You're experiencing issues with indexing your Webflow site and receiving an error when uploading the sitemap to Google Search Console. Here's how to diagnose and fix common sitemap and indexing issues in Webflow.
1. Confirm Your Sitemap Is Enabled in Webflow
- Go to Project Settings > SEO tab in your Webflow dashboard.
- Make sure Auto-generate sitemap is enabled.
- The sitemap should be accessible at: yoursite.com/sitemap.xml
2. Test the Sitemap URL Directly
- Visit yoursite.com/sitemap.xml in your browser.
- If the page doesn’t load or shows an error, Webflow might not have generated it.
- If you see a sitemap, confirm it lists URLs as expected.
3. Submit the Correct Sitemap URL in Google Search Console
- In Google Search Console, open your site property (make sure it's the domain-level property, like
https://example.com
). - Go to Indexing > Sitemaps.
- Submit this exact sitemap URL: sitemap.xml (not the full URL unless required).
- Avoid entering “https://” or “www.” here — just
sitemap.xml
is sufficient.
4. Check for Common Sitemap Errors in Search Console
- If you see an error like Couldn't fetch, it usually means:
- The URL is incorrect.
- Your site is password-protected (check Webflow settings under Project Settings > Hosting for Require a password to access the site).
- DNS propagation issues are preventing full access (e.g., missing records or SSL delays).
- If the error says Blocked by robots.txt, Webflow might be set to prevent indexing.
5. Review Your robots.txt Settings
- In Webflow, go to Project Settings > SEO tab.
- If there's custom content in the robots.txt field, make sure it doesn’t contain
Disallow: /
. - To allow full indexing, it should be empty or contain something like:
User-agent: *
Allow: /
6. Publish Your Site Again
- After making any changes, go back to your site in Webflow and click “Publish to selected domains”.
- This ensures Google sees the latest sitemap and robots.txt.
7. Wait and Monitor in Search Console
- It can take a few hours to several days for Google to process your sitemap.
- Check back periodically in Google Search Console to monitor status or new errors.
Summary
To fix sitemap and indexing issues, confirm sitemap generation, check robots.txt, and submit the correct sitemap URL (sitemap.xml
) to Google Search Console. Also, make sure your site is not password-protected or restricted. If the issue persists, share the exact error message for further troubleshooting.