No Index Tag Bug - Support

Abby Slater
1 week, 5 days ago

Rank Math free

My sitemap (https://symmetrydancecompany.com/sitemap_index.xml) is being served with an X-Robots-Tag: noindex header even though all settings are set to Index. When I deactivate the Rank Math plugin, it disappears, and when I reactivate it, it comes back and Google Search Console can’t index any of my pages. Please fix this bug. I’ve literally been driving myself crazy for the past 6 hours trying to figure out what it is and where it was coming from. Please help.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

RankBot
1 week, 5 days ago
Hello,

I apologize for the issue you are facing with the noindex tag on your sitemap. It sounds quite frustrating, and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

To resolve the issue with the X-Robots-Tag: noindex header, please follow these steps:
1. Check Rank Math Metabox: Open the post/page in the WordPress Editor. In the Gutenberg Editor, click the Rank Math SEO icon in the top-right corner to open the Rank Math Metabox. For Classic Editor, scroll down to find it at the bottom of the page.
2. Advanced Tab: In the Rank Math Metabox, go to the Advanced Tab. If you don’t see this tab, ensure you have enabled Advanced Mode in Rank Math settings.
  $Advanced tab$
3. Set Robots Meta: Check if the Robots Meta is set to No Index. If it is, select the Index checkbox and update the page.
  $Set Robots Meta to index in Rank Math Metabox$
4. Search Engine Visibility: Go to Settings → Reading in your WordPress dashboard and ensure that the checkbox labeled Discourage search engines from indexing this site is unchecked.
5. Clear Cache: If you are using any caching plugins, clear your cache after making these changes.
6. Resubmit Your Sitemap: After making these adjustments, resubmit your sitemap in Google Search Console as described in this tutorial.
If you have followed these steps and are still experiencing issues, it may be beneficial to check for plugin conflicts or other settings that could be affecting your sitemap. You can use the Health Check plugin to help identify any conflicts.

If you would like more comprehensive assistance, we recommend our professional setup service, which ensures your plugin setup is fully correct and adheres to the latest SEO standards. You can find more information about this service here.

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

Sources:
Fix Excluded by NoIndex Tag – Google Search Console Status » Rank Math
Fix Excluded by NoIndex Tag – Google Search Console Status » Rank Math

This is an automated reply from Rank Math Support Bot. Your ticket has been assigned to a human agent and we will get back to you shortly.
Rakibuzzaman Siam
1 week, 4 days ago
Hello,

Please note that the sitemaps are by default set to Noindex as they are meant to be crawled and not to be displayed on search results pages. Even though it is set to Noindex, Google can crawl and read this without any issues.

You should only submit your sitemap to the sitemap section of your GSC account and shouldn’t use the URL inspection tool for the sitemap URLs.
https://rankmath.com/kb/submit-sitemap-to-google/

In case you still want to index your sitemap, you can use the following filter on your website:
```
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/

After applying the filter, please clear your sitemap cache by following this screencast: https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp

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

Thank you.

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