Critical “noindex’ detected in ‘X-Robots-Tag’ http header” error via GSC

Hello,

We apologize for the issue you are facing with the "noindex" detected in the "X-Robots-Tag" HTTP header error. Thank you for providing such detailed information about your troubleshooting efforts; it helps us understand the situation better.

To address this issue, here are some steps you can take:

1. Check for Noindex Tags: Ensure that the affected pages do not have a noindex tag in their HTML source. You can do this by inspecting the page source and looking for the following line:

   If you find it, you will need to remove it to allow indexing.

2. Review X-Robots-Tag Header: Sometimes, server configurations or security plugins can add an X-Robots-Tag header that instructs search engines not to index the page. You can check this using tools like cURL or online HTTP header checkers. If you see X-Robots-Tag: noindex, you will need to adjust your server settings or plugin configurations.

3. Check Plugin Conflicts: Since you are using multiple plugins, there might be a conflict causing this issue. Temporarily deactivate other plugins (except Rank Math) to see if the problem persists. If it resolves, reactivate them one by one to identify the culprit.

4. Server Configuration: Since you are using Cloudways, ensure that there are no server-level rules or configurations that might be affecting the headers sent by your site. You may want to reach out to their support for assistance in checking this.

5. Sitemap Accessibility: Make sure your sitemap is accessible without any restrictions. You can use tools like httpstatus.io to check if your sitemap returns a 200 status code.

6. Exclude Sitemap from Caching: Ensure that your sitemap is excluded from any caching mechanisms. You can refer to our tutorial on excluding sitemaps from caching for guidance.

If you’ve gone through these steps and the issue persists, we recommend replying to this ticket with any additional findings or details, and a human agent from our support team will take over and assist you further.

Thank you for your patience, and we hope to resolve this issue for you soon!

Sources:
How to Fix Submitted URL Marked ‘NoIndex’ Error » Rank Math
Troubleshooting the “Couldn’t Fetch” Error in Google Search Console » Rank Math
How to Fix Indexing Issues in Google Search Console » Rank Math

Hello,

We have removed your website from your initial message as requested.

Please note that RankMath sets the “noindex” tag on your sitemaps by default. It’s done this way because a sitemap is only meant to guide search engines through your site, not to rank in search results.

The reason you’re seeing it set to “noindex” is to prevent it from appearing in search results, which is the desired behavior.

You should follow this guide to properly submit your sitemap:
https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

However, if you still wish to remove the noindex tag from your sitemap, you can use the filter on your site:

add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/http_headers', function( $headers ) {
	if ( '/sitemap_index.xml' !== $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ) {
		return $headers;
	}
	unset( $headers['X-Robots-Tag'] );
	return $headers;
} );

Here’s how you can add a filter/hook to your WordPress site:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

We checked your post sitemap and category sitemap, and we can see they are working properly without any issues:

In this case, please try to remove all the submitted sitemaps from your Google Search Console and resubmit /?sitemap=1 and see if that works for you.

For more details, you can check this URL: https://rankmath.com/kb/couldnt-fetch-error-google-search-console/#rename-the-sitemap

Let us know how it goes. Looking forward to helping you.

Thank you.