Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math, and sorry for any inconvenience caused.
The sitemaps are set to noindex by default as you do not want them to get indexed and appear in the search results.
You can safely ignore this warning, this won’t affect the SEO of your website.
I hope this helps.
​​​​​​​Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.
Thanks for your message – but you think google can still crawl it? I am concerened a number of pages on my site have not been indexed? Thanks again
Hello,
Yes, Google will still be able to crawl it, unless you have blocked it via your robots.txt which in your case, you didn’t. Just please ensure that your sitemap is not heavily cached so Google will always see the updated content of the sitemap. You may follow this guide to ensure your sitemap is free from being cached: https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
After doing so, remove all your sitemaps from your GSC and resubmit only the primary sitemap (sitemap_index.xml).
Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.
Hi there. Thanks for your message. I looked over the file and added the code. Are you able to check if it excluded from the cache please?
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule .* – [E=Cache-Control:no-cache]
I didn’t know how to:
Now, check your sitemap to see if it is excluded from cache, if not, proceed with the next step to change your cache plugin’s configuration.
Thanks again
Duncan
Hello,
I tested your sitemaps using https://httpstatus.io/ and it seems like the sitemap is now excluded from getting cached.
You can now, clear your website’s cache and remove all the sitemaps from your Google Search Console account, and then submit only the main sitemap (your-domain.com/sitemap_index.xml) (please ensure to replace “your-domain.com” with your actual domain).
This should provide Google with a fresh cache-free sitemap.
Hope this helps.
Thank you.
Hi there, Thanks for your message – do i have to do this each time I create a new page please?
Is it a good thing to have my sitemap from being cached?
Finally I wondered if you could advise how I can clear my websites cache and do you have any structions on how I can submit my sitemap please?
Will this result in all of those pages on my sitemap being indexed?
Thanks again and apologies for the several questions.
Duncan
Hello,
You don’t need to resubmit the sitemap every time you create a new page. Sitemap automatically gets updated with new pages and Google keep crawling them frequently.
Is it a good thing to have my sitemap from being cached?
Yes, caching a sitemap might create issues such as new pages won’t get included in the sitemap.
Finally I wondered if you could advise how I can clear my websites cache and do you have any structions on how I can submit my sitemap please?
Every caching plugin has an option to purge the cache, you can use that to clear your site cache. We don’t know which cache plugin do you use hence we cannot give you exact instructions. However, whichever plugin you are using, you can find a tutorial in the plugin documentation.
You can submit a sitemap through Google Search Console. Here is a tutorial on how you can submit a sitemap in Google Search Console: https://www.shoutmeloud.com/how-submit-your-blog-sitemap-google-webmaster-tool.html
Will this result in all of those pages on my sitemap being indexed
Some pages get indexed by Google faster and some never get indexed. Submitting a sitemap in Google Search Console just ensures that Google crawls all your site pages. It decides when and how to index them based on so many unknown factors.
Please let us know if you need further assistance. Thank you.
Hi there, thanks for your message and help I’ll try and do it! Thanks again for you advice 🙂
Hello,
Sure, and if there’s anything else that we can assist you with, please let us know.
Thank you.
Hi there, I am wanting to resubmit it to google but saw one of your colleagues said: After doing so, remove all your sitemaps from your GSC and resubmit only the primary sitemap (sitemap_index.xml).
how do I remove them from gsc please or do I just submit the new one?
Thanks again
Hello,
Upon clicking your sitemap, you can remove it by clicking the three dots at the upper right corner of the screen.
Here’s a guide you can follow:
https://expanderdigital.com/blog/remove-sitemap-google-search-console/
I hope that helps.
Thank 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.
