Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math, and sorry for any inconvenience caused.
I logged in and checked the website settings.
The categories are getting indexed because they are set to index.
Please go to the individual category > SEO Settings > Advanced Tab > Check noindex checkbox > Save
Also, I noticed that the sitemaps were not excluded from caching, which might be a reason for Google not crawling the website.
I have excluded the sitemaps from caching by following this guide:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
Remove the sitemaps from Google Search Console and add sitemap_index.xml again and wait for Google to crawl the sitemap.
Please note that it is completely upto Google if they want to index or not index your website. So, if you haven’t willingly or accidentally made your posts noindex and Google still isn’t indexing your page – it means that either Google doesn’t want to index or hasn’t crawled your page yet because it hasn’t allocated that much crawl budget to your website.
Please check this website for more details.
Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.
Hi Anas,
thanks for your reply.
To be clear, even though the Categories tab in RM sitemap settings, the tab was set to not include categories in sitemap, I still have to go into each category manually and “not index, set to not include categories in sitemap”
Is that correct?
I have re added sitemap_index.xml in search console.
Are you aware of RM compatibility issues with Astra theme and Elementor?
Since adding RM and RM Pro, we have been encountering ongoing issues
Thanks,
Chriss
Hello,
Thanks for getting back.
Even if you don’t include your categories in the sitemap, Googlebot can still crawl your categories and index theme if they are set to index. So to avoid that you have to set your categories to noindex. You can also do this from WP Dashboard > Rank Math > Titles & Meta > Categories and set the Category Archives Robots Meta to Noindex.
I have re added sitemap_index.xml in search console.
Please wait for Google to recrawl your website and let us know if the issue gets resolved or not.
Are you aware of RM compatibility issues with Astra theme and Elementor?
Since adding RM and RM Pro, we have been encountering ongoing issues
Can you please share the issues you are facing since activating Rank Math? Rank Math is fully compatible with Elementor & Astra: https://rankmath.com/compatibility/astra/
https://rankmath.com/compatibility/elementor/
There could be some other plugin that is causing the conflict. You can use this troubleshooting guide to figure that out: https://rankmath.com/kb/check-plugin-conflicts/
We really look forward to helping you.
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.
