Hello,
Thank you for contacting Rank Math and bringing your concern to our attention. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this issue may have caused you.
If your blog page URL is showing on your post sitemap, it is likely your sitemap is being cached.
For initial troubleshooting, please follow these steps:
A. Ensure you’re using the latest version of your plugins/theme including Rank Math.
B. Flush the Sitemap cache by following this video screencast:
https://i.rankmath.com/xXXhDt
C. Exclude the Sitemap files of the Rank Math plugin in your caching plugin. The cache could be via a plugin or from the server:
https://rankmath.com/kb/exclude-sitemaps-from-caching/
I hope that helps.
Thank you, and looking forward to your update.
Hello,
Its not the cache as:
1. we are not using one
2. when a post updates it goes to the top correctly BUT not above /blog/ which ALWAYS stays at no1
Hello,
Can you please share the affected URL with us so we can further check it on our end?
We are looking forward to helping you with this one.
Hello,
I have updated the sensitive data as requested. Can you please check further?
Thank you.
Hello,
added the sitemap url. FYI I have noticed that this is the same across all sites that use rankmath and have the sitemap enabled….
Hello,
It is not an issue and the blog page is added in the sitemap on purpose.
It is a common practice to include the blog page in the sitemap. If you’ll just for testing, change the blog page to your homepage, then the homepage would be shown in the sitemap.
Since that page is also to be indexed, it is added to the sitemap.
Also, this would not, in any manner, negatively affect the indexing of your post.
Hope this helps,
Thank you.
Hello Prabhat,
That doesnt answer my question!
I know the BLOG needs to be included. My question is not about that.
I asked why its ALWAYS at the top even if it hasnt been changed OR updated in a while.
Yoast and even sitemaps plugin correctly references the blog page in the sitemap based on the last change. SO if a post changed lets say right now and the blog page wasnt updated for a year THEN the post page would be referenced ABOVE the blog page in the sitemap.
Why does your sitemap functionality not do that? and what is the purpose of KEEPING the blog page at the top in the sitemap????
Hello,
We add the blog page to the top to identify the blog page and let the bots know about the page that lists all the posts.
Also, the blog page is updated whenever you add/remove any post.
Updating any page, including the blog page, doesn’t always mean that the page is statically updated, rather, even if new content/texts are added to the page, it is updated. In the same way, whenever a post is added, a new section is dynamically added to the blog page, and hence the content of the blog page updates.
Hope this helps.
Thank you.
Thats understood and the reasons for that HOWEVER as I pointed out in my earlier messages our blog shows static slective blog posts and not every single new one. In effect the blog page doesnt change that often.
You reply suggests that when a post is updated it refelects on the blog page as being updated/new. wichh IF thats the case then thats right.
BUT when nothing on the blog page is acutaully updated OR modified the blog page should not be present at the top in the sitemap.
Again, I reference the yoast and sitemap plugins on wordpress repo which correctly ref the blog and ONLY show it at the top in sitemap IF that page is actually updated…
Hello,
When we generate our sitemaps if the archive page for each post type is indexable it will show as the first link in the sitemap.
In this case, the archive page for your articles is the Blog page and that’s why it’s showing as the first link in the sitemap.
If you want to change an archive link for any post type you can use the following filter: https://rankmath.com/kb/filters-hooks-api-developer/#change-remove-archive-url
Having the archive page at the top of the sitemap won’t cause any issues as the sitemaps are intended to be crawled by Search Engines and they should be able to see all the links in the sitemap regardless of the position they are on the page.
Hope this helps clarify your doubts.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any other questions.
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.
