Google Sitemap Vanishes + Ranking Disappearing BUG? (HELP)

Hey everyone,

I really need your help with something strange. It seems like a bug or something I've never encountered before, and I’m kind of freaking out.

Here’s the deal:

I created a website about 4 months ago, and everything was going great. I was uploading around 3-5 pieces of content daily, and after about 3 months, things just stopped working. My Sitemap disappeared, and along with it, all the images in Google search. I also noticed that clicks completely dried up.

When I checked the sitemap in Search Console, it showed this error (see screenshot below).


Does this mean the site is basically dead when the sitemap vanishes?

And to make things even weirder, I had another site that was only 2 months old, and the same thing happened. The sitemap disappeared, and boom traffic and rankings vanished too.

Has anyone else faced this? Why is this happening?

NOTE: Based on what I see basically if you see this on your google search console



it means the site is death `-` but why??? is there a way to get support for this?

I have never seen such a thing, did you check the manual action tab? or something related security issues?

No issues detected, I was re-search this issue and I did not also find any answer for this some people had same problem what cross my mind is

maybe it is the YOAST sitemap?
Maybe I should Submit one by one example ( PAGE, CATEGORY, POST ) ? < This is what I did and i will post the results soon.

Lawliet1996 said:

No issues detected, I was re-search this issue and I did not also find any answer for this some people had same problem what cross my mind is

maybe it is the YOAST sitemap?
Maybe I should Submit one by one example ( PAGE, CATEGORY, POST ) ? < This is what I did and i will post the results soon.

Click to expand...

Well, i can tell that this is a common problem since a couple of years at least,
Especially for sitemaps containing a list of sitemaps (the main one typically for WP),
Send each of the sitemaps separately and you'll have a good chance of the urls being shown again

2nd day no results yet if I do site: it appears all urls but if I type the domain name it does not appears any image unlike before if I would type domain name it would come up all the feature images I am planning now to switch the sitemap any idea anyone? this is so annoying

I worked so hard on this site for months and this happen now I won't start over I want to get this fix if someone can help and tips pls

I wish you luck, I have never seen this happen to anyone before.

My sitemap its identical as you. I also have this bug on bing.
I think its only a bug, no penalization

jyciap11 said:

My sitemap its identical as you. I also have this bug on bing.
I think its only a bug, no penalization

Click to expand...

I am thinking on swtiching to rank math or create a custom sitemap do you know how or anyone knows? how to proceed from here the thing is I am scared to loose the optmization such as meta description etc.. I have done on each article.

Lawliet1996 said:

I am thinking on swtiching to rank math or create a custom sitemap do you know how or anyone knows? how to proceed from here the thing is I am scared to loose the optmization such as meta description etc.. I have done on each article.

Click to expand...

You can switch from Yoast to Rank Math, it's better plugin as I see in my opinion. You can import all data from Yoast to Rank Math and you are safe.
And, if you are worried, you can check manually every post, 5 posts daily for 4 months it's about 600 posts, nothing impossible.
And send the new sitemap on GSC separately, not the main only.

is your site indexed? having organic traffic?

if yes then why you worry about sitemap

growyourbrand said:

is your site indexed? having organic traffic?

if yes then why you worry about sitemap

Click to expand...

If i do site: it shows all articles including home page, but the clicks dropped

Lawliet1996 said:

but the clicks dropped

Click to expand...

I don't think it's because of the sitemap, maybe it's just a coincidence that your site was also hit by a g update at the same time that caused your clicks dropped

have you tried to resubmit your sitemap?

Same as my issue not sure if they solve it as there is no clear answer for this

https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/78145854/gwt-sitemaps-read-is-empty?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/168229096/sitemap-index-showing-blank?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmaste...-no-child-sitemaps-and-lost-all-traffic?hl=en
https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/25555827/sitemap-submission-returns-empty-sitemap?hl=en

If both sites lost sitemaps and rankings suddenly, it could be a server or hosting issue, like frequent downtime, or even a malware attack affecting your sites’ stability.