WordPress Sitemap 404 Not Found Error with Nginx

Sitemap 404 Not Found

If you’re using Nginx as your web server and install the Google XML Sitemap plugin in your WordPress web site, then when you submit your xml sitemap to Google Search Console, you may get a WordPress sitemap 404 not found error.

The Solution

The answer is easy, simply copy the next strains to your nginx virtual host file. On CentOS/Redhat Server, the virtual host file usually is /etc/nginx/conf.d/yoursite.com.conf. On Debian/Ubuntu Server, it’s situated at /etc/nginx/sites-available/yoursite.com

rewrite ^/sitemap(-+([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+))?.xml$ "/index.php?xml_sitemap=params=$2" last;
rewrite ^/sitemap(-+([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+))?.xml.gz$ "/index.php?xml_sitemap=params=$2;zip=true" last;
rewrite ^/sitemap(-+([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+))?.html$ "/index.php?xml_sitemap=params=$2;html=true" last;
rewrite ^/sitemap(-+([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+))?.html.gz$ "/index.php?xml_sitemap=params=$2;html=true;zip=true" last;

Save the virtual host file and reload Nginx.

sudo systemctl reload nginx

or

sudo /etc/init.d/nginx reload

If you first installed Google XML Sitemap plugin, it will give a warning if you’re using Nginx. The above rewrite rules may also be found if you go to Settings > XML-Sitemap.