exclude term not working?

Hello,

I apologize for the inconvenience you are facing with excluding a specific category from the sitemap in Rank Math. Thank you for providing the details and screenshots.

It seems like you have followed the correct steps by entering the ID “5” for the category you want to exclude in the settings, but the posts with that category are still showing in the XML file.

To troubleshoot this issue, please ensure that you have entered the correct category ID and that there are no typos or extra spaces. Additionally, make sure that the code snippet you added to the rank-math.php file is correctly implemented.

If the issue persists after verifying the category ID and checking the code snippet, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from the Rank Math Support team will assist you further.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Sources:
How to NoIndex All Posts in a Category » Rank Math
How to NoIndex All Posts in a Category » Rank Math
How to Exclude Content From Sitemap » Rank Math
How to Configure Sitemaps in Rank Math – Best Settings and Tips
Why the Sitemap_Index.xml is Throwing a 404 Error » Rank Math

Hello,

Please note that excluding the terms from the sitemap will not exclude the posts associated with those terms. Only the terms pages will be removed from the sitemap.

However, if those terms are still present on the sitemap. We need to check your website.

We are working in different places around the world and our IP is dynamic so even if you whitelist our IP, we might not be able to access it as our IP has changed by the time we check this ticket again.

If you are using geo-blocking, please temporarily unblock the country Portugal, India, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Philippines so we can further inspect your website.

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

We tried to check your pages but they are getting redirected to the https://rainbowpets.sesesese.se/ site.

The filter you’ve shared above should Noindex all the posts under the donotallowpost category. But it will not remove the posts from your sitemap. In order to remove all the posts from your donotallowpost category, you can use the following filter on your website:

add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/entry', function( $url, $type, $object ) {

    if ( $type === 'post' ) //change your post type here
    {

        $categories = get_the_terms( $object->ID, 'category' );

        // Replace 'category-slug-1' with your actual category slugs
        $exclude_categories = array( 'donotallowpost');

        if ( is_array( $categories ) && array_intersect( $exclude_categories, wp_list_pluck( $categories, 'slug' ) ) ) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    return $url;
}, 10, 3 );

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

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

Thank you.

Hello,

Please note that Rank Math by default doesn’t include the posts/pages that are set to Noindex.

But when you set your posts/pages to Noindex by using a filter, the sitemap functionality doesn’t work properly because the filter executes after Rank Math includes the posts/pages in the sitemap.

However, if you set your posts/pages to Noindex manually from the Rank Math SEO Meta box, it automatically removes them from your sitemap.

Hope that helps and please don’t hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions.
 
Thank you.

Hello,

Using the filter you shared earlier will set the posts to noindex, and the filter we shared will remove the posts from the sitemap.

Unfortunately, the default is that the filter executes before Rank Math includes the posts/pages in the sitemap.

Manually setting the post to noindex can help remove the posts from the sitemap.

Thank you.