3

   Fix broken links and redirects

   A sitemap must not redirect. Serve the file at the submitted URL, 200 OK. If you have moved it, update the submitted URL and any Sitemap: line in robots.txt.

4. 4

   Stabilise the server

   5xx or timeouts will produce Couldn’t fetch. Check hosting, CDN and firewalls. Allow Googlebot to fetch at a normal rate. Do not throttle by User-Agent.

5. 5

   Serve valid XML with the right content-type

   Return application/xml or text/xml. If your framework returns HTML or JSON, adjust the controller or static file mapping.

A working example: https://yourproduct.com/sitemap.xml loads fast, returns 200, shows urlset with https URLs on yourproduct.com, no redirects. The Sitemaps report moves from Couldn’t fetch to Success at the next read.

• Invalid XML: unclosed tags, wrong namespace, bad encoding
• Cross host URLs: URLs on another domain are not allowed
• Missing child files: a sitemap index lists files that 404 or are invalid
• Wrong protocol or host: http URLs when the site is https, or www vs non-www mismatch
• Illegal values: lastmod in the wrong format, or dates in the future

1. 1

   Validate the XML

   Use a local XML linter, then open the file in a browser. The root must be urlset or sitemapindex with the correct xmlns.

2. 2

   Keep all URLs on the same host

   A sitemap can only list URLs on its own host. For app.yourproduct.com and www.yourproduct.com, host a sitemap on each subdomain, or use an approved cross-host setup.

3. 3

   Fix a broken sitemap index

   Every child sitemap in a sitemapindex must exist, return 200 and be valid XML. Remove entries that 404 or point to dev domains.

4. 4

   Use canonical https URLs

   List the exact canonical URL you want indexed, such as https://www.yourproduct.com/pricing. Do not list http if you redirect to https.

5. 5

   Repair dates and encoding

   Format lastmod as an ISO 8601 date or datetime. Do not include out-of-range values. Serve UTF-8 and escape special characters.

A fixed file looks like this: /sitemap_index.xml lists /sitemaps/pages-1.xml and /sitemaps/blog-1.xml, both on the same host, both 200, both valid urlset files with https URLs.

Discovered is a count of URLs Google found in the sitemap. Indexed is a decision made after crawling and evaluation. They rarely match for a small site.

• New pages need a crawl before indexation
• Noindex, 404, 410 and soft 404 will be excluded
• Duplicate or canonicalised pages consolidate into one indexable URL
• Low-value or thin content may be crawled but not indexed
• Blocked by robots.txt cannot be crawled for content so may not be indexed

Check a sample with the URL Inspection tool. If many are Crawled, currently not indexed, improve the content and internal links. If many are Discovered, currently not indexed, make sure the pages are linked and the server is fast.

Google reads lastmod when it is consistently accurate. It may use it to schedule crawls. If you lie, Google learns to ignore it. Be honest and stable.

Google ignores changefreq and priority. Do not spend time tuning them. Spend that time making your lastmod correct and your pages better linked.

• Only pages you want to rank and keep indexed
• Canonical URLs, not duplicates or UTM variants
• Live 200 pages, not redirects or 404s
• https URLs if you serve https
• One language or variant per URL

Do not list admin pages, staging paths or feature flags. Do not include tag pages if they are thin. Keep parameters and session IDs out of the file.

A clean example: /sitemaps/pages-1.xml lists /, /pricing, /guides/getting-started and /blog/how-we-built-x. It does not list /cart, /login, /search?q=, or /tag/engineering.

• Split sitemaps by type: pages, blog, docs, products
• Use a sitemap index to group files and stay within 50,000 URLs or 50 MB per file, uncompressed
• Gzip large sitemaps to save bandwidth, still under 50 MB uncompressed
• Keep a stable URL for each sitemap file, do not rotate names daily
• Update lastmod on changed pages only, not the whole file on deploy

If you publish many pages a day, keep a fresh file for new content and roll them into stable archives after a week. Your sitemap index lists both. This keeps lastmod honest and reduces churn.

• Sitemap index on www, child files on non-www: host them all on the same host, or mirror correctly
• International sites: one sitemap per host or subdomain, then list them in a cross-host index only if you use an approved setup
• Mixed protocols: do not list http if you redirect to https
• CMS-generated HTML at /sitemap.xml: configure a proper XML sitemap or host a static file
• Blocked paths in robots.txt: you can list a URL in a sitemap even if blocked, but Google cannot fetch content, so indexation may lag

After a fix, use Resubmit in the Sitemaps report. You do not need to resubmit after every normal update. Google will reread sitemaps over time.