Sitemap unreachable

What you see

• Finding sitemap_unreachable — sitemap URL does not return 200.
• Finding sitemap_empty — file exists but 0 URLs.
• robots.txt has no Sitemap: https://… line.
• After migration, old sitemap points at a 404 domain.

Why it happens

A sitemap is not required for indexing, but Google uses it as a priority URL list. Without it, crawl is slower on large sites.

Common causes:

• Yoast / Rank Math / Puluno SEO generation enabled but permalink / rewrite broken.
• Static sitemap.xml deleted on deploy.
• Multisite / locales — wrong sitemap index.
• Staging robots Disallow: / while sitemap still lists production URLs.
• Cache serves empty XML.

What Puluno does

Phase	Module	Action
Diagnose	Explorer	reachability, URL count, robots reference
Apply	SEO	enable XML sitemap, add to robots.txt
Verify	Explorer	same host — sitemap 200 and URL count > 0

Puluno generates sitemap for WordPress content — static sites need build / hosting.

Step by step

1. Explorer on homepage — robots / sitemap section.
2. Open https://example.com/sitemap.xml (and sitemap_index.xml on WP).
3. Puluno SEO Center — Sitemap on, post types (products, posts) checked.
4. robots.txt — line Sitemap: https://example.com/sitemap.xml (Puluno can add).
5. GSC → Sitemaps → submit sitemap URL (after Verify).
6. Verify: Explorer again — sitemap_* findings cleared.

Rollback — undo the change

Disabling sitemap in Puluno SEO can be reverted — settings rollback in Center.

If you overwrote a hand-written robots.txt, back it up before Apply.

When it is not Puluno

• Sitewide noindex — fix Google not indexing first.
• Sitemap OK but pages disallowed in robots — different finding.
• Headless front without WordPress — sitemap comes from CI/CD, not the SEO plugin.