When you submit sitemap in Google search console, if Google Bot is unable to crawl and fetch sitemap it throws general http error in sitemap Section and error sitemap could not be read which means Google encountered an error while trying to access your sitemap and you need to make sure that your sitemap file is not blocked by robots.txt (at server level/hosting) and make sure your website sitemap location is accessible and you need to make it easy for Google Bot to fetch sitemap file again as this error says sitemap couldn’t fetch status error in GSC (Google Search Console).
What is General Http Error in Google Search Console:
General Http Error in sitemap means Google encountered an http error when attempting to download your sitemap file and the message displays status code and sometime for general http error it doesn’t display coz of the general http error also.
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Causes of General Http Error In Sitemaps :
If you see this error general http error in sitemap there are many possible reasons, there is no particular one reason pointing to his sitemap error we could say this is the reason you are getting general http error when submitting sitemaps. Mostly this is the case commonly with few of the reasons when Google Bot is not able to access your website sitemap file, it is having incorrect http or https or www or non www version and sometimes sitemap having errors and its unable to fetch, markup issue and it’s just an general http error so it doesn’t provide any further information.
How to fix General Http Error and Sitemaps Couldn’t Fetch
1- The fix for general http error sitemap makes sure your website sitemap is accessed by Google Bot to get your WebPages indexed instead of getting general http error sitemap couldn’t fetch by Google bot.
2- Test your sitemap with Google search console again if there are any errors then fix it.
3- Make sure your sitemap file is not blocked by Google Bot, if its blocked then you will see sitemaps couldn’t fetch error
4- Make sure your sitemap is not throwing headers of 404 which means your sitemap is returning a 404 page or non existing page.
5- If you see general http error check your sitemap folder is accessible by Google bot.
6- Check with the path of sitemap with incorrect name spacing or leading whitespace, and make sure your sitemap URL is correct.
Make sure you are not blocking sitemap file by robots.txt, make sure your hosting or cloudfare acound cdn if you are using are not blocking from hosting end.