GSC –.> Pages (No indexed pages)

Hello,

We apologize for the issues you are facing with your website’s indexing in Google Search Console. Thank you for providing detailed information about your situation. Let’s address your questions one by one:

1) Fixing the Excluded by ‘noindex’ Tag

After changing the Robots Meta settings in Rank Math and saving the changes, it is essential to ensure that the changes are reflected on the affected pages. Simply resubmitting the sitemap may not be enough if the pages still have the noindex tag in their HTML. Here’s what you can do:

• Check the affected pages: Make sure that the noindex tag has been removed from the HTML of those pages. You can do this by viewing the page source in your browser.
• Regenerate the sitemap: If the changes are reflected correctly, regenerating the sitemap can help. After regenerating, submit it again to GSC.

2) Sitemap Leading to a 404 Page

The 404 error for your sitemap link (https://rankmath.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/index-status.jpg) could be due to several reasons:

• Incorrect settings: Ensure that your sitemap settings in Rank Math are configured correctly. You can check this under Rank Math SEO → Sitemap Settings.
• Sitemap not generated: If the sitemap is not generated properly, it may lead to a 404 error. Regenerating the sitemap as mentioned above should help resolve this issue.

3) Excluding Tags from URLs

To change your tag URLs from https://rankmath.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/index-status.jpg tohttps://rankmath.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/index-status.jpg you can:

• Remove the tag base: Go to Rank Math SEO → General Settings → Links and look for the option to change or remove the tag base. You can set it to blank or customize it as needed.
• Redirect old URLs: After making this change, consider setting up redirects from the old tag URLs to the new format to avoid broken links.

4) Crawled – Currently Not Indexed Pages

For the pages that are crawled but currently not indexed, ensure that:

• Category base removal: You’ve already enabled the Strip Category Base option, which is good. However, make sure that this change is applied correctly and that there are no conflicting settings elsewhere.
• Check for other issues: Sometimes, pages may not be indexed due to duplicate content or low-quality content. Conduct a content audit to ensure these pages provide value.

Regarding the ‘feed’ in the URL (e.g., https://rankmath.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/index-status.jpg), this typically indicates an RSS feed for that category. If you want to exclude feeds from being indexed, you can set them tonoindex` in your Rank Math settings.

If you continue to experience issues after following these steps, please reply to this ticket, and a human agent from our support team will assist you further.

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

Hello,

1. Noindexed pages are not included in the sitemap, so you can verify those URLs if they are noindexed.

Also, sitemaps are updated in real-time. If they are not updating, then please follow these steps to flush your sitemap cache:

A. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
https://i.rankmath.com/pipRDp

B. 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/

C. Disable the transient cache for the sitemap by applying this filter. This will make sure that your XML sitemap always reflects the latest changes on your site:

/** 
 * Filter if XML sitemap transient cache is enabled.
 *
 * @param boolean $unsigned Enable cache or not, defaults to true
 */
add_filter( 'rank_math/sitemap/enable_caching', '__return_false');

If you’re not sure how to add this code, you can follow this guide:
https://rankmath.com/kb/wordpress-hooks-actions-filters/

2. You should check post tags for your posts and ensure that they are set to index if you want them to be indexed. The link is just displayed at the top of the sitemap settings, but it does not mean you always need to enable or use them.

Here’s a guide you can follow:
https://rankmath.com/kb/sitemaps-for-tag-archives/

3. Rank Math cannot be used to remove the /tag/ on your post tag URLs. To achieve the URL structure you have shared, then you may need to use a permalink manager plugin to modify your permalinks as it can specifically address that.

Here’s a plugin you can try and see if you can achieve that:
https://wordpress.org/plugins/permalink-manager/

4. You can follow this troubleshooting guide to check for conflicting plugin/theme on your site:
https://rankmath.com/kb/check-plugin-conflicts/

Looking forward to helping you.

Hello,

Please note that the sitemap generates on the fly in Rank Math when you enable that module. If you feel your sitemap is cached or not updating, you can follow the steps we shared above to clear the cache of your sitemap.

Regarding the tag URLs, can you please share some affected URLs with us so that we can check the issue further for you?

Meanwhile, you can change the Fallback Behaviour to Default 404 in WP Dashboard > Rank Math > General Settings > Redirections to confirm if the URLs are returning a 404 error or not:

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

Thank you.