Issues with sitemap and indexing.

Technical Q&A
1

Hi,

I’ve had some issues with certain pages and collections not being indexed. Google URL inspect reports that the URLs are not present in the sitemap but they are.

I deleted the sitemap and resubmitted but the got a “could not fetch” error on the collections sitemap.

I added a new collection to the store and confirmed the collections sitemap had updated, I’ve resubmitted my sitemap.xml but even though that is indexing the new collection sitemap GSC is still trying to read the old collections sitemap.

Any ideas?

2

hi @Nathan69

Thanks for sharing the details—this is a fairly common issue with Google Search Console, especially after sitemap changes or restructuring.

Here are a few suggestions to help resolve it:

Force Re-Crawl of Sitemap
Sometimes GSC caches the old sitemap paths, especially if there were previous errors. Try this:

Go to Sitemaps in GSC.

Remove the existing sitemap (sitemap.xml).

Wait a few minutes, then re-add it.

After resubmitting, give it a couple of days for Google to reprocess the updated structure.

Inspect the New Sitemap Manually

Visit your sitemap in a browser: https://yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml.

Make sure that it includes the correct collections sitemap (e.g., sitemap_collections_1.xml) and that it’s accessible (no 404 or 403 errors).

Open the collections sitemap and confirm the new collection URL is listed correctly.

Check for Sitemap Caching on Your End
Shopify’s sitemap usually updates automatically, but browser or server-level caching could show old versions temporarily. Try checking the sitemap in an incognito window or using a tool like Google’s URL Inspection Tool.

Use the URL Inspection Tool on the New Collection

Enter the URL of the new collection directly into the URL Inspection Tool in GSC.

If it’s not indexed, click Request Indexing. This can sometimes force Google to crawl the most recent sitemap version.

Wait and Monitor
Google doesn’t always update indexing instantly, especially after sitemap errors. If you’ve submitted the correct, updated sitemap, it may just take a bit of time for GSC to reflect the changes properly.

3

Thanks for your reply.

The collection is live and can be indexed but currently it isn’t. Thats not surprising because GSC is saying it hasn’t read the newest collections sitemap.

Ive requested a manual indexing of the newest collection in the hope it forces Google into recrawling the sitemap and discovering the changes in the collections sitemap.

Sitemap.xml itself is showing the collections sitemap is correct and pointing to the latest one. However GSC shows the latest sitemap.xml has been read but its still pointing to the old collections sitemap.

Do you know whether or not google can detect this change automatically and correct the collections sitemap to point to the latest one? Or will I need to keep resubmitting it until it notices the sitemap.xml has changed?

4

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5

Hello @Nathan69

The “could not fetch” error in Google Search Console (GSC) for your collections sitemap, despite confirming that the sitemap.xml has updated with the new collection, is likely due to Google’s processing delay or a known UI glitch in GSC.

So simply put, you can allow Google a few more to process the resubmitted sitemap, then check GSC’s Sitemaps report again to see if the error clears and the new collections sitemap is recognized.

Otherwise, Google’s interface sometimes fails to update sitemap statuses correctly, even when the sitemap is valid and accessible. This is a known issue reported in SEO communities and typically requires Google to resolve on their end. :slightly_smiling_face:

6

The page has been indexed already. I re submitted the sitemap.xml and the collections page is now updated to the latest one but still have the error “Couldnt Fetch”. I’ll leave it alone now and see if it ever crawls it. In the meantime I think I will manually index the missing pages.

7

Hello @Nathan69

After reading your whole issue details, this should be due to the errors existing on Google end. You can consider waiting for some time and then submit sitemaps again, or directly share this feedback with Google Support Team to let them further check and investigate for you directly.