Hello,
We apologize for the issues you are facing with your HTML sitemap. Thank you for raising these concerns.
-
HTML Sitemap Link Pointing to the Same Page: It’s common for the HTML sitemap to include links that may seem redundant, such as pointing back to itself. This can happen if the settings are not configured correctly or if there are specific pages that are not being recognized properly. You can check the configuration options for your HTML sitemap in the Rank Math settings to ensure everything is set up as intended. Here’s a guide on how to enable and configure the HTML sitemap:
- Ensure that you’ve enabled the Sitemap module from WordPress Dashboard → Rank Math SEO.
- Navigate to Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings → HTML Sitemap and toggle the HTML Sitemap option.
- Review the options available to customize what appears in your sitemap.
-
Author Page Link Not Showing: The absence of author page links in your HTML sitemap could be due to several reasons:
- The author pages may not be set to index in your Rank Math settings.
- There might be a conflict with another plugin or theme that is affecting how author pages are displayed.
- Ensure that the author pages are published and accessible on your site.
If you continue to experience these issues, we recommend replying to this ticket with your website URL so that a human agent from our support team can assist you further. Additionally, if you want a comprehensive setup review, consider our professional setup service available at Rank Math Services, which requires a PRO subscription. This service ensures your plugin setup is fully correct and adheres to the latest SEO standards.
Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to resolving this for you!
Sources:
How to Create HTML Sitemap Using Rank Math » Rank Math
Hello,
Could you please confirm if you have created the HTML sitemap manually and didn’t use the Rank Math HTML sitemap feature?
Please share your HTML sitemap URL so we can check as well.
If you want to share images, you can upload screenshots using this tool and add the link here.
Looking forward to helping you.
I have used the Rank Math HTML sitemap feature (using shortcode). I am not comfortable sharing my website URL in public.
Hello,
You can add the link and the screenshot to the sensitive data section by editing your first post, so we can check the issue and advise accordingly
It is completely secure, and only our support staff has access to that section.
Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hello,
It is normal to see the sitemap link to your HTML sitemap since that still qualifies as a page. The only way to remove that is to set the page itself as noindex in the robots meta. However, this is safe to ignore.
As for your authors, we can see that you haven’t enabled your author archives. Please follow the steps below:
1. Head over to your WordPress Dashboard → Rank Math → Titles & Meta → Authors and enable the option “Author Archives”. See screenshot below:
2. On the same settings page, please make sure that the robots meta is set to index:
Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.
1. The link is pointing to the same page. It is not a good practice from seo point of view. Check out this website – https://www.grabon.in/sitemap/
Show me any website which have implemented this page.
2. I have followed your steps. It is not working.
Hello,
We might need to take a closer look at the settings. Please edit the first post on this ticket and include your WordPress login in the designated Sensitive Data section.
Please do take a complete backup of your website before sharing the information with us.
It is completely secure and only our support staff has access to that section. If you want, you can use the below plugin to generate a temporary login URL to your website and share that with us instead:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/temporary-login-without-password/
You can use the above plugin in conjunction with the WP Security Audit Log to monitor what changes our staff might make on your website (if any):
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-security-audit-log/
We really look forward to helping you.
The author link is showing now. What about point 1??
Hello,
Sorry for the delay.
We have checked this with our development team and we’ll get back to you with advice once we get an update from them.
We appreciate your time and patience in the meantime.
Thank you.
Hello,
Were not able to reproduce the author not showing in sitemap issue, could you please share more context including: have you enabled index for Authors in the RankMath Titles & Meta settings?
For the Sitemap post appearing on sitemap links, there are 3 options to achieve this, you may try any:
* Set the post to noindex under RankMath robots.
* Under RankMath Sitemap settings >> General >> Exclude Posts, you can add the sitemap post ID in this input field and save.
* Use a custom rankmath filter, like below, substituting the post_type and ID, with your actual sitemap post_type and ID.
add_filter('rank_math/html_sitemap/get_posts/where', function ( $sql, $post_type ) {
global $wpdb;
$sitemap_post_type = 'page'; // OR 'post'
$sitemap_post_id = 35734;
if ( $post_type === $sitemap_post_type ) {
$sql .= $wpdb->prepare( " AND p.post_type = %s and p.ID != %d", $sitemap_post_type, $sitemap_post_id );
}
return $sql;
}, 10, 2);
Thank you.
1. This issue is already fixed
2. You are not understanding my point. I don’t want to remove the sitemap page from sitemap.xml or add a noindex tag. The only problem is that the sitemap link is showing on the sitemap page (which is pointless) and pointing to the same sitemap page (which is not a good seo practice.)
I am also sharing an eg (https://www.grabon.in/sitemap/).
Show me any website on the internet which have implemented this.
Hello,
Sorry, but we can’t share any websites that have this setup for privacy reasons. The HTML sitemap includes a list of pages, posts, and CPTs. This includes the HTML sitemap itself for consistency. Although it is “pointless” for some, but this doesn’t hurt your SEO in general.
At the moment, we won’t be changing this behavior, but if this changes in the future, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any other questions.
Hello,
Since we did not hear back from you for 15 days, we are assuming that you found the solution. We are closing this support ticket.
If you still need assistance or any other help, please feel free to open a new support ticket, and we will be more than happy to assist.
Thank you.
