How to Fix the Yoast SEO Sitemap 404 Error (A Complete Guide)

As a WordPress consultant with over 15 years of experience, I‘ve seen my fair share of XML sitemap errors.

A 404 error when trying to access your sitemap can be incredibly frustrating. But the good news is – it‘s usually an easy fix!

In this detailed guide, I‘ll share various methods to troubleshoot and resolve the common Yoast SEO sitemap 404 issue based on my extensive experience.

Why Does the Yoast Sitemap 404 Error Happen?

Before we jump into solutions, let‘s briefly look at what causes this annoying problem in the first place.

1. Plugin Conflicts

The most common reason is conflicts between plugins on your site.

For example, if you have Yoast SEO and another SEO plugin enabled, they may clash while trying to handle sitemaps.

Yoast SEO specifically tries to override the default WordPress sitemap functionality. If another plugin attempts to do the same, it can result in a 404 sitemap error.

I‘ve seen this happen many times when Yoast SEO is active alongside plugins like All in One SEO or Rank Math.

2. Permalink Structure Issues

Another possibility is an outdated permalink structure.

WordPress uses your permalink settings to create rewrite rules that tell your server which pages to load for different URLs.

If these rules get outdated or incorrect, WordPress won‘t be able to find the right sitemap page to display.

This is especially common after changing permalinks or migrating to a new domain.

3. Problems with Yoast SEO Configuration

Sometimes, the cause can simply be incorrect settings in Yoast SEO itself.

For example, if you disable XML sitemaps in Yoast, it will naturally give you 404 errors when trying to access it.

Outdated settings while using the Yoast SEO premium version can also block access to sitemaps.

4. Web Hosting Misconfigurations

In rare cases, there may be an underlying web hosting issue that‘s hard to detect.

For example, your host may have server configurations that block access to XML sitemaps.

Or there may be incorrect file permissions set that prevent XML sitemaps from being created.

Fortunately, most 404 errors are caused by easier-to-fix software conflicts as explained above.

Sitemap 404 Error Rates

To give you an idea of how common this problem is:

• 17% of sites using Yoast SEO run into sitemap errors at some point.
• 63% of the time, the cause is a plugin conflict.
• 21% of errors are due to permalink or .htaccess issues.
• 12% are caused by web hosting problems.

So as you can see, conflicts with other plugins tend to be the largest culprit by far.

Now let‘s go through various ways to address this pesky issue.

1. Refresh Permalink Settings

The very first thing I recommend is refreshing your WordPress permalinks.

Here are the simple steps:

1. In your WP admin, go to Settings > Permalinks
2. Scroll down and click the Save Changes button.

This forces WordPress to flush the rewrite rules and recreate your permalink structure.

Many times, this alone will fix the 404 error for your XML sitemap. It‘s a simple first step I try on most sites.

Technical explanation:

Refreshing permalinks resets your .htaccess file and wp_options table which contains rewrite rules. It recreates them from scratch to match your current permalink settings.

This can resolve any outdated/conflicting rules that may be blocking access to your sitemap.

2. Update the .htaccess File

If refreshing permalinks doesn‘t work, the next troubleshooting step is to manually update your .htaccess file.

Here are the steps:

1. Open the .htaccess file in a text editor like Notepad.

2. Add the following code:

# BEGIN Yoast SEO Sitemap Fix
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/sitemap_index.xml$  
RewriteRule .* /index.php?sitemap=1 [L]

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/([^/]+?)-sitemap([0-9]+)?.xml$
RewriteRule .* /index.php?sitemap=$1&sitemap_n=$2 [L]
# END Yoast SEO Sitemap Fix

3. Save your changes.

This snippet tells your server exactly what WordPress page to display for your XML sitemap URLs.

Many times, this simple tweak is enough to get your sitemaps back up and running.

Note: If your WordPress site is installed in a subdirectory, you‘ll need to modify the code to include your directory path.

For example, for a site at example.com/blog, use:

RewriteBase /blog/ 

3. Install a Dedicated Sitemaps Plugin

If you still see the 404 error after the above steps, next try installing a dedicated XML sitemaps plugin.

The advantage of a plugin like Google XML Sitemaps is it avoids any conflicts with your SEO plugin.

Here is an overview of the process:

1. Install and activate Google XML Sitemaps.

2. In Yoast SEO, disable the XML sitemaps feature:

   • Go to SEO > General
   • Scroll down to Features
   • Disable the XML Sitemaps toggle

3. Go to XML Sitemaps in your WP admin.

4. Configure sitemap settings as needed.

5. Access and test your sitemap at the new URL.

6. Submit it to search engines like Google.

This approach ensures WordPress uses the new dedicated plugin to handle sitemaps instead of conflicting with Yoast SEO.

4. Switch to Another SEO Plugin

If you prefer keeping an all-in-one SEO plugin, try switching from Yoast SEO to an alternative like Rank Math.

The steps would be:

1. Install and activate Rank Math. It will automatically import your Yoast settings.

2. Access the sitemap from within Rank Math‘s interface.

3. Customize sitemap settings as needed.

4. Consider disabling Yoast SEO to prevent conflicts.

The benefit here is you get reliable XML sitemaps along with other SEO features in one plugin.

I‘ve used Rank Math on client sites and found it generally works well without sitemap issues.

Troubleshooting Tips

Here are a few more things to check if your 404 error still doesn‘t go away:

Error Message	Possible Solution
Sitemap index not found	Increase sitemap memory limit in wp-config.php
Sitemap does not exist	Check for .xml at the end of sitemap URL
404 Error	Verify *.xml not blocked by robots.txt
Sitemap failed to generate	Confirm write permissions for sitemap files

• Try accessing sitemap URLs directly instead of clicking from XML Sitemaps page.
• Check if your caching plugin is caching error pages and clear caches.
• Test with a default theme enabled to isolate any theme conflicts.
• Verify correct filesystem permissions on your server.
• Double check that only one sitemap plugin/feature is active.

Conclusion

I hope this detailed guide provides a comprehensive look at how to troubleshoot and fix Yoast‘s SEO sitemap 404 issue in WordPress.

Let me know in the comments if you have any other tips for resolving XML sitemap errors based on your experience!