Broken Sitemap, Unexpected H3 Tags, and Missing Meta Descriptions

#1033389
  • Resolved Cam Cho

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    Hello,

    I’ve been experiencing a persistent issue with my website for the past three weeks. It’s the only site I’m currently using with RankMath.

    I noticed a drop in rankings on several pages. In response, I regenerated a new sitemap. Unfortunately, the new sitemap had a bug during generation: it produced a broken link using HTTP followed by the string “50px50px50px50px”, which caused my rankings to drop even further.

    To fix this, I disabled the option to index images in order to prevent the issue from reappearing in the sitemap.

    After resubmitting the sitemap in Google Search Console, I used the DETAILED SEO EXTENSION, which revealed that the top of each page contains unwanted H3 tags like:

    php-template
    Copier
    Modifier
    <h3> SEO ScoreRank Math’s SEO Score
    <h3> Search ImpressionsThis is how many times your site showed up in the search results.
    <h3> Index StatusURL Inspection Status
    <h3> PageSpeed
    These elements seem to come from RankMath and clearly don’t belong on the front-end of my pages.

    Another major concern: the meta descriptions I added via RankMath no longer appear in Google search results. It’s as if RankMath has stopped injecting them properly.

    Lastly, in my RankMath dashboard under the Website section, it says “Added on: 14 Apr 2025”, even though the site has been connected for much longer. This date oddly matches the exact period when I started seeing a drop in impressions and rankings.

    Could you please help me fix these issues?

    Thank you in advance for your support.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • RankBot

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    We apologize for the issues you are facing with your website. Thank you for providing detailed information about the problems, as it helps us understand your situation better.

    Broken Sitemap

    It seems like the broken link in your sitemap could be due to a plugin conflict or a misconfiguration. Since you mentioned that you disabled the option to index images, that’s a good step to prevent further issues. If the problem persists, we recommend checking for any plugin conflicts using the Health Check plugin.

    Unexpected H3 Tags

    The unwanted H3 tags appearing on your pages may be caused by a theme or plugin conflict. We suggest reviewing your theme settings and any custom code that might be affecting the output of your pages. If you need further assistance, please include your site URL in your reply so we can provide more specific guidance.

    Missing Meta Descriptions

    Regarding the meta descriptions not appearing in Google search results, ensure that they are correctly set in the Rank Math meta box for each page. Sometimes, if there are issues with how the pages are being indexed, it can affect how Google displays them. You can also check if there are any manual actions in your Google Search Console that might be affecting your site.

    Rank Math Dashboard Date Issue

    The date showing as “Added on: 14 Apr 2025” is unusual and may indicate a glitch. This could be related to the other issues you’re experiencing. We recommend checking for updates to the Rank Math plugin and ensuring everything is up to date.

    If these suggestions do not resolve your issues, we recommend considering our professional setup service available at Rank Math Services. This service is designed for users who want to ensure their plugin setup is fully correct and adheres to the latest SEO standards.

    Please feel free to reply to this ticket with any additional information or questions, and a human agent from our support team will assist you further. Thank you for your patience as we work to resolve these issues!

    Jeremy

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Hello,

    Thank you for your query and we are so sorry about the trouble this must have caused.

    Can you please share the affected website URL with us so we can further check it on our end?

    Looking forward to helping you.

    Cam Cho

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    https://weird.digital/

    Thanks Jeremy

    Cam Cho

    4 months, 2 weeks ago

    Rank Math free

    Hello, is it possible to have your feedback ?
    Ty

    Jeremy

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Hello,

    This issue is actually caused by one of Divi’s features. It happens when you are using the Blurb feature in Divi and using a background image in the Blurb.

    Users have already reported this to Divi but we suggest you notify them as well to move the issue to priority. You can ask them if they have a solution where these background images of blurbs are not included in the sitemaps.

    The functionality of Rank Math being able to see Divi images and adding them to the sitemap was added by the Divi team and that is why it is recommended that you contact them directly.

    However, to fix the issue temporarily, you can disable the “Images in Sitemap” option in Rank Math sitemap settings.

    Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any other questions.

    Cam Cho

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Rank Math free

    Thanks for your reply, Jérémy. I do have some other questions you haven’t answered yet, so I’ll ask them again here.

    After resubmitting the sitemap in Google Search Console, I used the DETAILED SEO EXTENSION, which revealed that the top of each page contains unwanted H3 tags like:

    php-template
    Copier
    Modifier
    <h3> SEO ScoreRank Math’s SEO Score
    <h3> Search ImpressionsThis is how many times your site showed up in the search results.
    <h3> Index StatusURL Inspection Status
    <h3> PageSpeed
    These elements seem to come from RankMath and clearly don’t belong on the front-end of my pages.

    Another major concern: the meta descriptions I added via RankMath no longer appear in Google search results. It’s as if RankMath has stopped injecting them properly.

    Lastly, in my RankMath dashboard under the Website section, it says “Added on: 14 Apr 2025”, even though the site has been connected for much longer. This date oddly matches the exact period when I started seeing a drop in impressions and rankings.

    Could you please help me fix these issues?

    Cam Cho

    4 months, 1 week ago

    Rank Math free

    Is it possible to have your feedback ?

    Jeremy

    4 months ago

    Hello,

    1. That element is from our Analytics Stats bar which can only be seen by the admin users. This stats bar will be invisible to the search engines.

    However, if you’re not using this feature, you can disable it in Rank Math → General Settings → Analytics:

    Rank Math support

    2. Please check the affected page if the meta description is still correctly applied by Rank Math. You can check the same using our official Meta tag analyzer tool: https://rankmath.com/tools/meta-tag-analyzer/

    If the issue persists, Please note that it is a pretty common thing with Google these days. It happens with 70% of the results that even if everything’s fine, Google decides to show a different meta information for your search keyword, there is nothing you can do as Google sometimes ignores the custom meta info altogether and show something from the page’s content that matches the search intent better.

    To understand more about this, please check this article: https://rankmath.com/kb/different-meta-title-and-description/

    3. The connection date has nothing to do with your rankings. The date will be updated if you reconnect your Rank Math account to your website. Unfortunately, we don’t have a log or history for website connections.

    Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any other questions.

    RankBot

    3 months ago

    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.

Viewing 8 replies - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)

The ticket ‘Broken Sitemap, Unexpected H3 Tags, and Missing Meta Descriptions’ is closed to new replies.