Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math.
You should submit the final URL: https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/
Hope this helps.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Just another clarification is needed: The initial sitemap submitted to Google Search Console has the previous URL https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/. A new sitemap with the final URL https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/ need not be submitted? Is that right?
Kindly advise.
Hello,
I’ve checked your sitemap, and it seems that it is not coming from Rank Math.
However, the URL /sri-lanka-tours-packages/ should be removed from your sitemap as it is already redirecting. Rank Math’s sitemaps automatically remove redirected and 404 pages.
Also, you should submit the updated URL in the instant indexing plugin.
I hope that helps.
Thank you.
Thank you!
I have now activated the Rank Math sitemap and also submitted all the updated URLs in the instant indexing plugin. The sitemap now shows only the URLs that are not redirected, which are in fact only two URLs as the rest are redirecting.
Please revert as I have done the needful as advised by you. I will know from the changes in the GSC indexed pages, hopefully by tomorrow.
Hello,
I checked your sitemap page and it seems that there’s no URL of your pages there at all:
Please refer to the steps below:
1. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp
2. Exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. The cache could be via a plugin or from the server. For plugins or Cloudflare, please follow this article:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
Let us know how that goes. Looking forward to helping you.
Hello,
Question 1: Is this OK? I have NOT manually added the canonical URL in the Advanced tab of the meta box. It is still showing the old URL as canonical in the Advanced tab of the meta box.
To make it clearer to you and for you to advise me on what to do to correct the issues –
A total of 6 URLs have been shortened:
1). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-booking/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-booking/
2). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tours-packages/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-packages/
3). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-customized/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/customized-tour/
4). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-package-three/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-package-three/
5). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-package-two/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-package-two/
6). From https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/sri-lanka-tour-package-one/ to https://sri-lanka-tours-online.com/tour-package-one/
Question 2: So should I input old URLs or the new URLs in the Instant Indexing?
Question 3: In the URL inspection on Google Search Console which URL should I search for and request for Indexing, the old URLs or the new URLs?
Kindly check the sitemap from your end to see if there are any issues with it.
Thank you and await your kind response.
Hello,
1. Rank Math by default insert the URL of your page as the canonical URL to help search engines know that it is the “preferred” URL to rank for that page.
In case you set the canonical URL manually, its purpose would be to inform Google that it is a duplicate page and should not be indexed. It is assumed that the canonical URL is custom, and we do not include that in the sitemap.
Thus, the plugin will automatically set the current post/page URL as canonical (self-referencing) so there is no need for a user to set one manually.
If you have not set the canonical manually upon editing the page and the issue still persists, you can follow the steps in this link to check for a plugin/theme conflict:
https://rankmath.com/kb/check-plugin-conflicts/
2. You should use the correct URL (new) in submitting your URLs in instant indexing.
3. The same goes for your Google Search Console account, since the old URLs are already redirecting, you should inspect the new URLs.
Let us know how this goes.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for all the proper instructions, Reinelle. It saved me a lot of time as I could manage to do all that was required to get the pages indexed by GSC. Kudos to your expertise!
Hello,
Glad that helped.
Please feel free to reach out to us again in case you need any other assistance.
We are here to help.
Thank you.
